Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/honeybeeretreats
Website: https://www.sarahelizabethphotography.us/new-page/

**Note: there are two companies using this name, this is referring to the styled shoot/workshop one that doesn’t have much of an online footprint**

Here we are in with yet another disaster of a workshop/styled session/retreat/whatever-the-fuck-cutesy-name-you-want-to-call-it, this time featuring Honeybee Retreats.

Much like similar international retreats with Julie Paisley and Sallee Photography, Honeybee’s international retreats have not gone anything like the attendees thought it would and the chatter has been growing and growing.

Originally I was going to cover it on the Substack but, surprise surprise, they used images not from their styled shoots/owners to advertise with, leading to a lot of confusion over a location so we’re on the blog instead.

Update 5/3/2024: Rewrote a bit (Sarah I know you’ve already got your screencaps) as things were cleared up/clarified after talking more with the photographers, listening to their story on Slow Shutter Podcast and researching more, added more receipts (literally and figuratively)…

Update 5/6/2024: It just doesn’t end. Added more information for previous styled shoots this happened with when Sarah ran Stylized Shoots with Sarah Elizabeth Photography (who is based in Georgia).

Update 5/7/2024: The Shoot and Sip podcast talked about their experience in Greece and I updated the information for that section. Added Tulum stolen photos. Slow Shutter Podcast also released a recap episode after their 3 episode interview with some of the attendees.

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Who is Honeybee Retreats?

Honeybee Retreats is run by three photographers: Sarah Elizabeth Photography, Kenya of Kaptured by KC and Lexi of Forever Wanderlust Photography. They make sure to emphasize everywhere they are Christian based which explains why I haven’t heard of them before this all blew up since I’m a heathen. I think they started sometime in 2024 but I’m not sure since they have no website and you book via a usession link through Sarah Elizabeth [edited to add, later I found you can book some of their retreats through Sarah Elizabeth Photography’s website and linked it above].

Anyway, they decide to expand from their stateside based retreats and go international.

Spoiler alert: it isn’t going well

ETA: Sarah Elizabeth of Sarah Elizabeth Photography used to run styled sessions going as Stylized Shoots with Sarah Elizabeth Photography and she’s been pulling the same shit since at least 2018 so below I’m going to add the info for the other styled sessions in date order vs adding the new information at the end of the post as I usually do.

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Lavender Styled Shoot June 13th, 2018

Allegedly this session got moved to August after a lack of lavender at the farm but per the Eventbrite it was kept at the same farm.

However there is a comment from someone asking for the status of a refund on 6/30/2018.

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Disney Workshop June 2018

This event was scheduled from June 22 – 24th, 2018 in Orlando, FL. The cost was $400 for all 3 days and accommodations in the airbnb or $150 per shoot.

Much like in Greece/Scotland, the airbnb for this event was a mess.

The guests could check in on 6/21 and leave 6/25 but Sarah sent them the wrong address and wouldn’t answer her phone/texts/messages asking for the correct address. Then she wouldn’t give the the code to get in.

When everyone finally got in there were not enough beds to accomodate everyone, allegedly. Allegedly Sarah’s friends and boyfriends who were along for the vacation took the beds and some of the paying photographers and vendors had to sleep on couches and the floor.

Allegedly one vendor SLEPT OUTSIDE on a chair because of the lack of room and one couple said nope and left.

Sarah allegedly blamed the airbnb owner claiming they advertised the wrong amount of bedrooms and she was going to seek a refund for the stay.

The venues the sessions were at were a decent distance away from the airbnb.

There seemed to be a lot of chaos with the vendors. Vendors hired from far out from the locations, lack of communication and last minute requests.

Day one of the shoot, Beauty and the Beast was decent and lived up to the advertisements.

Day two, Snow White, was not as good as there were some details missing like an invitation suite and other small items.

Day three, Tangled, was the worst of the lot with barely any details or vendors attached to the session. The model was a vendor and Sarah’s boyfriend was the male.

Sarah spent the week going out to Disney and the beach after the long shoots.

