Pandemic Weddings
It's been quite a year.
We've always known there was no one way to celebrate love, but the challenges of Covid-19 brought that sharply into focus like never before. Seemingly overnight, couples, families, and vendors found themselves having to devise creative wedding solutions that maintained a sense of celebration and connection while respecting the health and safety of everyone involved.
While some couples postponed their weddings, others reimagined their nuptials as elopements in remote locations or moved forward with quiet events in empty churches, cutting their guest lists dramatically to meet local occupancy restrictions. Some couples hosted live-stream ceremonies designed to include everyone from afar. Still others opted for hybrid events, integrating in-person, remote, and even drive-by celebrations.
For those who gathered for weddings in person, social distancing and face masks were quickly translated into a new love language. Elbow bumps replaced handshakes. Temperature checks, hand sanitizer, and enhanced cleaning protocols quickly joined the to-do lists of wedding planners. Elegantly designed face masks became the latest accessories to complement a couple's wedding attire.
In step with their clients, wedding photographers rallied to work through events dressed in masks and shields, always balancing health and safety with the requirements of their job. Making meaningful portraits of masked couples and socially-distanced groups became a new creative endeavor that these inventive photographers took on with sensitivity and creativity.
The work of these professional wedding photographers shows unmistakable images of love, good humor, and resiliency that will forever speak to these difficult times.
In these photos, we see not only an acknowledgement of tough times but also an affirmation that we can find love and happiness in small things, that we can seek comfort in preserving our traditions, and that we have the strength within us to get through it all together.
Here's a look at love and celebration in these times through the lens of Fearless Photographers around the world.
... and lastly, the required Covid test before flying off on the honeymoon....
