2017

Yes, you read that right. 2017. Not a typo. Bear with me, I can explain… or you can always just skip this bit and go straight to the pictures, they’re what it’s all about after all.

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I’m scrolling through instagram on New Year’s Eve and I see a post from one of my past couples – showing a bottle of fizz, two glasses and in the background, on their telly, was the slideshow of images I’d made for them after I photographed their wedding… over 4 years ago. How awesome and lovely, I think.  I rarely get a glimpse into the life of these images once they’ve left my hands… how they they become part of family life, evenings in together, yearly traditions, celebrations. It really stayed with me. 

Then I started to put together my 2018 highlights and found my 2017 collection sitting there – pretty much finished but never published. I was pretty annoyed at myself. Last year was busy with weddings and other shoots, travel, and all the stuff that goes into running a business… alongside family life, raising an adorable, hilarious, sleep-rejecting toddler. When it came to work I focused on bringing my best to every single shoot, delivering my best images, connecting to the moments in front of me and making people as happy as I possibly could. So some things (blog, car hoovering, haircuts.. to name a few) went undone.  As someone who likes to get ‘everything’ done, this caused me a fair bit of of mental strife. But hey, I had the important bases covered, and I got pretty good at cutting my own fringe.

I was just going to leave it there, unpublished, shrouded in my guilt. Then I looked through the pictures, and couldn’t stop smiling. So many great moments, happy faces, emotional moments, wild dance floor scenes… they’re brilliant memories of a great year doing what what I do, with the most wonderful people. Who so often remind me what life is really about, without ever knowing that they’re doing me a big favour by doing so. And I remembered the instagram post and realised that the timing doesn’t really matter. This might not be a collection of my most recent work (though that is coming!), but the pride I have in these images doesn’t have an expiration date. These images have long gone off to live with their families, hopefully for a very, very long time. And the days and people they tell stories about will stay with me forever too.

So basically, I had a word with myself and here it is, late but full of love. Some of my personal favourites from the year before last.  Massive thanks as ever to everyone everyone who put their trust in me and invited me into their wedding, I am as incredibly grateful now as I was then.