Wedding Season as a Professional Photographer
June 7, 2023I do solemnly swear to not be another person remarking with astonishment that it is June. Except, oblige me for a moment, how is it possibly time for beach trips and sweating through outfits by lunch? The older I get, the less I understand time.
As a wedding photographer, June is more about traveling and shooting Friday – Sunday, dragging bone-tired limbs to my office on Monday to import, back up (and back up again), cull, and drop off film. Spending the next two days responding to inquiries and final emails, checking and double checking timelines, reviewing client notes from the last 8-12 months, packing up on Thursday, and doing it all over again.
It is a glorious blur of action. Creativity is souring. Every night falling into bed is bliss. And it is hard. It is saying no to social events to preserve that precious introvert energy for wedding weekends. It is going through workouts extra slow because everything is sore from the last 12-hour day but working out keeps the mind calm and stress at bay. It is monitoring and adjusting physical and emotional levels to make sure I’m bringing my best to weekends. And it is the calm that comes from weeks of intense focus and prioritization.
Do you remember exam week? Every hour matters, the caffeine intake is sky high, the sleep is minimal, the goals are clear, and the end is always in sight. There’s not much time to waste and you can only do what is in front of you, rinse, and repeat. That is what wedding season is like. Sometimes it is spread out over many months with a week or two in between as you ride the wave up for a wedding weekend and then settle down for a week or two. This year everything is stacked week after week, but for only a month. We’ll see how I feel in July, but I love the idea of it as I sit at the start of ‘wedding month’. I love the routine and the adrenaline of the weekends flanked by the calm of the week. It makes saying no a little easier because my friends and family know that for five weeks, I’m in wedding mode and unavailable for almost anything else. And that I’ll miss them terribly and will happily spend my days in July editing and my evenings catching up with all the people I’ve missed.
While it is never a pace I can keep up for longer than a month or two, I appreciate the clarity it brings. It’s a check on how I spend my time and where I’m investing my energy. And there is something deliciously satisfying about falling into bed exhausted and content with the work I am doing and the art I am creating.
I’m so happy June is here.
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