Even with the most detailed and well executed planning, life will always happen and sometimes emergencies come up. Sometimes an important member of the wedding party can’t make it for whatever reason, and sometimes one of your vendors has a family emergency. So what the hell do you do when life happens?
The original photographer for this wedding (Stacey, she’s amazing) couldn’t make it because her husband needed an emergency surgery, so we found a way to make sure Holly and Pierce still had beautiful photos of their wedding!
I can’t even properly express to you how incredible the Ottawa wedding community is, so I’m hoping that this blog post and story will help me tell you!
Shit Happens
I know that we all want to believe that nothing will go wrong on our wedding days, but most nine times out of ten, that isn’t the way it goes. Now usually it’s only small things that go wrong, but every once and awhile something major goes amiss.
Do you know how I mentioned that Ottawa’s wedding community rules? Well, I mean it! Stacey messaged me in a panic because of her family emergency, she didn’t want to let anyone down. I stepped in and shot the wedding on her behalf and we had a great time! Here’s the thing though, I’ve seen this happen so many times. Ottawa’s wedding vendors have a real community over competition attitude and it shows.Vendors in Ottawa are not afraid to make sacrifices in order to help eachother out!
Trust me when I say that your vendors would rather eat dirt than cancel on you last minute. When in doubt, always ask what their emergency plan is before booking! Most of us have colleagues that we can ask in case anything comes up.
So, how did it go?
I knew right away that Holly was my kind of bride, she was an absolute sweetheart who knew what she wanted! She was super fast to take in me and my second shooter for the day (who also made time for this last minute, he’s awesome) and made us feel welcome!
This is the first wedding that I’ve been to where they completely stuck to their timeline! Everything went according to schedule. This wedding had been a long time coming, Holly and Pierce are one of the MANY couples who had to postpone twice due to Covid. They had been engaged for about five years and were more than ready to make things official.
Pierce was an absolute gem of a human being. He had his own personal family emergencies going on but still made the whole day feel so special and happy. After recently losing his mom, he had his first dance with his aunt and there was NOT a dry eye in the house (including mine). Their family was so strong and supportive, the love in the room was undeniable.
Holly’s parents also shared a dance and their love was just… magic. They were so goofy and happy, it made me AND Tony (my second shooter) sob. Pierce came over and gave us a hug. I can’t even properly explain to you how intense and beautiful the emotional connections were that night. It was the kind of love that everyone dreams of, you know?
Everyone comes together
This wedding was breathtaking and tear making, even with everything leading up to it. For me, this wedding is the perfect example of how everything finds a way to work out. Wedding planning is stressful on it’s own, if you add in personal struggle it can feel like too much. I promise you though, you’ve got a whole community of people here to help and hold you together.
Let this be your sign, everything will fall into place!
