"What do you celebrate?" I remember reading those four words one day years ago like it was yesterday. Never before and not yet since have I happened upon a question that has so profoundly changed my life. The Confetti Project has provided me a space to hurt and heal at times and in places I didn't know I needed. A space and place to set my world aside for a few moments; to check out and check in, laugh and cry, grieve and play. As I sit here today, trying to articulate the impact TCP has had on me, I am full of feelings that have no words. I am accompanied by a jar of confetti on my desk - a culmination of remnants of different roles in the project; different colors, shapes, sizes, materials. Each beautiful on their own; all magnified by the light and shadows they provide one another. Like each of us, every confetto in that jar has a story; a path that got it to where it is now, a future that no one can predict. And just like me, TCP has provided me a safe space and place to open up; reflect, connect, lighten and shine. Thank you, Jelena, for welcoming me into your studio, your world, and your heart and providing me and countless others - together and apart - the space and place to celebrate ours. Until further notice...celebrate everything!

The Confetti Project gave me purpose again, gave me pride, made me celebrate myself for overcoming one of the darkest periods of my life yet the most liberating. It showed my progress and helped heal my wounds. So much self love grew from it. Thank you for showing my freedom as such a beautiful thing of expression, like a canon of pride and joy and I hope to do so again soon.

I wanted to reach out because this morning has been really hard. 2 panic attacks, shaking hands, and a running commentary of everything that is wrong with me. I'm supposed to go on a date tonight and every part of me is screaming to hide away instead. BUT. But. I saw Arden's post (I know her in real life btw, isn't that wild??) and I was reminded about your INSECURE series, and my own story. I was reminded that I am not alone in these feelings; that everyone is the hero of their own story, and they have to fight a lot of monsters to get to the happy ending. So, I don't feel better, but I am fighting back with all the tools in my toolkit. All this to say: thank you for doing these projects. Thank you for being vulnerable and creating a space for other people to be vulnerable. Thank you for bringing joy to painful stories and beauty to hard conversations.

Thank you again for such a wonderful experience. I'll never forget it! You started this project to empower people and ask them what they celebrate. When I first walked in, you asked me this question and a million things ran through my head. All of the memories of my hardships and struggles made me realize what I celebrate the most, which is living my life the way I want to.

Thank you again for an unforgettable and unexpectedly healing experience. I walked into the shoot without knowing much of your background so when you shared you too had lost your father and this entire passion was inspired by him - well, I was forever changed by that shared moment. Grief has often felt very isolating, but this experience was a great reminder of our shared humanity and how important it is to celebrate a life well lived. I LOVE the pictures (your vision in general!) and just what they symbolize for me: a daughter who was profoundly fortunate to have the father that she was blessed with.

Whenever I have a bad day, I go through them and remember how healing this was. I know you do this wonderful project in honor of your dad. As you know, I have a bowl filled with the confetti you gave me with a lovely plant in it. I think of you all the time. So fitting that it's a part of something that is alive and thriving!

I remember the first session and time I met you so vividly. I had read about The Confetti Project somehow, but you were in NY so I never thought I'd get to do it. Then the Avec pop-up happened and the only time slot left was on a Thursday so I had to take off work to come. I was the second to last person. That was 2017 and even though my Dad and nephew died in 2013 it seemed really recent (sadly now it seems like ancient years ago because of 2020 time). I had a super specific post-it I made because I was nervous and my GAD was manifesting, but I saved what I wrote down as what I celebrate, "A beautiful building. My G-ma and Aunt's voices. A steel guitar solo. My Mom's laugh. My sister's smile when she looks at my nephew. When a song comes on the radio that reminds me of my Dad. Jam and toast. Hugs from friends. Sunshine hitting tree leaves. A new episode of a good television show. Living in Los Angeles." You made me so relaxed and genuinely the pics from that session are some of my faves ever of me. THANK YOU.

I had such an amazing experience during my shoot with The Confetti Project. In the summer of 2019, I decided to gift myself a TCP shoot for my 30th birthday and I’m so glad that I did! It truly felt like a ceremonial “washing off” of my 20s and a warm embrace into my 30s. Jelena’s passion, energy, and therapeutic vision, in combination with the endless showering of confetti, was such a renewing experience and a wonderful reminder to move in the direction of the things that energize you! My TCP experience was so magical and is still an endless source of inspiration for me.

A friend of mine who recently visited you sent me her photos today and I am in pure amazement at the happiness you can feel through them. Everyday when we wake up my english bulldog Bone Digger and I try to come up with a new special little way to surprise my husband who is currently deployed in Afghanistan that will help us all miss each other a little less. Bone Digger is our fur child and especially misses his dad because he was his wedding surprise last summer and they are connected at the hip. Today when I received her photos I knew this would be absolutely perfect. I’d love for my husband to wake up looking at a confetti photo every day we’re apart for the next 8 months.

My family has been through a lot. My husband was brutally beaten by a homeless man. I was 6 months pregnant. He suffered brain damage, PTSD, anxiety, depression and over months lost his entire life’s memory and has complete and total amnesia. He doesn’t remember his parents who passed away, his childhood, our marriage, our 5 year struggle with infertility and IVF and our children being born. I want to celebrate that we are surviving. We are still standing, just barely at times, but we as a family are still together. I wanted to do this as a reminder to live in the moment. To play with my husband and children as a memory we can always have. I found The Confetti Project by accident and was lucky enough to get a spot at the Open Studios. I realized during the session, finding The Confetti Project was no accident - it was God and the universe sending me a gift to heal. My world was in chaos and I was in so much pain. Jelena told me to throw all my anger towards the camera and it was liberating. The confetti washed over me, washing away some of my pain. My husband said it was better than any therapy session he’d had. I’m grateful for getting to experience The Confetti Project and can only hope Jelena comes back to LA so we can have another session to show how much we’ve healed, although we have a long way to go.

Being interested in photography and having first moved to NYC, I remember browsing through instagram and found this page with beautiful pictures of beautiful people. The most striking thing about it was that they were surrounded by confetti suspended in the air. Each still was a perfect moment in time, the confetti suspended and floating around them - as if time had stood perfectly still. Since then I was enamored by this project. Fast forward to January 2020 one of the last few good things about this year. My husband surprised me by secretly submitting our story for The Confetti Project! It doubled as our maternity shoot, as I was in my third trimester of pregnancy. We will cherish those pictures and memories forever. Jelena perfectly captured our relationship, our celebration of life and the little life we lost just a year prior. Stepping into that studio felt surreal as if we were meeting an old friend we haven't seen in a while. Thank you for sharing your art, your passion, and your energy with the world! You bring so much joy. And truly, you gave us one of the best ways to celebrate our growing family.

I’m sure you get a billion emails about the pictures you take, but I wanted to take a second to thank you for this lovely opportunity. I didn’t get a chance to chat with you because it was so busy but I wanted to say thanks for my family’s opportunity to celebrate each other. I know that every child and family is magical in their own way, but the three of us make the best team and I wanted to take these pictures as a reminder of how lucky we are to have each other. I’m in school to become a nurse practitioner, and my husband and son are so supportive and lovely. I feel so grateful to be surrounded by two fellas who do nothing but push me towards my goals. My son misses out on so much with his mama because I have to work full time and go to clinicals, and he never complains. He only showers me with love. And my husband basically keeps our family running from dinner to dishes to bedtime to working full time. I hope I never forget how lucky I am to have that in my life. I plan to plaster these pictures as big as I can so that I can remember them every day.