Lauryn creates dark, moody wedding photos. Not the bright, airy Pinterest style everyone expects. Her style makes people feel something they can't name. She edits each gallery two or three times, uploads it, then sometimes pulls it back down to re-edit more. While doing this obsessive perfectionism, she's listening to Stephen King and wondering who the killer is. Her 8-year-old daughter has adapted. She doesn't ask "Mom can you do this?" anymore. She says "Mom, can you set an alarm?"

What You'll Learn:

How constantly witnessing the deepest sentiment of people's hearts at weddings makes her "kinder to my husband. I'm like, aw my God, I guess I love you too."

The printed list method: checking off every shot so the next 45 minutes are free to just be creative

Why one bride grabbed scissors and redid her entire bouquet mid-wedding (and Lauryn just said "okay I'll be back")

Her slow season list includes: taxes (sad face emoji), call Fidelity, make welcome guide, blog 47 weddings

The question creative people face: "It's generally creatives who have the most awful evil taxes, and it's like, this is the opposite of what our brains were built for"

What Taylor Swift knows about work-life balance that wedding photographers should steal

About Lauryn: Lauryn is a moody wedding photographer based in the Philadelphia area who specializes in dark, saturated, atmospheric images. She got diagnosed with ADHD a little over a year ago and runs her business through a system of alarms, post-its, and organized chaos.

Links: Discover your To-Do List personality: thetodoshow.com/quiz More episodes: thetodoshow.com

Alina Fattakhova tells her clients which women rejected them and exactly why. She's a luxury matchmaker in New York City, and people pay her to deliver brutal honesty wrapped in strategy. She treats finding a life partner like applying for jobs. Spreadsheets, data points, reverse engineering your timeline from age 35 backwards.

What You'll Learn:

Why people apply to 200 jobs in two weeks but won't do the same for dating

The "illusion of choice" problem in New York City dating (and why it makes people less willing to commit)

How raising prices actually brought better, more self-reflective clients

What it's really like to tell a 40-year-old man why stunning blondes keep rejecting him

Why nerdy clients with dating spreadsheets often find patterns they need to break

The accountability party trend: forcing yourself to do hard tasks (like scheduling a sleep study)

About Alina: Alina Fattakhova is a matchmaker and founder of a boutique matchmaking agency in New York City. She went from luxury jewelry sales to construction bidding to discovering her real talent: connecting people. Now she runs events, screens matches, and gives people the reality checks they're paying for.

Links:

Discover your To-Do List personality: thetodoshow.com/quizMore episodes: thetodoshow.com

Vicky used to run weddings. She'd be there when the couple arrived and couldn't bring herself to leave until the last guest did.

Now she's a calligrapher doing around 100 weddings a year, engraving £360 perfume bottles while people watch, and trying to figure out how to stop saying yes to everything.

What You'll Learn:

What a calligrapher actually does in a day!

The different perceptions of calligraphy in the UK versus the US.

Why the creativity is always the first thing to go when your calendar gets too full

How doing cold outreach feels like sending a naked photo of yourself

Why two artists obsessed with beauty both keep the plainest to-do lists

The spa day that completely backfired because she couldn't stop thinking about work

Why this is the first year she's putting a cap on how many weddings she'll take

About Vicky:

Vicky is the calligrapher behind Inviting Writing, based in the UK with her husband and dogs. She went from hotel management and wedding coordination to building a calligraphy business that covers weddings, luxury brand events, signage, and hand-lettered maps.

She teaches calligraphy courses, listens to nineties dance music while she works, and is currently learning the hardest skill of her career: saying no.

Links:

Instagram (Inviting Writing): https://www.instagram.com/invitingwritinguk

Instagram (Signs by Vicky): https://www.instagram.com/signsbyvicky

Website:

https://www.invitingwriting.co.uk

Teepublic:

https://www.teepublic.com/user/inviting-writing

Discover your To-Do List personality: thetodoshow.com/quiz

More episodes: thetodoshow.com