Destination Wedding Photographer Based Out Of NY | Husband And Wife Wedding Photographers | Editorial Engagement and Wedding Photography NYC

2021 Recap: Our Year in Review "What The Hell Just Happened!?"

It is 9PM on a Tuesday and I am about six hours into editing a big job. The job is from our second-to-last wedding of the year and I’m only about 30% the way through the gallery when my mind begins to drift and reminisce on all the gigs we had this year: 54 weddings and at least as many other sessions, across thirteen different states. I look up from my monitor and think to myself, what the hell just happened??

What I mean by that is, what the hell was 2021!? What actually just happened??

This was bar none the craziest wedding season that I’ve seen in my seven-ish years of doing this, and that’s not even taking into consideration the fact that we had a tiny and completely dependent baby throughout the whole thing. It was the perfect storm, really– take all the covid rescheduled weddings (for us, approx 35) and then pile them on top of our organic biz, now funnel them down into the finite number of Saturdays in a year, and now hand pluck out all the vendors who peaced out of weddings after 2020, and you have yourself the 2021 wedding season.

Oh, and now add the baby back into the equation.

See our grand plan back in the beginning of 2020 was to go HAM on weddings while I was pregnant and then chillsies for 2021 when we had the baby. You know, take a *few* local weddings and some passion projects here and there, but sort of coast. Enjoy family life. Do newborn stuff, whatever that is.

Of course, the great cosmic joke was on us when the pandemic totally took us out at the knees. We were forced to halt everything, completely freeze, postpone, revise and re-plan everything. Not a single gig was unaffected and although we still managed to pull of 26 weddings in seven different states, I’d be remiss to act as if it wasn’t traumatic on both a personal and professional level. But we survived, and as we both will attest, even thrived in many ways. It was honestly… a great year… which feels like a weird thing to say given the complete dumpster fire that we were dealing with.

So when 2021 rolled around, things started really looking up.

Vaccines were a total game changer for large gatherings– in our case weddings, and you know, our entire livelihoods. We were just SO. DAMN. GRATEFUL. to have weddings actually happen on the dates they were scheduled for and in the locations they were contracted, that we sort of went blind. To say we had a whole new appreciation for the work we do is an understatement. And let’s be honest, it was also a lot easier on my body to work and travel without being hugely preggo lugging around a big belly and swollen feet for 15 hour long days.

But like I said, I think we sort of went blind. Like we were so grateful to be shooting and working and traveling that we didn’t even realize how bizarre the conditions still were.

We shot WAY heavier than ever before, out of complete necessity to our couples who have dealt with so many curveballs over the last two years.

We did weddings on Fridays and Sundays, which was becoming more normal anyway. But then there were Thursday weddings, a few Mondays, I think we even did a Tuesday. Double headers have always been my happy place but this year were triples and I even swung a quad in October. That’s four-in-a-row for those who aren’t in the know.

Capa, our sweet boy, bounced around strapped to our chests for twelve of our weddings and at least twice that amount of engagement and family sessions. God bless’em because he THRIVED on weddings. Thrived. We never imagined toting our kid around for more than one, maybe two, events but here we are now with a slightly quirky reputation as that husband and wife photographer team who worked with their baby in tow.

The pandemic loomed over every wedding this year and still continues to force us to adapt over and over again as we continue to navigate mask mandates, rapid testing, vax cards, and trying to avoid getting sick while also being completely swallowed by mobs of drunk people flailing to “Shout” like it’s the first time anyone has thought to lay down on a public floor in the name of dancing.

Guests went hard this year. For many couples, elopements and microweddings got all that pesky paperwork out of the way last year and so formalities be damned, they were just there to rage their faces off this time. We thought there would be a gentle transition back into cocktail hours and conga lines but pretty much once April hit, the floodgates opened and people were off to the races en masse. I’ll admit, it did make for good content, and I’ve never been one to turn down a sweet party, so I was more than happy to oblige.

