Part 3 – Working Through A Pandemic

As a wedding photographer, I see a lot of love and beauty during wedding days. However, I also see some strange and crazy things as well!  In this blog series, Adventures of a Wedding Photographer, I am going to share some of the craziest things that have happened to me while photographing weddings. Hopefully these stories will help future brides relax and realize that no wedding day is perfect. You just have to be ready to laugh it off and enjoy your day, no matter how crazy things get!

2020 Wedding Season – Fargo, ND

Most of the crazy stories I have are from wedding days, but currently the craziness is all behind the scenes. March 2020, brought a pandemic that shut down almost everything that is non-essential. Along with that brought uncertainty for 2020 weddings. At first everything seemed like it would be ok, I sent some emails checking in with my brides and we had some nice conversations. Then a few more weeks went by and it started becoming clear that this is going to be awhile before anything was normal again.

Now, like many wedding photographers, I am working to calm any fears my couples have and work with them to set up back-up dates for their summer weddings. No one thought this is how 2020 would go. It hasn’t been that long since we all started 2020 with new hope for a good year. No one who picked a 2020 wedding date thought that it would bring stress, fear, and everything else that shouldn’t be a part of wedding planning.

Couples deserve certainty in their wedding planning. They book a venue, have a set date, and start figuring out everything from there. Almost all of the planning revolves around the wedding date. Sadly, many 2020 couples are trying to plan without knowing if their date will be the day they get married. Will it still be in June or moved to November? That is a stress that no other wedding season will feel on this world-wide scale. I’ve seen wedding photographers help their couples through natural disasters that are local to one area, or a family emergency that only affects one wedding. We have never seen something that is causing uncertainty in all 2020 weddings and putting stress on all 2020 couples and vendors.

Those nice, calm conversations I had with my couples in early March, are now becoming much more serious. We are looking at new dates, figuring out if they should make plans now or if it is safe to wait and see what will happen. I don’t have any answers for when is a safe date to plan a wedding, but I do know we will all get through this together.

Working Through A Pandemic

Working as a wedding photographer during a pandemic is… interesting. I am thankful that in North Dakota we are still in our slow season. Mother Nature this time of year gives us nice spring weather mixed with blizzards that stops everything. Although, this year everything has already stopped. There are no spring family sessions, prom photos, graduation photos, or even visiting family, birthday parties, or Easter celebrations. My days have been filled with puzzles, binge watching tv, playing Animal Crossing, and trying to be productive.

My goal at the beginning of this shut down was to write one blog post every day so that when things start to get back to normal I would be ahead on content. Although, when there is no end in sight and with so much free time to fill at home, sometimes you just need to sit on the couch with your cat and hit play on yet another episode of TV.

 With all this uncertainty, the best we can do is to try and enjoy our time at home. Turn off the news, snuggle with your cat (or dog), and watch or favorite show. When this is all over, weddings will be even sweeter because we will appreciate being together more than ever before.

Catch up on part one and two of adventures of a wedding photographer!

Adventures of a Wedding Photographer Part One – The Flooded Wedding

Adventures of a Wedding Photographer Part Two  –  The Frozen Wedding

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Alecs Kay Photography is a Wedding & Portrait Photographer in Fargo, ND

akpphoto.com