An Optimistic Outlook on Covid-19's Affect on the Wedding Industry

I think it’s safe to say that 2020 threw us all for a loop - I know it certainly did for me. My year started off amazingly, booking some seriously kick ass couples at the Bridal Extraveganza, then 2 months later in March going to Puerto Rico for my friend’s wedding where I got to be a guest and shoot some seriously gorgeous beach photos the day after the wedding! A couple of those below, for fun:

From this wedding, I was literally flying back right when the USA was starting to hit the fan with lockdowns - I’m still not entirely sure the sickness I felt the following week after I got back wasn’t Coronavirus, but that’s a story for another day. The next couple weeks of handling reschedules, cancellations, and downsizing was tumultuous to say the least, but honestly looking at how the year turned out, I think these necessary restrictions and limitations may end up leaving us with some very positive impacts on the industry as a whole.

While I love my industry dearly, in my experience there is a fairly large emphasis on the commercialized, commodity driven side. The push to have massive, extremely expensive weddings where a parent’s cousin’s cousin who you don’t even know is there, just for the sake of including everyone in the display of how much was spent on the day. Of course, that is not every wedding, but I do notice it happens a lot. And I find that the larger and more over the top weddings are generally the ones where couples feel under the most stress and pressure, knowing the day must go perfectly. Needless to say, perfection kind of had to get thrown out the window this year. Everyone moving forward with their wedding had to make sacrifices in some capacity, be it smaller guest lists, date postponements, or even cancelling the party all-together in lieu of a simple elopement and courthouse wedding. This year, I was able to connect with some seriously amazing couples who adapted in all of these ways and more, and it highlighted for me that the true important points of weddings are not the big parties and extravagant elements, but the connections with those closest to you and the love shared between you and your partner.

One of my favorite dates to look back on is that of Tom & Geneva - they had reached out to me looking for a photographer to capture two smaller days of shooting for them, one being an intimate 10 person wedding ceremony at the venue their larger wedding will be held at next year, and the next day a full scale editorial, creative photo shoot of just the two of them. I loved the idea of a secondary shoot so much, it gave us so much time to take time and create killer photos, with the full day of the ceremony stress free with those closest to them. I could see the importance of each guest as they got ready in the honeymoon suite at The Line hotel with their closest friends and family, and how happy they were to simply be sharing these moments with each other. There were no frills of extravagant floral, 100s of wedding favors bought to give out, or gigantic wedding cakes. Just them, their friends, a quick ceremony to symbolize their love and the importance this date will hold for them at the larger wedding next year, and a super yummy (vegan!) cheesecake we cut before the ceremony and all shared in the moment of enjoying it together.

I am feeling extremely optimistic going into 2021 that while we will be taking steps to get things back to normal, vaccines rolling out, and us getting the ability to have weddings with no guest restrictions(at some point), we won’t forget the lessons this year taught us about what is really important when planning your wedding day.