In fact, we had some of our best couples of all time this year…

…and it’s truly impossible to narrow down even the top five. I could honestly go through each event and rave about our favorite parts of each wedding and couple, but I’ll try to keep it short and as unbiased as possible… My mind immediately jumps to Jess and Matt– who had an epic three-day celebration on the top of a mountain at Granite Ridge in Maine. We rented a cabin, brought my sister with us to babysit (unknowingly with a black bear hanging outside the house) and partied ALL night long with their sick wedding band. We still talk about their transition into Flashing Lights.

Then there was Mercie and Dan, our sweet friends who made actual magic on their wedding day by appointing their closest kiddo friends and family to take over traditionally adult duties. Their officiants and their MC and wedding party and speeches and everything were executed by munchkins. And you know what, they all CRUSHED it. These little beautiful humans who poured their whole souls into this heartfelt celebration. I can still hear Merc and Dan singing to one another before their ceremony, holding hands and grounding one another, with their voices almost swirling in harmony over the ceramic tiles in the bathroom they were getting ready in. I will admit that I cried a little behind my camera but I won’t ever forget that moment.

But then jump to August when we got to go back to the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone to capture Ross and Michelle’s wedding. A literal dream come true. We were lucky enough to be out there last year for a wedding and vowed to return, which I think is a common thing to do when leaving a destination after a vacation, but getting to be back in those mountains again was another *pinch me* moment. And getting to show Capa one of our favorite places was priceless. I’ll always remember how much fun we were all having blasting music in our rental car, driving through the mountains chasing the light, trying to pierce through the haze and smoke to get the infamous views. And then when we finally found the spot to pull off of as the sun was setting over the plains, Ross and Michelle jumping out to go exchange their vows privately against the mountains made it all worth it.

Then there was Chris and Kristen’s amazing Hamptons wedding which pretty much left us speechless. The whole thing was set up on their family property on the highest point of Montauk with 360 degree views that did not disappoint. There were charcuterie boards that put anything on pinterest to shame. I stuffed my face with oysters. Life was good. But most memorable was their dance party– people went fucking nuts. Over the years we have learned that there is a delicate balance to a good party: a sweet spot for the number of wedding guests, the amount of space that they have to dance, the amount of intoxicants available, the quality of music, energy of the band, and overall cohesiveness to the party. Getting all the ingredients *just so* is a rarity, but when all these conditions are met, fun will be had. And Kristen and Chris certainly had fun.

Speaking of these kinds of nights, Lia and Brendan also top out at our favorite tent set up of all time. Two epic sperry tents, immaculate decor, another freaking gorgeous private residence with views that you can only dream of. And then their golden hour. Stealing a couple for these shots isn’t easy sometimes, but always worth it, and the ten minutes that we pulled these two onto the golf course next door was a dream. Lia was beaming, legitimately smiling from ear to ear. Her dress was off the charts gorgeous. Cotton candy clouds billowed in the sky behind them as they sprinted off the green together. The pictures are epic, but the image in my mind is honestly just as good.

Heather and Chase are our most recent holy-amaze-balls wedding and deserve all the shoutouts for their stunner of a Palm Beach wedding. While our dreams of escaping the cold north in exchange for sunny Florida didn’t happen until the last of our four days there (it POURED rain for most of the weekend, like legitimately dumped on us nonstop), they still managed to have a jaw dropping three days worth of celebrating. It’s hard to argue with chillin’ on the rooftop of the Ben hotel with a cold beer, sweet views, and our giggly pool-loving baby on a work trip.

In fact, many of our work trips look like this on the bookends of our trips. One thing that bringing Capa along with us has really forced me to do is slow down a bit, despite still having our busiest year to date. Slowing down might only be for an hour or two at a time, but sometimes that’s all you really need to cue in and appreciate how cool life can be. We set out to be busy, and none of this was an accident.

So yeah, what the hell happened totally rings true for 2021. Heck, we’re not even done as I write this– we’re about to get on another plane to Nashville to close out our season at a New Years Eve wedding. It’s going to be a banger, and we can’t wait. Midnight on Dec 31 will officially close out our work year, and I honestly wouldn’t have it any other way. Our lives are sort of wild but also beautiful and as I just begin to process what this whole season has meant to us personally and professionally, I can’t help but be left in awe at how full and inspiring it all is.

– xo, Heather

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