Love in 2020

Where to start? I do these visual summaries every year, to celebrate the weddings I got to attend and the people I spent my year with, making images to carry into the future with them. But 2020 hit us all like a bus, causing pain, bafflement, anxiety and loss. And while things are looking better than they have done for a while, we are still very much in that place. So I considered whether it was right or proper to write a post celebrating the weddings I did get to shoot, when so many looked-forward-to days were cancelled or moved. But these days were diamonds in the dirt. Jewels in a year that was bleak at times for us all, and despite the hit my business took, I very much recognise I am one of the lucky ones. We lost my much loved grandmother this year, not to Covid, but to being a bloody wonderful 103. And while Covid meant we couldn’t say good bye in person as we would have wanted – there are so many people who had those important end of life rituals taken away from them entirely.

It doesn’t feel like there is much to celebrate, does it? But there is. There is community, there are people risking themselves and their health day in and day out for the greater good to keep us all in food, and utilities, and of course our incredible NHS staff – who lost so many of their number, especially from their BAME contingent. There aren’t enough statues and fat pay checks in the world to thank you guys. I celebrate the resilience of my wedding industry community, who moved heaven & earth with their couples best interests at heart, even while their household income was collapsing before their eyes. I celebrate those who took to the streets to address injustices & right wrongs. And I celebrate these ten couples, who refused to let 2020 beat them, and got married any way – in town halls and tents, beaches and fairgrounds.

So I hope you enjoy these. I will do a similar post of my commercial work over at feastsshootsandleaves.co.uk soon, but here are some weddings, some families, and some shoots that this most creative of industries pulled together in the most challenging of circumstances, because creating is what we do.

Have a peaceful Christmas my loves xxx