Oh and she ‘commandeered’ an ‘abandoned’ wheelchair. I hope this was truly a rental wheelchair that is owned by Disney because recently a story went viral of a Mom who ‘borrowed’ an ‘abandoned’ wheelchair they saw and it was not ‘abandoned’ it belonged to someone. Pro tip: if you see a wheelchair without a human in it there is likely a good reason such as they need the wheelchair but can ambulate short distances and opted to leave it to use the restroom or some other small task. If you don’t own it don’t touch it.

After the trip Sarah posts to Facebook announcing she is pregnant and due January 2019 (there is relevancy here I promise!).

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Coastal Romance July 2018

This styled session was a one day session on July 6, 2018 on Jekyll Island, GA I do not know what the original cost was.

Allegedly 4 HOURS before the start of the session Sarah says she cannot come because she has a high risk pregnancy and is on bed rest. A planner who attended the Orlando session steps in to help run the styled session but there are no vendors just models and outfits that didn’t fit the Coastal Romance theme. Allegedly there was no hair & makeup team, no cake, no invitations etc. Sarah would allegedly later claim that this session was never styled, just models.

I am unclear if anyone was refunded, I believe some filed chargebacks via Eventbrite.

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Southwestern Dream July 2018

This styled shoot was scheduled on Wednesday July 25, 2018 3-6PM at The Gray Dove in Ooltewah, TN. It ended up being canceled but notifications didn’t go out.

On July 22nd someone posts in Sarah’s Facebook Group asking for details, another attendee comments.

At least one person showed up to find out it was canceled but it’s unclear when or how she found out. She was told by an associate of Sarah’s to file a chargeback with PayPal but she used Eventbrite who at this time allegedly turned off Sarah’s ability to refund.

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Greece August 2024

From my understanding their first international destination was in Greece in August 2024. You could either book a one day styled shoot or a multi-day event.

The cost for this styled shoot was $610 for 3 hours or $3000 for the full retreat.

I don’t have as much detailed information as I do for Scotland but here’s the complaints that I have compiled:

[ETA updated info from The Shoot & Sip Podcast]

• Around 30-40 attendees between photographers/models/host/cohosts.

• Day of arrival the wildfires cause Sarah and her family to flee the airbnb they were staying in (if the one she posted to Facebook, it was in Nea Makri) allegedly leaving behind the cake and other items intended for the styled sessions during the trip. They end up at the airport and Sarah claims the roads are all blocked to/from the airport and they cannot get to their airbnb.

• When people arrive at the airport they all eventually congregate in a corner and were in the airpot for 9 HOURS. Allegedly Sarah is not of much help when it comes to problem solving where everyone will stay. One of her co-hosts ended up figuring it out and used her family member’s credit card to book it.

• Accommodations did not match what they were led to believe they would be staying in (apartment in Athens vs villa on the ocean). *Per S&S this was because of the wildfires

• The apartment they stayed in seems to get bad reviews all around. Strangers having to share not only beds but rooms with other strangers/couples. No WiFi. Dirty sheets. Allegedly there was a dead body in the street.

• Paid for/promised 10 different shoots, only ended up with 4. Hydra Island didn’t take place – Sarah claimed it was due to the wildfires, locals claimed the area was fine.

• Transportation was a fucking shitshow – was supposed to be covered but all but 1 trip the attendees had to sort out on their own and pay for.

• Hosts, especially co-host, were allegedly very unhelpful when problems arose for the models and photographers.

• Allegedly Sarah’s children were there playing in the pool at Pyrgos Melissourgou and a photographer had to hold one of the children so they could take photos because the kids were in the way.

• Lack of water provided during shoots.

• The retreat was advertised as all-inclusive but attendees ended up having to cover costs for multiple things that were supposed to be covered such as snacks and water which were promised but not delivered.

• One of the models was forced to undress in the middle of a square in (I believe) Athens in front of everyone (WTF) when a dress maker wanted their gown back due to concerns about it getting dirty or ruined. Sarah never apologized for this incident and has since blocked the model.

• Here’s the review of Sarah from the host of the “beach” airbnb in Greece, curiously now Sarah’s Airbnb profile is private, shocker.

• According to the attendees I have spoken to, they have not been refunded. They were offered to go to Scotland or another retreat at a discounted rate but no refunds have been given.

• Sarah didn’t check everyone in for their flight to Santorini causing at least one attendee to nearly miss it and some people to be left behind (possibly just the co-hosts though).

