Pandemics used to feel like a far-off concept, like we only knew them through the black and white photographs shown in textbooks of the nurses tending to patients who had influenza. 2020 changed all of that. I guess we were due for a new pandemic, since people say that pandemics come around once every 100 years. It didn’t make handling COVID-19 any less difficult.

As a wedding photographer, I have never felt such emotional fallout from an event as I did with coronavirus. I’m writing this blog post in early 2023, and I feel that I am only just now beginning to process how truly difficult it was to work as a wedding photographer during the pandemic. Not necessarily because of the masks and the regulations and the loss of income - but because of how truly heartbreaking it was to walk my precious couples through the grief they felt as they postponed or canceled their weddings. 2020 was tough. I do not miss it. Sure, it can hold its place in the history books, but I never want to look back at it again… Except to remember the little joys it held, like Maddie and Greg’s elopement day. 💛

THE COUPLE

Maddie + Greg were both in medical school when I first met them; it was a bittersweet thing to photograph their Nyack Beach State Park wedding for two doctors during the pandemic. When I first saw them the day of their elopement, Greg mentioned how his face felt raw from constantly wearing an N95 mask in the hospital where was working nonstop. Greg and Maddie were conscientious and cautious of the virus during their elopement, but also just completely wrapped up in their love for each other. It was so much like any other wedding day in that respect that that’s really all I see when I look back at their photos - how much they love each other, how committed to each other they are, and how full of joy they felt to be getting married.

THE VENUE

Maddie and Greg love hiking and the outdoors, so it only made sense that they chose Nyack Beach State Park for their elopement when they decided to cancel their larger wedding. While most of my 2020 couples chose to postpone their larger weddings, Maddie and Greg opted for an elopement instead, wisely noting that they didn’t know when the pandemic would let up and their work schedules at the hospital would become less chaotic.

They eloped on the sand of the beach at Nyack Beach State Park on an overcast and misty day, with only 7 people there as witnesses. An officiant presided over Zoom, and friends joined via videocast to watch their ceremony and first dance.

I cried behind my mask because I understood how incredibly personal and historic of a moment this was - to be photographing an elopement only weeks after pandemic restrictions had been slightly lifted in New York. For months, we had waited for moments like this, and here we finally were.

THE DETAILS

When the details for a larger wedding reception are cast aside in favor of an elopement, not too many detail items matter (and, honestly, I love that - wedding details are cool and all, but I would much rather photograph souls in front of my lens than objects - unpopular opinion, I know 🫣). Maddie held a small bouquet of colorful flowers, and the guests tossed orange rose petals at her and Greg as they completed their ceremony. Maddie wore the gown she had originally chosen for their larger wedding, and did her own hair and makeup. These details felt organic, natural, and simple.

THE RECEPTION

Maddie and Greg’s elopement reception was a small picnic hosted near the mountain at the top of the hill at the park. Picnic tables were spread apart, and only shared households shared tables. There was a small handmade cake, a Zoom celebration, and treats that were individually hand wrapped by Maddie’s mom in Ziploc bags. She handed me one as I left - I remember that it had grapes and a bagel in it, and I ate it while I drove home contemplating the emotional importance of what I had just witnessed.