Wow! What a year it’s been for us. It’s been a long, tough year, but it’s absolutely been worth it with the news that one of our images from this year has been chosen in Junebug Weddings’ Best of the Best Top 50.
2021 Recap
It’s safe to say that it’s been a year of highs and lows for many. Weddings returned with a bang this year and it’s only now that things are starting to slow down.
We’ve photographed more weddings this year than any other year in our history and all within a seven month period instead of the usual twelve.
We’ve been everywhere from Scotland to the Lake District and all the way back to our beloved North East. We’ve experienced so many great moments and have been part of so many exciting memories.
The year hasn’t been without its challenges though. With 2020’s weddings sandwiched into 2021, we found ourselves out and about on most days in the summer and while editing times have inevitably been extended slightly, everyone has had the wedding days that they’ve always dreamed of. Not only that, but everyone has LOVED their images and those two things are all that matter.
Personal Sacrifices
As for us, we’ve had to sacrifice much of our personal lives this year in order to keep the business ticking along.
In the summer months, we had to go back into a self imposed lockdown of sorts, sacrificing visits and get-togethers with friends to avoid being “pinged”.
We had to make sure we avoided catching covid at all costs and did everything to ensure we attended every wedding and that everyone was happy.
So, if anyone has earned a little moment of personal joy from this year, we feel we have.
Best of the Best
All our hard work from this year has been rewarded as we’re proud to announce that Junebug Weddings has selected one of our images to be among their 50 Best Wedding Images of 2021.
To put that into context, every year Junebug Weddings put together a collection images from the best photographers around the world. Thousands upon thousands of photographs are submitted and the judges have the mammoth task of choosing just 50 to be included in their Best of the Best 2021 collection. Every year we look at this list in awe of all the beautiful images chosen and we never imaged that one of our images would end up in there too!
About the Image
Our award winning image was captured at Holly and Jon’s wedding at Stanton Hall and Gardens back in July 2021. It was after their wedding breakfast as we headed out for some more couple portraits in the early evening.
Shazia had the idea. She’d set up the blankets and cushions in the long grass and the intention was to put the drone up to photograph them from above.
While ideas are great, it’s not always the case that they come to fruition. Luckily, our awesome newlyweds were up for everything so we laid them down, briefed them on what we wanted and set ourselves to the task.
There are some occasions after you’ve captured an image when you just know you’ve achieved something special. This was one of those moments.
You can view their full wedding here:
https://chocolate-chip.co.uk/weddings/the-one-at-the-plant-nursery/
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The Scale of this Achievement
While our priority is (and always will be) the happiness of our couples, we’re over the moon to be given this award. What an incredible achievement for us.
It’s almost like the cherry on the cake of what has been such an amazing year.
We’ve worked hard, improved, learned new techniques and developed new skillsets in order to apply those to our work and the weddings we do.
Our couples have loved the work we’ve been producing this year. Not only their own images, but so many of our couples have been commenting on other weddings we’ve photographed and saying how much they loved seeing them. That’s been nice for us.
The Choc Chip Family
We truly feel like we have a family here at Chocolate Chip and while this award wasn’t our goal from this year (we nearly didn’t submit at all), it’s been a lovely way to finish off a year which has seen us give everything we had to give to our couples.
We are so proud of what we’ve achieved and we couldn’t have done it without our awesome brides and grooms who have trusted us to capture their days the way they knew we could.
We love you all and here’s to a great year of weddings that we’ve all had together. Cheers!!
You can see the full gallery of winners here.
… and more images from Holly and Jon’s wedding below
>> Full wedding HERE <<
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