NORFOLK WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY HIGHLIGHTS 2021
13 months on from my last Blog post, I sit here today with a little time to reflect on the crazy year that has unfolded since my last post which was about a mid-pandemic, perfect and intimate wedding day in Southwold. Since then we’ve had short-notice, prolonged lockdowns road-maps out of lockdowns and most of us have received record numbers of injections! 2021 was a strange year for Norfolk weddings and indeed weddings in general.
Spring 2021 was characterised by restricted number weddings some of which went ahead and some of which delayed to the autumn or 2022. 2021 was always going to be a busy summer, with many 2020 weddings postponed to this year and joining many that had originally booked a 2021 date. With many weddings moving from spring to late summer and autumn this year, I found myself with a slow start to wedding season but an incredibly busy end. I normally manage to keep my editing queue under control and the wait for edited images down to a month or so but found myself snowed under this year and drowning by the time that October arrived – I’m hugely grateful for the patience and understanding of every couple who waited a little longer than I would have liked to received their images.
I’m also enormously grateful for the overwhelming support I’ve felt over this past year. I’ve been so incredibly well looked after at wedding days and received so much gratitude for my work, it’s been truly humbling. I am of course just doing my job (which I’m very fortunate to love) but I think we’ve all had our awareness of the importance of caring for others and cherishing the personal service we receive from small local businesses enhanced during the pandemic and I’ve certainly felt that.
2020 clearly didn’t end with a traditional end-of-year Norfolk wedding photography highlights post – there really weren’t enough weddings and it certainly didn’t feel like the right time to share highlights with so many couples facing deep disappointment at their own forced delays and the emotional and often financial cost of those date changes. 2021 is of course completely different. In the wedding world we’ve enjoyed an incredible year that, while it will never make up for 2020, was the busiest ever for most. I shot as many weddings as I ever have in 2021 while keeping a fairly busy schedule of family shoots going throughout. I normally ease off the family shoots over the wedding season but, having been so grateful for the work that families provided me when weddings were not possible last year, it felt right to do as many as I could this year. Family shoots are actually my first love in photography and will no doubt be where I’ll head when the wedding days become too long for me.
The images that I’ve selected below could have been a completely different set, there were so many 2021 wedding photography highlights that it’s impossible to have a short list of favourite images. So, this is really a collection of highlights from the 2021 weddings that I’m able to share (I shot one wedding as emergency cover for another photographer and some couples do not want their images shared, hence they do not appear here). They are really just a taster of what was a very special wedding season indeed and hopefully that will come across to those who have the time to scroll through this collection. Coming out of lockdowns and social isolation, weddings this year have been predictably different. Smiles have been wider than ever, couples and guests have cherished every second with each other, touches, kisses and cuddles have been longer and more heartfelt than ever and the parties have been absolutely exceptional. I know from chatting to my friends who work in weddings that my experiences have not been isolated, this has been the case at all 2021 weddings and it’s made an already incredible job, the task of documenting wedding day stories, all the more special. Emotions are what every wedding photographer is hunting on a wedding day and a global pandemic and embargo on weddings provided the perfect storm to deliver the conditions for wedding days rammed with human feelings.
I’ve definitely rambled on long enough and need to hand over to the images to do the talking (which is, after all, why you are here). I’ll sign off by again saying a huge thank you to every couple who has invited me into their lives in 2021 to capture their special day. Thank you particularly to those who stuck by me, often during numerous date changes, and prioritised keeping their original team of wedding suppliers together. You will never know how important and appreciated that was during the darkest days of this pandemic when none of us knew when we’d next be able to go to work. 2021 will always be a special year of wedding photography for me, and I’m looking forward to recharging over the winter, but I’m already looking forward to what 2022 will bring. I already have a full diary for next year and am approaching half full for 2023 and for that I’m very grateful indeed.
So, as the sign and cakes say at the outset………ABOUT BLOODY TIME, FINALLY!
We had a wedding season!
Capturing Moments, Creating Memories