For years, I dreamed of creating a luxurious custom retreat for my followers… and sometimes – dreams come true! For two years now I’ve been living out that dream through the Bespoke Design Retreat. Come along as I share all of the details!

Click here to Watch Our Inaugural Retreat

After years of hoping and dreaming to create a beautiful retreat for creative ladies in the She Holds Dearly community, my path crossed with Casey Cashell on Instagram. Casey and her husband Jason are the owners of the Historic Mayhurst Estate in Orange, Virginia – and they agreed to let me host my interior design retreat at their home!

A year of planning lead up to our inaugural retreat in Fall of 2023 – and it was more than I could have ever hoped it would be. One year later, and I got to hold my second retreat that was just as beautiful and life-giving.

We named this retreat the Bespoke Design Retreat because we loved that the word had old world creative roots, and that it means “custom made” – and that is just what we wanted Bespoke to be for the ladies who attended. To that end, we worked tirelessly to customize and perfect as many of the details of the event as we could.

The goal is to inspire women through beauty, the gospel and live interactions to view their homes and creativity as their sacred calling. Here’s how that looked:

Day One – Monday | The Welcome Reception

Our 4-day retreat starts off with a beautiful welcome reception, enjoyed outside down the front walk of the Mayhurst estate.

One year, I brought along vases that I had upcycled with caning from Etsy, and I foraged the Mayhurst property for greenery to display in them.

The next year we used pots & house plants on loan from one of our sponsors, The Market at Grelen to decorate the centers of our long banquet tables.

Anticipation built up all throughout the day as my team and I pull together all the details, and finally in the afternoon the guests begin to arrive!

Nametags on satin lanyards and gift bags filled with high-quality surprises from our sponsors awaited the ladies as they checked in!

We also planned a great hands-on-workshop to make DIY beeswax candles during our check in hour. It was such a simple and fun task and every single gal went away with a small bundle that they’d created with their own hands on that first evening.

After checking in and completing the project, the ladies were invited to tour the Mayhurst Estate.

It is so rich in history and there have been so many details that Jason & Casey have carefully & intentionally added since they purchased it in 2000. It was so much fun to hear the tour from Casey’s perspective with all of the details & information that she knew we’d love as fellow creative women.

Click Here to Watch the Tour:

Later in the evening we enjoyed a deliciously catered Mediterranean buffet while talking and getting to know one another at dinner. It really felt like the beginning of a magical escape, and you could sense the women starting to exhale and relax into the experience and our time together.

A lot of thought went into who we sat everyone beside and across from to do our best to facilitate great conversation – and the ladies were all so warm and inviting right away. A few mentioned specifically that they had never felt like they had made such quick friends before.

After dinner we enjoyed dessert and more fellowship before parting for bed – ready to begin day 2.

Day Two & Day Four – Tuesday & Thursday | Classes & Workshops & Bible Study

Tuesday & Thursday are our days packed with design teaching. We met for class time in the summer kitchen behind the Estate, and as the weather permitted, did our hands-on-activities throughout the property.

For our second year, I chose to incorporate a rich bible study to ensure that discipleship was one of the foremost elements in our time together. We called it “The Gathering” and met three times during the week.

I heard from so many ladies that it was one of their favorite parts of the retreat. I taught about the woman at the well from John 4 and what Jesus’ interaction with her can teach us about His character. Important attributes such as the facts that He knows who we are, is gentle with us, that he meets us where we’re at, knows everything about us and still loves us, and that he pursues us – even when it takes dramatic circumstances to reach us.

And from the Woman herself, we learn that she was thirsty, honest & expectant – Three things that set a great example to for us to follow still today.

After the Gathering we began our Interior Design classes. Some of the class topics I’ve taught on over the years include:

• Basics of Interior Design
• Creating Color Palettes
• Color Theory
• 7 Layers of Interior Design
• Advanced Thrifting
• Kitchen & Bath Design
• Understanding Undertones
• Styling Bookshelves, Bedding & Vignettes

Whenever possible, we break out into groups and put our knowledge to use using fun, hands-on practical examples! It was so exciting to see the groups come together and work well as teams, even with differing design styles and leanings. Hearing them share with the larger groups why they made the decisions they did and who had added their input on which elements was so sweet.

Lunch on Tuesday is a French picnic – one of my favorite parts to put together.

We sourced beautiful baskets and filled them with gourmet ingredients and encouraged ladies to group up and spread out across the Mayhurst estate & grounds to enjoy their lunches together. Included in the baskets are some ice-breaker questions that range from “getting to know you” to “going a bit deeper”.

During our teaching days, we also worked together on some hands-on DIY projects. Over the years we’ve completed:

• Gilded Oyster Shells
• Adding Details to Printed Art work to Make them Look like Oil Paintings
• Pleated Lampshades
• Faux Marble Painting Technique
• Tone on Tone Embroidery

Day Three – Wednesday | Shopping Day

Day three is our day to shop all of the best antique spots in the area! Beforehand there are discussions about who wants to go to which stops and what items specifically each lady might be looking for. Then we group up and head out for a day of adventuring.

Throughout the day and in a few different towns and shops we’d run into another group of Bespoke ladies, or hear shop keepers telling us that they’d seen another car full of excited women come through – it was so neat to get to share with them a little bit about the She Holds Dearly community and how Bespoke is a sampling of the ladies from all over the US and beyond brought together by our love of design!

At the end of the day we all meet back together at the Mayhurst Estate for a show and tell!

The first year we did it outside in the beautiful courtyard around a nice fire. The second year the weather didn’t allow us to be outside, but we made the best of our time together and spent a few hours in the summer kitchen laughing and enjoying each other’s company while we shared stories of our experiences and the things we’d found to bring home.

A few ladies specifically had remembered items that others had told them they were looking for and had found those things and gifted them to the ladies during our show and tell. Watching eyes light up as ladies realized that their brand new friend had seen and heard their heart – and had gone out of her way to bless each other was beautiful.

I remember thinking after the first year that Bespoke was both a wonderful picture of how God intended relationships between women to be; and also a little preview of the joy and beauty we’ll find in each other’s presence and the presence of God when we get to heaven.

It proved itself to have a similar effect on year two – and I can’t wait for year three in 2025.

For those who have attended and taken a chance on this dream of mine… you came from all over the country and ministered to each other and to my soul; I’m so thankful for you, and I can’t wait for us to do it again!

Tickets are on Sale Now for The Bespoke Design Retreat 2025

If this retreat sounds like the kind of refreshing your soul has been desiring, I hope you come and join us!

We’ll once again be at the Mayhurst Estate, in Orange, Virginia from September 15-18, 2025!

You can click HERE To learn more and register while there are still tickets available!

Thank you To Our Bespoke Design Retreat Sponsors:

• Dresden & Co.
• Halden Garden
• Sherwin Williams
• Milieu Magazine
• Barboursville Winery
• Iron Orchid Designs
• Fusion Mineral Paint
• Cottonwood Shanty
• The Market at Grelen
• Venture Chocolates & Wine
• Brandi Still Silhouette Artist

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