Wow, what is happening this year? It’s been a trying start to 2020 to say the least. At this point things are starting to open back up and we’re beginning to crawl out of quarantine. So much feels so different. Going out in public seems like a constant game of ‘everything is lava’ and also don’t touch your face. We miss hanging out with friends. We haven’t hugged our parents in months.
And the weddings. That’s been the toughest part. We work in a happy, celebratory industry. It’s always good news and excitement! At least until March 2020. A suddenly full inbox of postponements and potential cancellations. All of May, all of June. In years past, we’ve had the occasional wedding cancelation or date change. But once a year would be considered frequent for us. A dozen at once is heartbreaking. At our core, we’re problem solvers. We make every effort to navigate a tricky timeline, bad weather, challenging creative ideas. But this was one we couldn’t fix. And for some strange reason we felt guilty! What did we do wrong, why can’t we work this issue, what will the couple think of us?! It feels strange even be writing it, but that feeling of guilt is there, hard to shake. We truly feel for our couples going through this. Having it all planned out, ready to go, and then bam, not this month. We feel for our fellow vendors. Our work buddies who make our Saturdays so much more fun. We miss you guys.
2020, you’ve been exhausting, and terrifying. Both personally and as a business. But at the end of it all, we know that if we can come out of this with our health and the health of our family and friends, we’ll be able to call ourselves blessed. And so today I decided to challenged myself. Sit down and find the silver linings. What was made better through all this? Can you find the good?
1) Long Distance Friends
From the beginning, we kept up our social connections through more frequent phone calls and video dates. The one thing we didn’t expect though was how often we would be chatting with our long distance friends. If you’re like us, you can pretty much pick up right where you left off with friends after months of zero communication. But during this, we started playing board games with our friends from all over. It’s become a weekly staple now and is such a nice change of pace. We’ve really come to look forward to them and hope to continue into the future! By the way, if you haven’t played it, Scythe is a fantastic strategy game. And it’s a local STL company!
2) Learning to Cook More
Before all of this, we didn’t really eat out all that much. Maybe a nice dinner after a wedding on Sunday, or the last minute fast food weeknight. Steph is a fantastic cook, the best. We always joke that when we’re old, if Steph dies before me, she’ll have to write down all the recipes that I constantly request, lol! We’ve been grilling religiously through quarantine! So much that Jimmy has finally figured out how to actually make chicken on the grill! Of course we’d rather BBQ with friends and family but cooking together on Sundays has been a fun and relaxing way to start the week.
3) Spending time outside!
Our golden retriever, Bokeh, is tired and just wants to be left alone at this point. JK, she’s a lover and has actually gotten way too used to us being around 24/7. Oh, so spoiled, like most pets probably are right now lol. That being said, we’ve started running together again! Gotta look forward to the little things each day to break the cabin fever right?
4) How Much We Miss Weddings
We expected this to happen, but having weddings taken away made us realize just how much we love them. I can’t tell you how excited we are to walk into that bridal suite in the morning to meet the wedding party. How excited we are to have those nervous butterflies minutes before the ceremony making sure all our equipment is staged and ready. Being at the reception when the dance floor finally opens up and the party really gets going. Wedding chicken! Ohh just to have wedding chicken again! We miss it all so much and can’t wait to get back to that feeling of celebrating and documenting a wedding day.
With Love - Jimmy + Steph
Captured in Frames // St Louis Wedding Videography