Looking Back to 2009

It seems absolutely no time at all since I wrote about what had happened in 2008 and I guess the reason for this just sums up the whole year we been so busy we haven’t had chance to notice the passing of time!

From the aquisition of a whole mass of new equipment and technology early on in the year, through the trauma of having an extension built to give us extra storage and another office, on to the most hectic summer for weddings we’ve ever had and then the hectic pre-Christmas rush to complete album orders – all this has meant we haven’t had time to reflect on things or even to savour the changing seasons.

So, now things are quiter, what are the things that stand out most clearly from the blur that has been 2009? Well, it’s some of our clients, of course. We covered some fantastic people this year and felt honoured and priviledged to attend some of the weddings we’ve photographed. And this is where it gets difficult. I want to start mentioning names and particular incidents, but then those who’s names are mentioned might feel their wedding was in some way ‘lacking’. And of course, it wasn’t. None of them were. All the weddings we’ve covered have been hugely different, hugely individual  and all – even those where minor pre-wedding hiccups occurred – have been hugely happy events that the brides and grooms wouldn’t want to have different in any way.

And the differences really have been great. Two weddings we did on consecutive days in July sum up the diversity we’ve had this year. On the Saturday we covered our biggest wedding ever. Lincoln was effectively taken over by the Great Nigerian Invasion ans literally hundreds of Nigerian guests, all decked in the most fantastic, colourful ethnic costumes, arrived to celebrate the wedding of Lola and Gabriel in Lincoln Cathedral. I don’t know exactly how many guests were at the ceremony but 1200 seats were set out and all but a handful were occupied. I do know that the caterers at the Epic Centre set out tables for 972 guests for the meal!

The whole day was simply fantastic. It was a kaleidoscope of colour, movement and noise. The dancing started in the Cathedral and never stopped all day. It was truly magnifiicent and totally exhausting!

The following day we were booked to cover our smallest wedding of the year at Branston Hall. This was a very private affair, with only close relatives and friends invited. Formality was out, with the bride rejecting a traditional wedding dress and the groomsmen not wearing ties. It was simply impossible to have a greater contrast between the two weddings. And yet, in a very real way, there was no contrast at all. The Bride and Groom had created a wedding which suited them and reflected how they wanted the occasion to be marked. Both couples were delighted with how their day went; both got the wedding they wanted and both ended up with superb photography to allow them to recreate the day exactly as it happened for years to come. What more could anyone want?

So this year has been our year of extremes. We’ve covered the weddings of some extreemely rich and influential people – and we’ve covered those of much more mooderate incomes. We’ve covered weddings with several hundred guests – and those with only a handful. There have been the noisy and chaotic and there have been the more sedate and restrained. We’ve had very traditional weddings and more unusual ‘themed’ occasions. We’ve witnessed the whole gamut of emotions and covered weddings in the extremes of weather.

I could go on and on but let’s just say that this year really has brought it home to us what we’ve known for years. There really is no ‘norm’. Every couple is different and it’s lovely to see how nowadays people are throwing rules out and are choosing to celebrate their vows in a way that truly relects their personalities. Sometimes the traditional approach is best – for others a more individual approach is more fitting. But whatever their choice, because it is THEIR choice they are happy and their happiness is what makes weddings so fantastic for us and allows us to give them the natutal-lokking and relaxed photography they expect from Aurora.

Phew!

Well, it nearly killed us, but we did it! Never have we had such a rush of album orders as we had in the weeks before Xmas this year. The unusual pattern of bookings for last summer, combined with the January price-hike by our main two album manufacturers, meant that November and early December ( which is the quiet period when we normally take our annual holidays) was this year simply manic. Everyone wanted their album order in amd completed asap. Our problem, of course, is that we don’t use cheap, templaye-based siftware packages which throw albums together in a matter of minutes. One if our distinguishing features is the quality of the design work in our albums. Which means, of course, that WE do the designing. We wouldn’t change this – it means that we can tailor and fine tune each page to ensure it recaptures the mood of the wedding at that particular time. But good design is time-consuming. And with so many album orders coming in together we have certainly felt the presssure to deliver the goods this year. Producing storybook albums is easy, but produciong ones of which we are truly proud and which the couples will cherish forever – all within a ludicrously short time-scale -  most certainly is not easy. But it’s done, the orders have all been sent to the album manufacturers, and it’s time to sit back a little, digest the Christmas pudding and look back on why it happened.

It was my fault – of course. Simply, I chickened out. Towards the end of 2008 all the television and newspaper predictions were of gloom and doom for 2009. Businesses would crumble, millions would be unemployed, the end of the global economy was nigh. The photography forums were full of professional photographers saying how bad business was and we knew of several reputable photographers who had folded. Could the unthinkable happen and the same happen to us?

So I over-reacted. Our business model has always been built on the concept of covering no more than 30 weddings a year but in spending inordinate amounts of time on posy-production of each one to ensure that the finished albums were q