• The last day of the shoot Sarah didn’t seem to have researched the times of the places they were to go to and it was closed by the time they got there.

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Scotland April 2024

Next up, Scotland. Here’s what their ad on Instagram looked like for this trip.

The cost was $3600-$4000 for this experience. They were asked to pay via Zelle or PayPal Friends & Family. If anyone wanted to pay via Goods & Services Sarah required you to pay the additional fee to cover the cost.

The additional charge for spouses was between $400-$600ish. If Honeybee charged all 14(ish) photographers the going rate of $3600-$4000 they would have had over $50K from the group but allegedly less than half paid the full rate, I am still getting details on this (if so then that’s on Sarah and needless to say those that paid full rate are not thrilled).

Also note, these attendees were asked to tell Scotland they were there for vacation, not to work.

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Who:

Honeybee Retreats in Scotland was run by Sarah Elizabeth from Sarah Elizabeth Photography, Lexi with Forever Wanderlust Photograph as the co-host, and Kenya from Kaptured by KC, who was there as the content creator. There was also a Katie and Nikki there as assistants [eta – Katie was there as Lexi’s friend but some of the attendees said she was helping on the castle day, Nikki allegedly paid to be there but the attendees thought she was an assistant, still getting clarification here]

Edit: Lexi claims she wasn’t there as a co-host so I’m adding this:

Sarah’s husband, three children and her Mom was along with Sarah for the trip. Her Mom did the hair for the models. This time the children stayed behind at the airbnb and did not come to the sessions.

Kenya’s sister and her child were also there. They did come along for at least the castle day allegedly.

There were 15(?) photographers who attended the retreat and 4(?) add-on non-photographers who went along for the trip. At least one photographer did not stay in the airbnb as they live in Scotland. Numbers are hard due to how many people there were and the fact that *very* few people have posted images/content from the retreat.

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Day 0 – Arrival

Arrival to Scotland

The various complaints from Day 0:

• I should start this off by stating that allegedly Sarah Elizabeth, who is running Honeybee by all intents and purposes, has never been to Scotland before.

Sarah *does* arrive to Scotland earlier than the retreat, I believe 3/24, but spends her time in Inverness [note, she does not go to the Isle of Skye to research this area either] until 3/29 when she comes down to Edinburgh.

With guests arriving 3/31 that only left her two days in Edinburgh, one of which was a travel day, to make sure everything is sorted and perfect for the retreat. Instead Sarah has a packed schedule of getting a tattoo, making a purse and doing her own sight seeing the two days before her guests arrived. Monday is when the retreat began and she was in Glasgow (an hour away in the opposite direction) to pick up dresses for the Culdees Castle session.

• Prior to arriving in Scotland, some attendees were already put off upon finding out that their air bnb was not in Edinburgh, as advertised, but was in Falkland, a small village about an hour’s drive from Edinburgh (2+ hours via bus remember too they all had luggage AND camera gear to lug around). Where Edinburgh is a city full of attractions, historic sights, restaurants and transportation, Falkland is a small village with little amenities, only three places to get meals and only one of those was open “late” and it closed at 8:30.

• From what I can gather, getting to the Falkland Air B&B, Ladywell House in Falkland and the Steading Cottage (both on the same property) where most of the photographers stayed was a shitshow.

Instead of hiring a van or shuttle service, Sarah purchased bus tickets (less than 2 weeks before the retreat) in groups of 5 for the attendees to use to get to Falkland from Edinburgh, allegedly due to everyone arriving at different times.

However the instructions given were allegedly clear as mud.

Instead of giving each person their own bus ticket she gave the group of 5 tickets to one person in the group which led to issues when parts of one group were there on time and others were not due to flight delays. They also weren’t grouped by people who knew each other but by time so many were strangers meeting up.

Many were left stranded for hours at various points due to bus transfers not happening as they thought they would. Allegedly it took one group SIX HOURS to get to Falkland. There aren’t any Ubers/taxis to take you there and with the bus schedule not going according to plan it was a mess and a half. Some had to pay their own way due to the way the tickets were sent to one person. Some were left on the side of a road at a bus stop. Everyone got there via different ways and in the end Sarah had to go pick up some people to get them to the airbnb and she made sure people knew via her attitude how she felt about that turn of events.

