Out of all the weddings this year, I do not think any of them top the experience Lacy and Blake had. If you have ever planned a wedding before, you know it’s definitely not a walk in the park. There is a lot that goes into it. Even if you decide to do a simple wedding, it’s still a ton of work. As we are all aware, covid has really affected the wedding industry this year. Most couples had to change their wedding plans at least once. I’m sure very few changed their date at least four times. When I met with the two of them, the original plan was to get married on the beach, in Florida, late August. Shortly after securing those plans, they found out they were expecting and the due date was just days after the wedding! This was back in January I believe, so covid wasn’t really something of concern in the U.S. They changed the date to May. It’s also worth noting, I had secured my condo for Florida a couple of days before they rescheduled. I figured the condo management company would have a grace period for cancellations since I was just a couple of days away. They did not. I was still responsible for paying the full price and going to Florida or cancel and IF someone booked the condo for the same dates, we would get 50% back. Unless I’m taking pictures, I’m not really a beach person. We decided to keep our condo reservation though. More on this later.
March and April come and news of the shutdown comes. A May wedding is going to be impossible, so they begin to look at their options… again. They decide to plan for a December wedding. That gave them time to get through this covid mess, have a baby, get adjusted, and finish up wedding plans. Then late July comes. We are in the thick of Covid shutdown and worry. Florida is a hotspot. At this point, we weren’t really thrilled about traveling down to Florida a month later. I had purchased travel insurance, but unless one of us got covid (or any sickness) that prevented us from traveling, insurance would not cover cancellation due to a pandemic and shutdown. Soon after, I get a call from the condo management company. I figured it was to finalize our second half of the payment. To my surprise, the management company had sold the condo that we had reserved and could no longer fulfill our stay. They offered to get us a different condo or give us a refund. Thank the Lord!! Seriously, that could not have worked out any better. I had a similar experience with my Hawaii plans too but I’ll write about that in another post.
It was around this time that Lacy asked if I had any availability sooner than December. I did for November, and so they rescheduled to November 7. Four different dates, at least that I know of. What a story they will have to share with their little one about how mom and dad got married. Wow! On one hand, I felt so bad for them because I know how rough planning a wedding can be. But on the other hand, I’m one for unique stories and in 11 years of wedding photography, they have the most unique wedding planning story that I have ever witnessed!
The wedding day was finally here and what a PERFECT day we had. I know I say that a lot, but we really did have a perfect day. The time change had just happened the weekend before, and if there’s one good thing about the time change in Fall, it’s that outdoor pictures for weddings look so much better. In the summer, taking pictures of the wedding party outside in an open field is so hard to do. The sun is straight up above causing some funky shadows and it makes it difficult to create soft-lit images, especially of a 14 person wedding party. That’s not the case in November. At 3:00, the sun is already setting and this makes for some amazing images for the couple and the wedding party outside. The reception took place at the Effingham Event Center and it looked amazing inside. It was such a blast capturing the events of the day. With everything that went down this year, it was clear that everyone was ready to celebrate their marriage. I loved the emotion and vibe of the day and the reception carried that on with such an awesome celebration. It all made for great images and I’m so glad and honored they trusted me to photograph all of those special moments.
