Wedding Photography at The Manor Gatehouse, Dartford - 2020
2020 was a bit of a curve ball for us all.
I was all set for my busiest year of shooting weddings since starting my business way back in 2006.
It was 2019, and I had a busy year after winning the Kent Wedding Photographer of the Year - 2019. I was all prepared for a busy year ahead; I had a minor operation booked in for the start January 2020 (which went well thanks to our amazing NHS) and my first wedding of the year was booked in for late March. So plenty of time to rest and recover before the hard work and fun started.
Then came COVID-19…
Fast forward a year to December 2020 and out of the 32 weddings I had booked in, only 3 of them were able to go ahead due to government restrictions.
To say it was a stressful year professionally is an understatement. However, I still count myself very lucky. Receiving the government grants, having some great clients who were still prepared to stick with me and some who paid their fees upfront. This meant I was able to keep my business going and look forward to a busier 2021.
We are still not out of the woods just yet, but with the vaccine being rolled out and an amazing NHS - it’s got to a positive move forward.
2020 will be a year to remember - or maybe forget.
Amy and John were great throughout all of this. They had originally booked me almost 2 years before, in 2018 and their original date was set for 10th April 2020. They even recommended me to John’s sister and I shot her wedding in 2019. But as soon as the lockdown was looking like a possibility their date was soon changed to later in the year and we postponed it to 14th November 2020. At this point we were all hopeful this virus would be under control by the summer of 2020.
As this new date approached however it was clear that things were getting worse - not better. So they made the difficult decision to move their wedding date for a second time and bring it forward to 30th September 2020. Which as it turned out was a great move on their part as another venue lockdown was just around the corner…
Below are some of my favourite memories from their wedding day - 30th September 2020
So that was the moment it all happened - all the years of planning a wedding, postponing it twice, a pandemic and the compulsory wearing of face masks.
It all came down to the fact that two people just wanted to get married!
That’s it!
There was not going to be any lavish after party with 150 guests, no big embarrassing speech from the best man, no DJ, no first dance and no honeymoon.
Just two young people who were desperate to get married and start a new life together as Mr & Mrs.
Then it was all down to the local pub for burger & chips & few drinks.
It was great to be part of Amy & John’s special day and although it was not as they would have chosen, I felt they still had the best day, spent with close friends and family. I mentioned before that i’d photographed John’s sisters wedding back in 2019, so for me it was good to catch up with the family again too.
I made a music photo-film from their wedding and you can see this below.
Thanks for reading and as we look to March / April and the summer of 2021, let us hope it will be a bit more ‘back to normal’ and weddings can once again be a regular occurrence in our diaries.
Suppliers:
Ceremony: Manor Gatehouse, Dartford Registry Office, Dartford, Kent - A Kentish Ceremony @kentishceremony
Pub: The Malt Shovel, Dartford, Kent @maltshoveldartf
If you know any suppliers that I have missed, please contact me me as I would love to include their details here.
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“pandemic noun
plural pandemics
Definition of pandemic
1 : an outbreak of a disease that occurs over a wide geographic area (such as multiple countries or continents) and typically affects a significant proportion of the population : a pandemic outbreak of a disease
a global pandemic
Influenza pandemics seem to strike every few decades and to kill by the million—at least 1m in 1968; perhaps 100m in the “Spanish” flu of 1918-19.
— The Economist”