• The airbnb accommodated 14 and there was 20 people originally slated to stay there. A few weeks before they arrived Sarah and the owner got into an argument about the amount of people it accommodated. Sarah was insisting it was 20, the owner said it’s always been 14. In the end the owner gave up their own home to accomodate the additional 4 people needing beds and one couple stayed in a different airbnb (it is unknown at what point everyone knew this was happening) . Sarah was allegedly staying in a castle and the models elsewhere.

[update, Sarah stayed at Balgedie House, not a castle]

• As a side note from what I hear Ladywell House was beautiful and the owners were amazing. It just wasn’t the location they were promised. They would have understood the reasoning behind booking this place if they used it for a shoot as it was beautiful but it was not utilized for anything other than their stay.

• Two of the attendees ran to the grocery store while waiting for everyone to arrive and got the items Sarah stated she would provide (eggs/butter/cheese/meat/bread/condiments). I believe Sarah paid them back but I am not sure. Still, IMHO that’s something Sarah should have had done and at the airbnb before anyone arrived.

• The rooms weren’t assigned so there was a lot of confusion since there was a variety of beds (twin/double/queen) and everyone wanted to make sure they didn’t take a room meant for someone else but Sarah just wanted them to sort it themselves. This was hard because people didn’t know who was coming and what kind of bed/room they needed.

• Note: there was no welcome dinner / event planned where everyone would meet and mingle. They were just thrown together and expected to figure it all out. Nor did Sarah allegedly ever introduce herself or anyone to each other [which has been a complaint many times from her attendees]. No one expected this event to be comped by Sarah, just scheduled as most retreats do this as standard operation.

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Day 1 – Edinburgh

Elopement styled shoot in Edinburgh

The various complaints from Day 1:

• One of the attendees was a local photographer and in exchange for being able to attend the session that day (she was only originally going to do the castle and Isle of Skye) she came up with a walking tour of Edinburgh that covered the advertised locations and built in breaks for meals and coffee and gave thought to what areas looked best at certain times of the day. Sarah told her to make a schedule from 1:30 – 7:30PM (red star for the places they did go). The day before Sarah tells the person, oooops it’s only until 4:30 do you think we can still get it all in? Sarah decided to change the route also because she wanted to take photos in a field to start instead of… in the city… where you advertised?

• Sarah would get dropped off at the photographer’s airbnb and ride the bus with them so she wasn’t in town early to prep/get things going either day in Edinburgh.

• Photo shoot was scheduled from 1:30 – 4:30PM. The bus is late to pick everyone up from the Ladywell House so they arrive after 2PM. At least one model has to get dressed when they arrive. They allegedly don’t start shooting until 2:30ish or a bit later.

• There was no organization to the shoots. No one was assigned to a certain model/couple (3 couples and a bride alone but not all were there the whole day) and told to switch after 20 minutes or whatever, it was a free for all. With 20 photographers taking photos (the hosts also were shooting) it was a bit of a chaotic mess.

• They ended up spending almost 2 hours in this field that didn’t really say “we’re in Edinburgh” or was anything like they thought they’d be photographing. It could be a field in almost any state in the US. However, if you walk up the hill there *is* an iconic view of Edinburgh from there.

• Originally they were supposed to have free time from 5-7PM to get meals, see the sights etc. before having to be back on the shuttle to Falkland. Due to the delayed schedule, people were having to choose between keeping their dinner reservations or to keep shooting with the models in the area they CAME to photograph models at when they finally made it into the city. Some did opt to keep dinner reservations though.

• They did not cover most of the list due to everything running behind and the extensive time spent in the meadow at Arthur’s Seat. They also did not go to one of the locations heavily advertised, Dean Village, that many were looking forward to. Don’t worry though, Sarah got to go!

• I believe things ended up wrapping up at 6:30PM and Sarah told the attendees if they weren’t on the shuttle at 7:00PM it would leave without them. After the issues the day before no one wanted to have to try to depend on public transportation again.

• The bus driver was very strict about no food on the bus but eventually relents and allows the attendees to bring food on but they couldn’t eat it on the bus. 

• [complaint for the whole retreat] Female models were not wearing the luxurious items as promised, they were wearing clothing and dresses from WalMart and SHEIN and it was obvious the items were cheaply made.

