Wedding photo of the week. Twelve.
How are we all doing? What a rollercoaster and I am still adjusting to how much life has changed in such a short space of time. Again I just want to celebrate my 2020 couples who are right now being the best people and I know that when this is over and we have weddings again they will be even more special.
I have picked this wedding photo for this week for a couple of reasons. The first one is to show you how AMAZING a winter wedding can be. Lauren & Luke had the most stunning winter wedding at Swynford Manor in Cambridge and I know that there are a fair few couples out there considering having to postpone to a Autumn/Winter date and I just wanted to show off how beautiful they can be.
The next reason is that I want to blow my own trumpet a bit but also because I want to talk about creating during times of adversity. I am generally a modest person but this wedding was a test for my resilience. It showed how capable I was at delivering a beautiful standard of work.
Lauren & Luke got married on the 27th December 2017. This was during a time which is up there on my list of shit times as it was my Grandads last Christmas with us. He had been poorly with terminal cancer in the last quarter of 2017 and had decided to come off of his chemo medication a couple of days before Christmas and he left us in the early hours of New Years Day.
I had two weddings to photograph during that period of time and both had their emotional challenges for me to get over. Lauren & Luke’s though had some extra stressful levels for me.
Being the 27th December, the day after Boxing Day AKA worst day of the year for traffic I made the sensible decision to leave an extra 2-3hrs early than what I needed to. I am so glad that I did.
By the time I hit the M11 it was belting it down with snow and I am not talking the pathetic stuff we usually get. I am talking about massive snowflakes the size of your fist and settling on the motorway snow.
Naturally I was shitting myself. I am generally a pretty steady person but there is something about driving and snow that makes my insides freak out. Maybe it’s the not being able to see, the lack of brakes and additional knobhead drivers. Who knows.
After a stressful hour I decided to have a break at the services and get a coffee. I still had hours before I needed to be at Swynford Manor. As I was driving up the slip road (yes up) I tried to brake for the lights and realised that wasn’t going to work so I prepped myself for the impact of hitting the guy in front of me. That didn’t go too badly and I breathed a sigh of relief as it was more of a bump. The guy in the Nissan Navara behind me clearly hadn’t bothered to slow at all as he then went into me.
It wound up being a several car little slip road pile up and in my shock I just went along with the knock for knock line everyone else was taking as I then tried to continue my journey albeit in tears on the phone to my Mum as I had no idea how bad the weather was going to be when it was time to go home later that night.
I arrived nearly 2hrs early for the wedding. I have an active phobia of being late for a wedding so I will ALWAYS leave much earlier than I need to.
The lovely staff at Swynford sorted me out with some tea and somewhere to sit while I waited and I used that time to switch my mindset from stressed and grieving to being capable of doing an amazing job by my couple.
As soon as I started shooting all worries ebbed away as I got into the flow of the day. I suppose that is the beauty of having a creative job, you love what you do so it becomes very easy to switch off any worries as you step into the present moment, capturing the story as it unfolds. You can’t be distracted because otherwise you will miss it.
So that’s why I love this photo it represents my resilience and love for what I do even during times of adversity. Even now, during this time of adversity I am still shooting everyday, documenting the ebb and flow of daily life in lockdown. There is lots of stories to tell and I will continue to tell them despite the challenges we are facing right now.
I can only feel that each time I am going through a form of struggle I find a way to become a better photographer and person.
Ami xx
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