The "Mean Girls" Club, The Wedding Show, and Finding Your Gaggle.

Ready to take up space. (And unapologetically wearing yellow in a sea of beige).

Last weekend, I packed up my life and set up shop at the Off-White Wedding show at the Chase Park Plaza.

If you’ve been following the Goose journey, you know I love curating romance travel—destination weddings, honeymoons, babymoons, and elopements (ask me about my own elopement story sometime!). This was my second time at this particular show, and honestly, I was feeling myself. I had upgraded from a tiny 4x4 table to a sprawling 8x10 layout.

In an industry that is absolutely obsessed with playing it safe in a sea of whites, blacks, and quiet neutrals, I built an eye-punch of color and vibrancy. I invested in gorgeous, bold lounge furniture. It didn't look like a stiff, traditional "wedding" booth; it looked like a chic, unapologetic space you actually wanted to sit in and drink a cocktail.

I was getting compliments all morning. I felt confident. I felt like I had finally arrived.

And then, the "Ick" happened.

Before the doors even opened to the public, I was chatting with a fellow vendor about safari vacations. Another vendor walked up, leaned in, and whispered something in her ear. As the whisperer walked away, the woman I was talking to immediately started crying.

I panicked. "Are you alright? Is everything okay?"

She wiped her eyes and said something that hit me right in the chest: "Some vendors are just so mean."

It broke my heart for her. I immediately went into Head Goose protection mode. I tried to make her smile, telling her, "Hey, I'm definitely not part of the cool crew here. It’s very cliquey. I just try to do my own thing. You’ll be alright."

But her tears stayed with me all day. In fact, they’ve stayed with me all week. Because her experience validated something I have felt since my very first networking event.

Let’s talk about St. Louis for a second. It is a famously "small town." If you live here, you know the ultimate ice-breaker is, "What high school did you go to?" It’s a question designed to immediately place you in a box: Who do you know? Where are you from? Do you belong here? As a transplant, an introvert, and a bit of a weirdo with strong opinions, it has been incredibly difficult to make genuine friends here. I’ve found a lot of the social groups to be very exclusionary—full of women who are more interested in what they are wearing, posing for the perfect selfie, and projecting a flawless online life than they are in genuine, messy-bun, soul-deep connection.

I naively thought the business sector would be different. I thought networking would be about lifting each other up, making connections, and co-conspiring to do great things.

Spoiler alert: It often feels like a high school cafeteria.

In my first few shows (Spring and Summer of '25), I internalized this. When vendors wouldn't stop by my booth to say hello, or when they would literally look me up and down when I approached them, I thought it was my fault. I thought it was my anxiety, my insecurity, my awkwardness.

But standing in my beautiful new 8x10 booth this year, feeling grounded and confident, I had an epiphany: It isn't me. It’s them. They are intentionally exclusionary. And honestly? That is completely fine. Because it forced me to realize something foundational about who I am and what I have built.

I am unapologetically ME. Follow the Goose Travel is unapologetically vibrant, weird, fun, and inclusive. If certain people cannot see that, or if they don't want to celebrate, share joy, dance, and collaborate... that is entirely on them.

If you are looking for stiff, performative "luxury," I am definitely not your girl.

I am not everyone's cup of tea. And Follow the Goose is not everyone's travel agency.

If you want stiff, judgmental, exclusionary "luxury" where you have to prove you belong—I am not your girl.

But if you want Approachable Luxury... if you want to be fiercely advocated for... if you want someone who values your authentic self over your Instagram aesthetic... then pull up a chair. You belong in this flock.

Finding your authenticity and living it out loud is the core of who I am as a human, and it is the beating heart of my brand. I will keep doing my own thing, and I know that the right people—the kindred souls vibrating on that same messy, beautiful, genuine frequency—will find me.

To the vendors and the couples who stopped by to sit in my bright yellow chair, share a laugh, and talk about the world: Thank you. You are my people. Let's go somewhere amazing.

To everyone who stopped by the booth for genuine, soul-deep conversation: Thank you!

Unapologetically Yours,

Caitlin Head Goose & Certified Champage Sipper