•  [complaint for the whole retreat] Male models were dressed casually with their own suits or jeans.

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Day 2 – Culdees Castle

Full styled fairy tale style shoot at a castle

The various complaints/issues from Day 2:

• The morning starts with one of the attendees asking if there’s a plan for food/water not wanting to end up like the days prior in the group chat. Sarah replies pointing them to go into town before leaving (at noon) and they an walk off and grab something from the castle (where they will be until 7).

• The image for the ‘castle’ shoot in the ad was of Thirlestane Castle, which many attendees didn’t know wasn’t the same as Culdees Castle. Sarah would claim that Culdees Castle supplied her with the photo she used in the ad and it wasn’t her fault.

• While they are both castles, Culdees Castle is currently undergoing restoration and is under construction. The roof has caved in and you cannot go inside and much of the exterior also was inaccessible. This is all plainly available on their website so it’s unclear why this venue was chosen for the ‘luxury’ part of the retreat when there were other castles that fit the bill better (for example… the one in the photo).

Correction: there is a small portion of the East Wing that they have restored and it is a wedding venue that was able to be gone into and is possibly where the cake was set up.

• They were promised luxury floral installations, this is what they got.

• This is the cake table. There was a room with a flat lay but not all of the attendees were able to photograph it.

• Allegedly the castle didn’t know that it was such a large group of people and they were not happy that a group of 20+ people descended when they thought it was just a regular photo shoot. There were 8 models (4 couples), 14ish attendees, Sarah and her team (I believe 5) plus a baby? and other family/friends of attendees.

• Since Sarah and her team rode the bus (which may have been in an accident that day?? still unclear here) to the castle along with the photographers everyone had to wait around for everything to be set up before they could start. Why Sarah didn’t take her van and go before everyone else to get it ready is beyond me.

• Sarah didn’t follow the rules allegedly of switching up to different sets/models every so many minutes that thankfully they did start doing this day. Well, everyone but Sarah/Honeybee.

Also as a sidenote but I think it’s shitty that Sarah requested everyone attending to credit the vendors, models and Honeybee but she’s posting these images without tagging anyone in the description (a few in the tags) and makes it sound like she was hired by this couple and it was an elopement.

• Eventually one of the attendee’s husbands approached Sarah to ask, again, about her plans for food and if she was open to stopping on the way back with the bus so the attendees could get a hot meal. Sarah replied that there was plenty of places in town [Falkland] that were open. The husband called and found out the place Sarah was referring to closed at 8:30 (which they’d never make in time) AND couldn’t accomodate that many people without a reservation. Sarah seemingly did not think, nor research, how people would get meals at mealtimes in Falkland. So husband went back to Sarah with this information. She was annoyed and kept saying that her contract stated she did not cover meals.

Reese replied and said allegedly, bitch I never asked you to buy me food. Things then escalate between Reese, and Sarah and Kenya. Part 1, part 2. If YouTube shorts doesn’t work for you here it is on Instagram.

Note that Sarah was over with the couple on the far right [so raised voices needed to cover distance], Reese is the second from the left. He took a couple steps towards the attendee’s husband in the middle but Kenya and Sarah are the ones that came towards Reese as are seen here in front of the green bush with Lexi coming towards Reese.

After the incident at the castle granola bars and water were provided on site. On the way home they were able to stop at the grocery store to get some food and that did help alleviate some of the food issues.

Once back at the air bnb tensions rose again where Sarah threatens to call the cops and how she feels unsafe with Reese there, note she’s in the photographer’s airbnb and had her own about 20 minutes away. Why *she* didn’t leave if *she* felt unsafe is beyond me. She keeps threatening to call the cops but does not.

They eventually talked it out, Sarah acting like they were demanding she provide the meals (see below) not just asking for her to make space/time for people to eat meals, not a warm sandwich that has been in a bag all day. Eventually Sarah decides to allow Reese to stay.

From my understanding from the attendees I’ve talked to not everyone agrees with how Reese went about it but they were all exasperated and hungry by this point as many hadn’t had a full hot meal since before the retreat began. I think we’ve all snapped when hangry. Everyone I spoke to states that no one expected Sarah to feed them as she had been very clear that only one meal would be provided for. They had just expected that they would have had the time/ability to get themselves meals at mealtimes, which I think is very fair.

