Let’s not beat around the bush here: It sucks.
Spring and early summer couples: I feel your pain and I’m sorry that the timing and overall health of the world could not be worse for your big day. Let’s not beat around the bush here: It sucks. It’s the anxiety of the unknown—when do we see the other side of this? Next month? Two months?— It sucks. Will we learn a lot from this? Yes. Will it make us safer, more prepared and stronger in the future? I sure hope so. Will it be a time that is recorded in our nation’s history and discussed and analyzed for decades to come? Absolutely.
Some of you are high school sweethearts that have waited for this day for over 10-years. Some of you are delaying out of caution, because your closest loved ones fall under the “most vulnerable” or “high risk” category. Some of you are nurses, who instead of getting married next month, are now living the stresses of replanning a postponed wedding while still working on the front lines. Some of you have family or friends that live out of the country, and the unknown of when they’ll be able to make it on to U.S. soil again straight-up drains your emotions. The colors, the weather, the flowers and maybe even the location that you once imagined might look a little different now. The situation fcking sucks, but it’s going to be okay.
It’s going to be okay because when we do get on the other side of this, can you imagine what that celebration will look like? Can you just freaking imagine? The love, the support, the anticipation and excitement will only be stronger. The build up will only continue. Your guests will be ready to party in your honor because their heart aches for you right now too. You and your fiancé are experiencing something hard —unprecedented— but it’s YOUR person by your side through it all.
As much as you want your wedding to happen, so do we. This is our livelihood. We don’t work every weekend because we have nothing better to do. We don’t do this to get rich. We do this because we love it. We. Love. It. We love the energy. The purpose. The pretty. The relationships. The memories. The creativity.
To date, I’ve had six regular shoots and one event cancel. I’ve had five weddings postpone (three pushed to the fall, two pushed to 2021) with three others on the fence. This wedding season was one I was really excited about, because I felt like I had finally properly paced myself. I was very thoughtful and intentional and now it’s turned completely upside down. Looking ahead, I’m seeing one of my most difficult, condensed seasons to date. I had hopes of scaling Freebird in a fun new way, which for now, will sadly take a back seat. But I keep reminding myself: It’s temporary. It’s not permanent. This gives us more time to prepare. More time to work on the back-end of businesses. More time to do projects around the house, to slow down and be present. We will rise from this and we will celebrate again, and when we do we will celebrate hard.
