Fear not, Breaking Bad fans who are a little behind, this post contains no spoilers as to last night’s epic finale, indeed I’d be hard pressed to give you any as, whilst I did watch the breaking bad season finale last night it was in fact the end of series four and I have no intention of spoiling anything up to there either although it was one of the greatest television viewing experiences I’ve ever had… seriously, this show actually gets better??? Anyway the season finale I speak of is the end, for many of us at least, of the wedding season.
I’ve spoken before of my surprise that there could really be a clearly definable season for weddings, and of course it’s not strictly true – hundreds, nay thousands of weddings are continuing to take place across the country, but most do tend to fall within those few short months of summer when everyone wants to hold their beautiful wedding in the sun. After an intense period with lots of weddings to photograph and film though it seems like now should be the time to wind-down and relax. The trouble is that what the end of the season really means is that it’s time for the really hard work to begin!
All those ‘togs and vogs’ out there, so often accused of only doing one day’s work a week, are currently tied to their computers, working away, perfecting each and every frame to ensure that they deliver the perfect product for their customers on time and to the highest of standards, despite having often triple their usual workload to contend with and for most, right now that one day capturing all those thousands of images they’re now sifting through seems like a relative holiday compared to the 18 hour days of solid editing that follow them. But this is also the time when the most rewarding part of the job happens – the moment you see the couple’s reaction to their photos or video for the first time.
We’re extremely privileged to be in the rare position of being able to create something that makes people genuinely happy and actually see that happiness come to fruition. There are few jobs where you have the chance to create something completely bespoke for someone, work so closely with them and actually see the direct results of your hard work bring a smile to their faces or even a happy tear to their eye and that’s a pretty extraordinary thing. And knowing that that same couple will look back on what you’ve produced in years to come and even show it to their children and have that same happy look on their faces is what makes all the hours put it into it so incredibly worthwhile.
This season has been an interesting one in many ways – firstly the long established idea of Saturday being THE day that people get married has been firmly shaken with more weddings happening on Sundays and weekdays than seemingly ever before. We also seem to have seen a rise in the number of people separating their legal vows from their actual wedding ceremony, many choosing to complete the legal side of the marriage vows at an earlier date before completing humanist ceremonies in their own way later on.
Overall though it’s been a great season and we’ve seen the evidence all kinds of extraordinary weddings appearing all over the place. 2013 was predicted to be the year that no-one wanted to get married (superstition is the way) but the number 13 doesn’t seem to have had quite as big an impact as many believed… although I have seen a fair few lucky horseshoe’s around perhaps to counteract the bad-luck effects! So, whilst the hard work is not yet done and there are plenty of beautiful winter weddings to come, just a little more spaced out than the summer ones, I for one am already looking forward to the next season and seeing what changes, joys and happy couples it will bring.
