Female Founder Friday: Giving Cari Her Flowers

This week’s Female Founder Friday is a little different.

Usually, this series is about celebrating female founders in the flying dress industry, women around the world who are creating magical photoshoot experiences in their own beautiful destinations.

But this week, I want to feature someone who is not only a female founder in her own right, but also someone who played a very real part in the beginning of Flying Dress Aruba.

This week, I want to introduce you to my dear friend Cari, the founder of The Salt Life Family.

Cari is a travel content creator, island lover, wife, mother, empty nester, storyteller, and one of the kindest, most supportive women I have ever had the privilege of calling a friend.

We first became Instagram friends around six years ago. Back then, Cari had a small family travel account where she was simply sharing memories from her family vacations. It was not some big strategic business plan at the time. It was just a place to document the trips, the beaches, the island moments, the memories, and the adventures she was creating with her family.

Through Instagram, Cari started following me and my life in Aruba, and somewhere along the way, I inspired her to add Aruba to her bucket list.

Then one day, she came to visit.

And when we finally met in person, we instantly clicked.

It honestly felt like I had known her for years. Some friendships are like that. There is no awkward “getting to know you” stage, no small talk that feels like a job interview, just an instant feeling of, “Oh, there you are.”

From that first trip, Cari became a true friend and one of my biggest cheerleaders.

Over the years, I have watched her account, The Salt Life Family, grow from a personal family travel page into something so much bigger. What started as a fun way to document family vacations slowly became a trusted space where people would come to her for recommendations.

Where did you stay?

How did you get there?

What activities did you do?

Where did you eat?

Would you recommend it for families?

Is it good for teenagers?

Is it worth the trip?

And Cari, being Cari, would spend hours answering people, helping them plan, sharing tips, researching places, and giving thoughtful advice, simply because she genuinely loved helping people.

That is usually how the best businesses begin.

Not with some cold, corporate “brand strategy,” but with a real person who cares deeply about something and keeps showing up.

In the last year especially, I have watched Cari step more fully into what The Salt Life Family could become. She has grown from around 20,000 followers to over 100,000, and seeing that growth has been so beautiful because I know how much heart is behind it.

She is passionate about travel, island hopping, sharing real experiences, helping families, inspiring couples, and encouraging people to actually go and make memories while they can.

As her own family has grown, her content has grown with her. She has shared family travel with children and teenagers, and now, as she and her husband enter their empty nester era, she is sharing more couple trips, girls getaways, solo moments, and new chapters of travel.

I have cheered her on from the sidelines for years.

I have told her,

“You can do this.”

“Take it seriously.”

“This can become something.”

“You can monetise this one day.”

“Keep going.”

Because I could see it.

I could see that she had something people connected with. Not because it was perfect, but because it was real.

And here is the part that makes Cari’s feature so personal to me...

Without Cari, Flying Dress Aruba would not have started the way it did.

When I ordered my very first set of flying dresses, I had them custom made in Europe and shipped to Cari’s address in the United States. Then, when Cari came to Aruba, she personally hand-delivered those dresses to me.

She literally brought me the first dresses that would become the beginning of Flying Dress Aruba.

I still remember when she arrived with them.

I was excited, nervous, overwhelmed, and very much in the “I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing but we are going to try anyway” stage.

There was no blueprint. No manual. No online course. No YouTube tutorial. No step-by-step guide.

There was just a dream, a suitcase full of dresses, a lot of hope, and Cari standing there being told, “Right, you’re going to have to put one of these on because I need to figure this out.”

And bless her, she did.

Cari became my very first flying dress guinea pig!

Over that trip, she wore every colour dress. We tried different poses. We tested how to throw the fabric. We tried to understand how the dresses moved in the wind. We figured out how to style them, how to photograph them, how to make them fly, and how not to trip over them while pretending we had any idea what we were doing.

Spoiler alert: we did not.

Honestly, I cried so much that first day working with the dresses because it felt like everything was going wrong... The wind was so strong it blew the dress right out of my hands and in to the sea... While Cari was wearing it!

Thankfully she remained dry on land but the end of the dress was soaking wet and just did not "fly" like it was meant to. I thought the whole thing was a disaster.

Then Cari talked me off the verge of an emotional breakdown and reminded me that no one actually knows what they are doing the first time they do something.

You just have to keep going and with practise it will get better.

And it did.

But it took LOTS of practise!

When I look back at those first photos now, part of me cringes and part of me smiles so hard.

Because yes, we had no clue.

But we had heart.

We had excitement.

We had curiosity.

We had friendship.

We had that beautiful beginner energy where you are not polished yet, but you are brave enough to start.

At the time, nobody was offering flying dress photoshoots in Aruba. This was something completely new for the island. I had no idea whether it would work. I had no idea whether people would book it. I had no idea that those dresses Cari carried to Aruba would become the beginning of something so much bigger.

Now, all these years later, Flying Dress Aruba has grown into more than I could have imagined back then.

It became a fully booked photoshoot experience.

It became a community.

It became a team.

It became a brand.

It became a global directory.

It became a mentorship program.

It became an online resource library.

It became flying dress tours, partnerships, founder features, and a platform to support other women building their own dreams.

And Cari was there at the very beginning.

Before the booked calendar.

Before the systems.

Before the polished galleries.

Before the confidence.

Before I had any clue how to make satin behave in the Caribbean wind.

She was there with the dresses, the encouragement, the patience, and the friendship.

So this week, I want to give Cari her flowers.

Not just for being an amazing travel creator.

Not just for building The Salt Life Family into such a beautiful and inspiring platform.

Not just for being a wonderful wife, mother, friend, and cheerleader.

But for being one of the women who quietly helped another woman’s dream begin.

Sometimes the people who play a part in your story do not even realise how important they were.

Cari, I hope you know now.

Thank you for bringing those first dresses to Aruba.

Thank you for putting them on when I had no idea what I was doing.

Thank you for cheering me on before there was really anything to cheer for.

Thank you for believing in me, supporting me, and being the kind of friend every woman deserves to have in her corner.

I am so proud of you, proud of The Salt Life Family, proud of the way you have grown, and proud of the way you continue to inspire people to travel, explore, and make memories with the people they love.

This Female Founder Friday Feature is for you.

Consider these your flowers.

Go and show some love to Cari and The Salt Life Family by visiting their website now.

TAP HERE TO VISIT THE SALT LIFE FAMILY WEBSITE

P.S If you are a fellow flying dress founder and would like to be featured, please email us for more details.

P.P.S If this has inspired you to start your own flying dress business venture please tap here.