In this episode of Barvox, we sit down with Catalina from Tandem Weddings, a wedding photographer who left Romania swearing she would never shoot another wedding, and now works across Europe with her husband Andrei.

We talk about what working events actually costs you. The pressure of a day you cannot redo. Vendors who bring their ego to work. Twelve to sixteen hour shifts, and the drive home where you cannot speak.

Catalina shares how a camera her mother bought for a month's salary became a business, how her creative agency died three months after launching when the pandemic hit, and how in 2023 she opened her calendar, found one booking, and almost closed everything down. She talks openly about imposter syndrome, the heart intervention that forced her to change how she works, and the term she only learned this winter that finally explained why every event left her empty: emotional labour.

If you work behind a bar, in a kitchen, or on an event floor, this conversation is about your job too.

In this episode we discuss:

• Why she swore she would never shoot a wedding again, and what changed her mind
• The camera that cost her mother a full month of salary
• Building a business in a new country with no language, no network and no contacts
• Why the first three to five years decide whether you survive
• What separates a great event manager from an average one
• Vendor egos, and why the client should never see the conflict
• Why there are no bad clients, only bad communication
• Imposter syndrome and the voice that asks who do you think you are
• The rebrand that took her from one booking to fully booked
• Running a business with your husband, and dividing work by what you are actually good at
• Why turning your passion into a business can kill the passion
• Emotional labour, post-event crashes and the drive home
• The health bill: push, but don't try to kill yourself

Catalina / Tandem Weddings: https://www.tandemwed.com/

Instagram:   / tandem.weddings  

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Manuel Lica: https://www.instagram.com/itsmanuellica

Mihai Paul: https://www.instagram.com/c_m_paul

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#bartenders #chefs #hospitality