Keep in mind, they were traveling for 2+ hours a day to the shooting locations and couldn’t eat on the bus. It’s a lot – especially in a country you aren’t familiar with. The area they were staying in wasn’t one where you could just pop into a corner mart and grab some food, everything closed down fairly early so by the time they got back things were closed.

Also let me reiterate again if you didn’t watch the video: Reese did NOT charge, walk towards, stomp towards, come at, aggressively swing or whatever the fuck Sarah keeps claiming. He yelled, “bitch I never asked you to pay for my food” when she was, for the millionth time, asking like they were starving Olivers asking for another cup of soup from her. He stood and yelled it from the driveway towards her in the lawn.

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Day 3 – Train Ride

The Most Scenic Train Ride in the WORLD (or is it)

The various complaints/issues from Day 3:

• Sarah blamed the train station (like with the castle) for why there was a mixup with times they needed to be at the Markinch train station. She also allegedly didn’t buy enough tickets at the same time so everyone wasn’t seated together for the trip.

• Remember that blurb from the email that was sent when booking the retreat? Or the photos of the famous view advertising the retreat? Yeah, they didn’t go anywhere near the famous ‘Harry Potter’ Glenfinnan Viaduct.

• Once again, they were promised they were staying in the Isle of Skye in an airbnb but ended up staying in Inverness which was a 3 1/2 drive from their shooting location on Day 4. This airbnb was very cramped and not nearly as nice as the one from the beginning of their stay. The attendees are a bit miffed when seeing Sarah’s stories of her much nicer and more spacious airbnb, Jacobite’s Lodge.

• Sarah does pay for the meal that night which was pizza but many attendees opt to go get their first hot sit-down meal in days in town since they’re finally near enough to walk to a restaurant.

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Day 4 – Isle of Skye

Moody spicy elopements in the Isle of Skye

The various complaints/issues from Day 4:

• Due to the change in location for the air bnb, attendees spent about 7 HOURS traveling to/from the highlands for the shoot. The photographers ended up arriving on site at 3:30PM instead of 2:30PM.

• Once again, the models weren’t dressed as high end as they expected them to be. One dress was left behind and Sarah said to just throw it away.

• They initially only went to the Old Man of Storr as their location in Skye (which would have meant 0/3 on the locations advertised in the flyer) but then they also did up going to The Quiraing which an attendee’s husband had to research because Sarah had not.

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Tulum 2025

The next international retreat is slated to be in Tulum Mexico in September 2025. Of fucking course the images in the ad are stolen.

*note* originally it appears she was going to Bali for these dates and pivoted to Tulum at some point between May and July 2024.

The home advertised as the one the photographers will be staying at is in La Veleta, Mexico. It is two homes and has 8 bedrooms and hosts 24 people.

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Ireland 2026

In May 2026 Sarah Elizabeth Photography / Honeybee Retreats is slated to head to Ireland. Sarah hopefully should be more prepared for this retreat since she allegedly told Scotland attendees that she has a vacation home here.

You should know that she is advertising this as “Ireland” and the locations she is depicting is NORTHERN IRELAND which is a different country from Ireland but it is on the same island so at least there’s that.

At least she is using images of the locations she claims to be going to instead of ones in Wales or something?

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Italy 2026

There is an upcoming retreat for Italy in September 2026 but the issue is the photos, yet again, aren’t properly advertising where she claims they are going.

Per their website: they are going to be staying Tuscany and visiting Florence and Siena.

The main image? That is Treviso Cathedral and it’s 3 1/2 hours away from where they are staying.

This grid shows:

Top row of images are of Venice (~3 hours away from Tuscany).

Left is Venice, middle I couldn’t find, right is Venice again.

Bottom row left image is possibly Lake Como (4 1/2 hours away from Tuscany), middle image is Venice again, and the right is Iglesia de San Francisco de Sales in Barcelona, Spain (~12 HOURS away from Tuscany).

I don’t give a fuck if this is a ~mood board~ and this is why I have such a huge issue with styled session retreats and mood boards because it’s making people think you’re advertising what you’re using photos of for locations/look/style as seen in Scotland with people thinking the castle and the train viaduct shown in the photos were where they were going.

