BEACH PRESHOOT | SIDMOUTH

It hit like a hurricane. COVID-19 changed the world in immeasurable ways. Always a woman you want to have on your side in an crisis, it was no news to everyone around me that I went into overdrive, seeing the positive side in it, making the most out of everything I could. But for my clients…the news was devastating. It meant that not only their work and personal life was affected, but their wedding day too.

All of my membership groups, societies, associations and founding bodies went into overdrive, advice was coming left right and centre. For what felt like weeks, I grappled to work out how to handle my clients wants, their needs and desires, as that was the only important thing to me.

I called every single couple who had booked with me (and those who were just at the enquiry stage) talking to them about how they felt, what they wanted to do and how I could help and support them.

Postpone not cancel was the strap-line for weddings. Move your wedding date, ensuring that suppliers could stay ‘afloat’ (to serve you into the future), but more than that, keeping couples hopes alive that their big day might come, even if it was going to be later than hoped. Many had been planning their day for months, some for years, and to dash their hopes now, would be devastating.

It is exactly what this beautiful pair chose to do and for them, the wait was 20 years…yes, you read it right…20 years!!! As the pandemic struck we spoke at length; there were tears, there was laughter and finally they decided that in order to have the day of their dreams, it was better to wait, than to go ahead now and have half a dream. They had waited this long, what’s a few more months!!!

Not knowing what to do on that day, wanting to mark it, but still be in a very restricted lockdown, I suggest to them that we mark the day by pulling their preshoot forward a little, and spending the day together on the beach, capturing some images of them.

It was beautiful. Started with coffee, ended with fish and chips and ice-cream on the beach, finding out more about each other. And inbetween, we manage to create, between us, some beautiful imagery that documented their love.

Venetia xx