Today we’d like to introduce you to Lindsey Bolton.
Hi Lindsey , thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I grew up in Northern California and felt a deep connection to the rhythms and wisdom of nature, something about the redwoods will do that to you. When I moved to the Central Coast for college, I found that same essence in a different form, in the natural beauty of this wild coastline. I fell in love with the land and the community here. This is a place that feels like a hidden gem, and I’ve worked hard to build my life and my business here.
When I got to the Central Coast, I kept working with children as a nanny, but I also found my way into restaurants, catering, and events. After college, I spent time fundraising for a nonprofit that opened HumanKind, the Fair Trade store still thriving in downtown SLO, shoutout to them! I also ran a café and did catering at a local health food store in Morro Bay. The health and wellness scene here still felt very grassroots and community-driven back then, and that’s what first sparked my passion for holistic wellness.
Around that same time, I found myself on an intense holistic healing journey of my own. Having lived with severe eczema since I was two years old, I really dove into the root cause of the symptoms that were causing my body to experience that level of inflammation and chronic pain. That journey became a bridge, it deepened my awareness of the impact of what we put on and in our bodies, of our environment, and of the connection between our physical health and the energetics around being a sensitive human being. I had a very personal motivator to get discerning about what I was putting in and on my body, and it activated something bigger in me: it led me down a spiritual path, taught me the importance of living in alignment with my values, and building a lifestyle to support that. It’s something I’m still working to fully cultivate.
Living in harmony with our planet, cultivating meaningful relationships, supporting businesses that hold those same values became very important to me. Those connections eventually led me to a working with a local natural bodycare company, where I worked in sales and marketing, managing our tradeshow booths, events, and partnerships as a 1% for the Planet company and B-Corp. That role taught me so much and connected me with so many beautiful people in this community and in the space of socially responsible business.
Like many, my life did a bit of a 180 during Covid, and I ended up taking a training course to become a Forest Kindergarten teacher. It was such a special program, weaving together my love of children and community with the sacred art of storytelling, song, and crafternoons (if ya know, ya know), practices deeply rooted in indigenous traditions, but rare to find in our modern world.
I went on to teach forest kindergarten at a nonprofit school, which deepened my connection to ritual, rhythm, and how much simply getting time outside matters to me. It also reminded me that many sacred rites of passage go unseen or unrecognized in our go-go world. It sparked a curiosity around how we mark the meaningful moments in our lives.
Over the years I was asked by friends and families to help with their weddings, baby showers, bridal parties, etc.. So during the school summers, my calendar began to fill with helping put on events, mainly weddings, and slowly people outside of my inner network started asking me to help with their gatherings too. Eventually I felt the call to build something of my own, something that could weave together everything I’d gathered along the way. That’s how Wild Coast Rituals was born: out of a desire to curate intentional spaces, unforgettable experiences, and meaningful connections, a way to honor the rituals and rites of passage we hold sacred, and helping bring people’s shared visions to life.
I really have to thank the people of Swallow Creek Ranch, a local coastal ranch event venue in Cayucos, for really encouraging me to take the leap into making my offerings official! My path has not been linear and I’ve worn a lot of different hats over the years, but they all share the same foundation: being of service, gathering people together, working through logistics and details, and creating spaces that feel authentic and meaningful. Weddings are one facet of that, and one of the few ceremonial moments we still collectively celebrate as a society. Wedding coordination and planning has been the heart of my business, and there’s more brewing! My intention behind Wild Coast Rituals was to create a business with the capacity to grow and evolve alongside me, to deepen what’s already here, and to let new ceremonial offerings emerge naturally. I can’t wait to share what’s coming!
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Haha no, there have definitely been some learning and growth experiences along the way! I don’t think anyone’s road to starting their own business is completely smooth sailing. For me, the biggest struggle has been finding the balance between trusting myself, my skills, my experience, my intuition….and knowing where my own limits need to be. I’ve had situations where, in my effort to do the job with real integrity and take care of my clients, I ended up over-giving. Giving more time, more energy, more of myself than the scope or the pay actually accounted for. It comes from a good place, but it also meant I was undervaluing myself and what I bring to this work.
Learning to hold both at once, genuine care for my clients and healthy boundaries around my own worth, has probably been the biggest growth edge of this whole journey. It’s something I’m still actively practicing, honestly. But I think it’s made me a better planner and a more grounded person, because now when I show up for a couple, it’s from a place of real capacity, not depletion.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I’m the founder of Wild Coast Rituals, I have primarily been supporting couples in bringing their wedding vision to life through coordination and planning. I love connecting with people and hearing their stories. Getting to know them through the planning stages and I have been enjoying that process very much and it will continue to be an offering. Although the direction I am cultivating is for my business is stewarding the art of ceremony, ritual, and gathering in a more holistic way. Weddings are one expression of that, but the deeper work is helping people mark the sacred passages of their lives in a way that feels true, alive, and connected to something bigger than a Pinterest board and a timeline. A place for authentic creative expression, meaningful connection and keeping it playful and fun too!
A big part of what shapes this work now is a path I’ve been walking for several years: studying with the Q’ero, an indigenous Peruvian lineage devoted to earth-based medicine. Their foundational teaching is about being in Right Relationship with the Earth, with Pachamama, living in reciprocity with her rather than simply taking from her. I didn’t come to this path so much as I was called to it; my internal compass had been pointing toward this way for a long time. Making offerings, acknowledging what a gift it is to simply be here on this planet. These are practices that indigenous cultures around the world have carried, protected, and fought for at real cost, and sacrifice. I feel it as a profound privilege to be invited by the Q’ero to help steward that medicine of reciprocity.
I’ve been bringing that into my community through women’s circles and ceremonial gatherings, and my hope is to weave more of that offering into my wedding work too. This fall I’m heading to Peru to study directly with the elders, and if I’m given permission, I’d love to integrate more ceremonial offerings for my clients and create more spaces in this community for that depth of connection.
That’s really the direction Wild Coast Rituals is growing into: not just a wedding company, but something more like a regenerative ecosystem, weddings, retreats, community gatherings, and eventually more, all rooted in the same core belief that ceremony and reciprocity with the Earth aren’t relics of the past. They’re something we’re allowed to still be living we have an immense power when we start to live in alignment with each other and with the planet. While I am here, I will do my best to do my small part.
What makes you happy?
Connection makes me happy, real, honest connection with people, whether that’s a deep conversation over coffee or tea, going on a hike or shaking it on the dance floor together. I love being with my friends, spending time with family, cooking and baking for people I love, and spending time in nature. I love having fun and being creative. I love decorating and creating inviting spaces, Roadtrips make me happy and traveling to new places. Having quality time with quality people and being in beautiful places. Seeing other people in their joy and doing what they love also makes me very happy.
The why… I feel most myself when I’m gathering people together, when I am in nature, or on an adventure, or witnessing other people’s joy and those experiences elicit a deep gratitude for being alive.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://wildcoastrituals.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wildcoastrituals/