If Venice is your inspiration why in the hell are you not… GOING TO VENICE?! Why aren’t the images used from the locations you’re actually going to? UGH.

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The Aftermath

Originally I wasn’t going to write a post about this because I didn’t have a grasp on what was going on or went down. Then I was maybe going to mention it in a blurb of the newsletter on Substack but then shit kept rolling and I just had to start investigating.

First I saw this review shortly after the retreat from one of the attendees which is mostly covered above:

Sarah then felt the need to post her side of the story in a different group.

Sarah claims that due to everyone arriving at different times bussing was the better option (call me crazy but I think booking an air bnb in Edinburgh as promised would have been the better option here).

There’s only one reply for this whole mess: I’m sorry. That’s it.

Next Sarah seems to want a gold star for helping sort out the transportation problems that she won’t take any responsibility for. That’s kind that you supplied coffee and teas but you also took in over $50K, you can make sure people have water, coffee and tea at the very least IMHO. Especially when people are coming via bus and most don’t have their own cars to transport heavy items.

The pastry shop was about a 1/2 mile walk but it opened at 10AM and the transportation picked them up at 12PM. It’s a pretty rushed morning and odd timing for a meal depending on when they ate breakfast (not to mention jetlag!).

The first day didn’t start until almost 3PM allegedly instead of 1:30PM and these people FLEW TO SCOTLAND for this so yes, they are going to want to shoot and making them choose between food and what they came to do is kind of crummy. Especially when you didn’t start in the city until around 5PM and spent most of the day in a damn field.

I also think that you should be providing water during all sessions.

The meal Sarah alludes to providing here after arriving in the Isle of Skye was pizza I’m told so don’t let her make you think she splashed out on an elaborate meal in a restaurant.

They couldn’t sit with the group on the train because of you allegedly not buying the tickets at the same time. But I like the spin here girly pop.

Now the incident with Reese. I can only go off of what was told to me and viewable in the videos but Kenya is the one who came across at Reese, not him to them. I don’t condone any of it but I get the frustration (and hanger). So far NONE of the attendees I spoke with have said they stated they wanted to leave due to his actions. Not all agreed with the screaming match but many were really disappointed and upset by the time they got to the castle and were let down, yet again. Up until the castle I think people kept hoping it would turn around and everything was just bumps in the road.

Hell, two of the attendees took one of the model couples and went to a much nicer castle and did their own shoot. Doesn’t that say a lot???!??!?

The attendees couldn’t bring food on the bus, who wants a rank warm sandwich from their bag when they THINK they’re going to have an opportunity to eat some of the amazing food Edinburgh has to offer (well except for haggis, fuck haggis)? And again, they were gone for *hours* a sandwich at 11AM doesn’t mean you’re not hungry again at 7PM.

Oh and here’s Reese’s goodie bag that he was able to show me a video of him opening, he did not throw it away. It contained a ring box, orange fabric, a luggage tag with his name on it, a caramello, stickers and a random tea bag. Not something I’d really brag about either TBH. Also they paid you money for this retreat, this didn’t come “out of your own pocket” it should have been factored into the pricing.

The train seating was allegedly due to the tickets not being purchased at the same time, it wasn’t a choice to not all sit together, some were not able to. Even if they chose not to – would YOU want to sit with the person that threatened to call the cops on you in a foreign country when all you did was call someone a bitch?!

I think I’ve proven that the castle in the ad is not the castle they went to so “baseless lies” is kind of moot at this point.

I’ve heard from a few attendees that the hosts did take the models into an area with a flatlay at the castle that most didn’t get an opportunity to photograph but I don’t have proof of that.

Basically to me when you have to spin that hard, there’s often something amiss.

It’s also curious she did not address a lot of the other complaints like the SHEIN dresses and overall lower budget feel to the retreat that was advertised as being luxury.

Everything had mostly died down and then today a review popped up that was positive for Honeybee’s most recent retreat stateside. The review threw shade at the Scotland reviews and comments got a bit heated.

I’m glad they had a good experience but I’m also betting Sarah + her team made SURE this one was excellent after the backlash from Scotland. However, it was a *choice* to make that kind of post. “I’m not saying they’re lying but they’re not as truthful” okayyyy??

