If you would of told me back in March that I would be able to put together my annual “Best of Weddings” for this year, 2020, I would of gave you the biggest wide eyed look. To say that this year was challenging, heart breaking, emotional, and just down right HARD for the wedding industry would be a huge understatement. I will never forget that feeling I had watching the news the 2nd week of March as I was packing my gear to get ready for that Saturday’s wedding (my first wedding of 2020) and just hearing the news reporter “Please, everyone just stay home. Avoid gathering with people, avoid large crowds and stores, just stay home!”. I was straight up scared as I was getting ready to be surrounded by a big crowd for 10+ hours!! The wedding was beautiful, everything turned out magical, but I was a little on edge the whole time. Of course I didn’t let that show the day of to worry or stress my couple. I came home from that wedding not knowing what was about to unfold the rest of the year.
It seemed like it was every day I was getting an email from my sweet, and very upset brides and grooms telling me that they were scared and didn’t know what to do about their weddings! Then, they all were making the HARD and painful decision to postpone their weddings. One by one, I would see the subject line in those emails hit my inbox and my heart just shattered for them every time. I felt helpless! I try my very best to be a resource for my couples and am always there to help with any area of the wedding that they need, even outside of the photography aspect. I was a bride once myself, and I’ve witnessed tons of wedding days so I know how they are feeling and try to help any way I can to take the stress off of their shoulders. But there was absolutely nothing I could do in this situation to help them. And that broke my heart.
There should have been 10 more couples in this post. Ten wedding days that should have been celebrated and captured and lived through. (I can’t wait for your special days next year guys!!! How ever it may look!) To those couples who are still waiting for their big day to arrive, please know that I am giving you the BIGGEST air hug and I can’t tell you how thankful I am for doing everything you could to make sure that whatever happened to your wedding day, whether it was changing your date, changing your venue, changing the entire THING, that no matter what, you did everything you could to make sure I was still going to be your photographer. You have absolutely NO IDEA how emotional that makes me and how IN.CRED.IBLY grateful I am of you! (ughhh, here comes the tears!! lol) This was such a hard year for both of us and the fact that you wanted to stick it out and work through this mess still having me by your side means more than you will ever know! Those morning “happy wedding day!” hugs are going to be even more special to me when we can finally do that!
To the ones that are in this post, I am so incredibly sorry for everything you had to walk through to get to your wedding day! Planning a wedding is already HARD and stressful as it is! (trust me! I know!! I was so close to eloping when we planned our small 80 person, 1 venue wedding haha!) To add in the challenges of dealing with a pandemic on top of it, I can only imagine how difficult this has been for you and I’m so sorry for that! Being behind the lens as I captured each and every one of your “you may kiss the bride” kisses, I held back tears because of how happy I was for you! What a relief and a weight lifted off your shoulders! YOU DID THE DANG THING!!!! Even if that meant cutting your guest list by more than half, changing venues last minute, even pushing your date to later in the year! You did it! And I couldn’t be any more excited and happy for you to start your married lives together after such a hard year! Hey! If you can survive planning a wedding together through a pandemic, you guys can tackle anything!! Haha!
Even though this post is only showcasing 7 wedding days, it is JAM PACKED with so many incredible memories that I will never, ever forget. This will will definitely be talked about forever and even though 2020 was hard and challenging, it will stay close to my heart for many reasons that maybe one day I will share. But for now, let’s get into these incredible wedding days!
Maranda and Jake, Lianna and Chris, Brooke and Jake, Anna and Dave, Alyssa and Ethan, Kaycie and Brad, & Kristin and Victor- thank you from the bottom of my heart for trusting me with your wedding day memories and to capture this VERY special day for you!!! What a roller coaster we’ve been through together and I will forever be grateful for all of you for bringing happy moments and joyful memories to my 2020 year! xoxo!!! <3 Air hugs to all of you!
^ A tiny photographer in the making! So CUTE!!!
^ Probably one of my all time favorite images from 2020! If I could normalize flower petal confetti photos at weddings, I would be one happy gal! All of my 2021 couples, can we pleeeease? ^ Hehe!
Not only did Maranda and Jake have the most perfect falling snow JUST in time for their portraits, they also had a snowy first dance! How MAGICAL is that?! Aberdeen Manor coming in through making magic happen!
Victor goes down in my book as having the funniest AND most emotional first look ever! Once we got him in position, he was surprisingly greeted by his two best men who “iced” him on the spot! Nothing like a Smirnoff Ice to take the edge off before you see your beautiful bride! Then it was go time, and when he turned around to see Kristin he completely lost it and it was SO SWEET!!!
Annnnd he STILL cried when Kristin came down the aisle! *pass over the tissues, so sweet!!* Ladies, if you need proof that First Looks don’t take away from the aisle moment, here is your proof! They are the BEST and you get TWO special moments!
I couldn’t imagine ending this post with any other photo than sweet Kaycie and Brad kissing at their wedding reception grasping on tight to a cold, Corona. Oh the irony. To all of my 2020 couples, cheers to YOU! You planned your wedding during a pandemic, and they were the most magical of days and I am so honored to have been a part of them! Nowwww…. my 2021 couples…. LET’S DO THIS THING!!
Be sure to check out the rest of the posts in this 2020 recap series :