Ali and Pat’s Backyard Wedding in Hanover, Massachusetts

I was just speaking with another photographer about the roller coaster of a year we are all having and about the impact the pandemic has had on the wedding and events industry. It has been a rough time.

I love what I do. I love all of the beautiful people that I get to meet through this job. I’ve never had a job that has brought so many tears of joy and has pushed me to be a better person and artist. This is the job that makes me feel the most “Lindsey” when I am doing it.

When Covid hit, I was scared and I was sad for all of the couples who were planning weddings. For the first few months of the pandemic, I felt super down about the present and the future. My work felt irrelevant and I was worried that a huge part of my life and identity was about to disappear.

Then, as summer rolled in, things seemed more hopeful and many of my 2020 couples started reaching out with small wedding plans in addition to their rescheduled celebrations. Ali and Pat were one of those couples who to decided to be married this year and save their big party for 2021.

They held their celebration in the backyard of Pat’s childhood home. His parents, Mike and Linda, spent their quarantine repairing their home after a tree had fallen through the roof during a winter storm. When the weather warmed, they began flipping their backyard into a lush ceremony site for Ali and Pat’s wedding.

The ceremony was beautiful and Ali and Pat had plenty of time to enjoy the day with their closest friends and family. The two of them have been together for over 10 years. They met at a skate park when they were teenagers. They have lived with many versions of each other. Their families know one another very well. Pat’s childhood home raised him and his brother, and also raised Ali a bit too.

After the ceremony, we took a walk through the neighborhood for portraits. I grew up in a sleepy town and have so many memories of just walking through neighborhoods with my husband (then boyfriend) when we were teenagers. Capturing these two in the ‘burbs felt so charming and right for their story.

It’s been a low-key year for weddings, but low-key in all the right ways. It is ALL about the ceremony this year. It is all about the people you love the most and who have shaped you to be the person you are at the moment you marry your partner. This day nailed that on the head for me.

Congrats Ali and Pat. Meeting you two and both your families has been such a blessing. I wish you a lifetime of love, happiness, and good health and I look forward to capturing your blowout party next year when we can all get close and give one another the hugs, kisses, and high fives we couldn’t this year.