Everyone has found themselves in quite a bizarre situation. This year, 2020, will go down in the history books, no doubt about it.

Some of you reading have already built the perfect day and some have just started to book vendors for their celebration. It’s so hard to let go of it. Especially when the government imposed restrictions come so unprecedented.

Given this tragic situation that's taking place right now, it might feel wrong to be sad as there are greater issues in this world and pressures from society to think about the greater good for humanity. So naturally, it feels wrong to grieve something that has been taken away so abruptly, without having much time to think and prepare yourselves mentally. However, these emotions of a loss are real and it is normal to grieve about the future what you looked forward to but cannot become a reality.

The process of throwing a great wedding day celebration is not something that gets taken lightly. It involves time, emotions, financial investment — an extreme amount of effort to fine-tune your wedding day. People are allowed to grieve things despite the overall circumstances. It is just simply not healthy to swipe away your feelings under the rug.

Naturally, some of you might develop a defensive reaction to the situation and will try to research if there are any loopholes on how to still make your day work out as planned. But once realized, this is a coping mechanism to overcome this shock. The shock and paralysis should instead be turned into a mechanism of solving the problem.

Try something small and intimate —  it may turn out to be everything you have wanted and more.

Perhaps you have always secretly wanted a smaller gathering. See this as a perfect excuse to do it and have a wedding day that is comfortable to you and your partner. Such kind of celebration is called an elopement or an intimate wedding. Elopements used to be a way of getting married away from the relatives in secret, however, nowadays it is seen as a way how to celebrate your day without the stress and being able to decide for the plans of the day yourself. An intimate wedding is similar in terms of an atmosphere where everything feels right and includes the most important people of your lives, around 25 or less (+ pets welcome!).

Isn't it lonely to have the day without a huge party?

Look at it in another way — you don't have to stress about whether the guests will like your cake, getting your dress dirty, you don't need to stress about running late to the reception and breaking traffic rules to get there in time (personal experience). If being in the center of attention feels awkward, there are even more reasons to do it at a downsized scale and have a “just us” day.

Glencoe, the Highlands, the UK in February

Place.

When thinking about what locations you would like to be photographed in, I always to shoot in a place that has some kind of meaning to you as it  adds more depth to the photographs. If you are not local to the places, you must have some specific preferences in mind.

A pine tree forest outside Valmiera, Latvia

Nature

vs

Urban

or a mix of both?

Gamla stan, Stockholm, Sweden

If nature is your sanctuary and feels like a shelter think of having the ceremony on a beach, amidst a forest or on a top of the hill. You can pick any place you want in the great outdoors. Places to choose from are abundant like the Highlands (Glencoe valley, the road in Glen Etive, castles & lochs), Isle of Skye in Scotland, coastal Sweden (Höga Kusten, polished rock coast outside Gothenburg). Rent a cozy AirBnb nearby to spend the night before and after. You will have plenty of time to create amazing images along your hike with unposed, real moments.

If you are more of a city couple, there are plenty of romantic neighbourhoods to choose for the elopement and fun things to experience on your day. The elopement can be celebrated with a cake and bubbles at a chic restaurant or a dinner made by a private chef. Think about the experience and then about the logistics. The elopement day timeline can be polished up later. I can help with suggestions or know the locations to go based on what you like.

An intimate September wedding in London, the UK

Postpone not cancel.

Well, if you can loudly say to your partner: I will spend the .... quarantine with you. Then it is safe to say that you can spend the rest of your lives together as well. Since you will be getting married anyway, canceling your event will impact your suppliers whose income might be coming solely from this industry. I highly doubt that anyone would not be able to accommodate you to a later date, given their availability.

Perhaps, it is also possible to choose a date that is on a weekday this year and does not necessarily have to be Saturday. Most office employees globally are not taking leaves during this time, so high chances are they will be able to take a day or two off to come to your wedding on a weekday.

Given some of you had already fine-tuned so many details for your day and involved relatives to help with decor, running errands, it can be a great way to live stream your event to the grandparents and others, and then host the big party that you had intended to have for everyone at a later date. I can help with the tech support to make the livestream work.

​If there is simply no mood for a celebration anymore, there is always an option to reschedule it to 2021.

At the end of the day, 2020 shows that no matter what pretty date and season you had picked, how you've adapted your day so that everyone can come, it all can be taken away in a blink of a second. Marriage > wedding.

Personal opinion. April 2, 2020.
 

The Coronavirus pandemic is over-flooding all possible news feeds. I took my time and listened to opinions, interviews, and read articles from scientists, epidemiologists, analysts in the UK, the USA, Sweden, and South Korea. Just about every region where the spread is handled well or with an unusual approach. I thought I will dig in and find out about everything in depth as uncertainty about the future just fueled my curiosity. When discussing in detail about the behavior of the virus and what the future holds for us, these specialists’ statements had discrepancies in the nuances. There are multiple possible scenarios how the future will unfold and no-one is sure which will be the one. For a regular person it is difficult to comprehend the situation, given that even credible authorities don not know how to deal with it. For now let’s take this issue seriously and follow our respective government’s advice. 

Once the restrictions get loosened up and travel bans lifted, the fight might not be over yet. Therefore, I wrote this article in hope that some of you might be willing to celebrate happy moments again in a form of an elopement or a downsized wedding. At a later date this year, when there is less suffering in the world. 

Enjoy some visual stories, and if you’re interested in my elopement packages and guidance on how to make your elopement or wedding more special, reach out to me here.