This year was weird. We all know it, we all lived it, and we all have our own stories. Our behind the scenes post really shows it this year, and I’ve never had more variety to share with you!

Less people = less chance of contracting COVID, so by nature we had to pare our teams down as much as we could while still providing quality. It was hard because those people on our team aren’t just there for fun- they’re working all day! So it means for each wedding we were doing the job of multiple people. That’s okay, it’s just all part of living through 2020.

Once again our clients are the shining stars of the year. They worked with us to find solutions that worked for everyone, they kept us safe, and they were the sweetest, roll-with-the-punches couples you’ll ever meet!

Josh filmed + officiated a wedding at the same time!

Janelle + Shaun cut so many guests from their wedding they had her brother officiate… except he couldn’t legally officiate. In the spirit of 2020, Josh stepped up and officiated their legal ceremony after their main ceremony to make it officially official.

To be clear, this isn’t a service we offer– it was a 2020 thing that we were happy to help out with!

We filmed + photographed the first COVID vaccine administered in Virginia, as well as the governor

We have a sister company, Armaloo, where we work a lot with Mix + Shine Marketing. We got to work together a lot this year, and this was one of the coolest moments! Recording history in visual format is a pretty awesome honor.

We took our kids to work sometimes

This was something we never did before 2020. But with schools being closed and companies being more open to things like that, it was a great chance for our kids to see what we do for a living. From our 5th grader in a board meeting to our 3rd grader on a marketing shoot, or even our 8th grader assisting at an engagement session, it’s been cool to share these things with our kids. The only one who hasn’t gotten to tag along is our youngest. His spirits are just a *tad* too high on these sorts of things! Everyone else did amazingly well!

In November I photographed 37 sessions, 2 weddings, 2 commercial photoshoots, and a ton of real estate listings. It was a wild and awesome time after not doing much the rest of the year! Sydney helped me out during a long string of back-to-back mini sessions at The Historic Post Office, and she even helped out with snuggling the animals while their humans were being photographed!

Masks and hand sanitizer took over our camera bags this year! Josh started wearing contacts because, well… glasses and masks all day for a wedding don’t work super well together!

But that surprise and smile on their faces when they see an instant replay of their grand exit helps us remember why we’re all there- to celebrate love!

Since we didn’t use any second photographers this year, there aren’t any behind the scenes photos of me (Susan), but here’s a few more of Josh at our October weddings.

I leave you with Josh being my sparkler tester. 🙂 He had to cover a lot of extra jobs at weddings this year!