The comments didn’t go well.

Reese, now known as Snickers, weighed in and hold the phone, desecrating graves?

Ohhhhh.

Sarah’s rebuttal to this was that the charges were dropped. It stemmed allegedly from a photoshoot in a private graveyard and something about a confederate memorial or grave? I’m not sure but she keeps bringing this up.

ETA – a local to Sarah claims that allegedly candles were placed on graves during the photoshoot and wax got on tombstones.

ETA 2 – public records coming in hot. Sarah was charged with trespassing for going into the Pullin Family Cemetery at the beginning of October and then went AGAIN at the end of October. The November charge is for after she asked people on FB to harass the person who reported her.

On 10/3/2021 Sarah posted this styled session to her photography page – she mentions having the cops called on her.

The images depict several women with candles on the tombstones, smoke bombs and a sacrifice.

On 10/8/2021 Sarah was charged with Criminal Trespass for the session in the graveyard.

On 10/21/2021 Sarah posted this to her personal page after she has ANOTHER SESSION at the same graveyard.

On 10/31/2021 Sarah posts to her personal Facebook claiming she had nothing to do with it and wasn’t in town but in the post above she is in the same cemetery from earlier in the month.

On 11/1/2021 Sarah posts another graveyard session, this time at a different graveyard, unknown which one.

On 11/2/2021 Sarah shares a post from a group who cleaned up the graveyard and claims she is completely innocent.

On 11/3/2021 Sarah is charged with Criminal Trespass again and the graveyard is noted (see headshot above).

On 11/17/2021 Sarah is charged with Influencing a Witness after she posts several times on Facebook asking her friends and followers to harass the person who she claims reported her. Note the email to them below stating that she claims there was a lack of anything on graves.

Note the lack of anything on graves?

Pretty sure I see melted candles there.

She ends up getting community service and parole for each trespassing charge (pleads in 2023 and 2024) and they drop the influencing witness charge.

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This is where I started to go okay I have to write a post because no where have I see anyone’s damn SSN listed. This is straight out of a thief’s playbook after I out them on Photo Stealers.

So I said fuck it, I’m just going to flat out call her out on it. Apparently “he’s also posted my Social Security number” is now a grammatical error?

Sarah replies with a post that isn’t the same one it’s from another post from somewhere else.

This is the post Sarah shared from a different group and she explains that it wasn’t desecrating a grave, she was just doing a photo shoot in a private cemetery.

Yeah, that makes it totally different. *rolls eyes*

Sure that stuff shouldn’t have been brought in (it was initially by an anonymous commenter, unclear who) but when you have multiple retreats go badly to this degree people are going to look into your history maybe you need to look inward and STOP DOING THEM until you can do it properly.

Finally, last night Sarah made a post to The Law Tog about suing the people speaking out. 

Giving a review on your retreat based on their lived experience ≠ harassment/slander/defamation.

No one is surprised she dirty deleted this post on TheLawTog.

Again, no one in Scotland wanted her to *pay* for their meals, they were upset that there was not time/space made to do so at normal meal hours. The first grocery run an attendee made when they were at the airbnb waiting for everyone to arrive and offered to do to be helpful, Sarah didn’t organize this! The second was a concession after the fight on the castle day since she found out no restaurants were open.

Props to you for driving around and picking people up but given the busses weren’t going where you thought they should go and these people WERE literally on the side of the road they were kind of stranded until you stepped in since there was no ubers/taxis they could find.

I don’t know the full situation of the bus ticket shitshow but IMO everyone should have had access to their own tickets. Well hell, everyone should have had a transportation option from the airport that was private not a bus but that’s my opinion.

You were NEVER run up on by Reese and you have admitted you weren’t but yet keep going back to this story. He called you a bitch. Wrong but not nearly the scene you paint EVERYWHERE.

Everything promised? Where was Dean Village when you were in Edinburgh? How about that Harry Potter train ride? I won’t even mention the castle since that’s been beat to death.

Bottom line: this retreat, in my opinion, wasn’t as advertised. One day of three with dresses that were not SHEIN does not a luxury experience make. However, I think that everything would have gone over without much fanfare had Sarah apologized and taken accountability for what went wrong. I hope going forward she remembers that meals are a thing and takes care of those that pay her a lot better.