2021 Round-Up – 2 Years in One

How to begin talking about 2021? I titled this blog post 2 years in one for a reason. And I know it will be hard to compile such a year in one blog post… but here’s to trying.

For us, 2021 was a year where we were overbooked, overtired, and overjoyed. With so many weddings being pushed from 2020 we had the most amount of work we’ve had since we started this business. 46 weddings total. Countless engagement sessions, a couple of proposals, and many clients turned into friends.

For our couples, 2021 was the year of the “finally”. Many couples had been waiting for their day for a long time. Many also eloped last minute. Many decided that life is unpredictable, and the more you plan, the more your plans change. So why not go for it? We were fortunate to watch all of those decisions come to life and to be a little part of one of their biggest days ever (and when I write this, it still feels unreal. This is our job, like what?).

In 2021 we worked all over California, and we put over 20,000 miles in our little Mazda (which we bought in January of 2021).

• Big Sur
• San Francisco
• Bass Lake
• Sequoia National Park
• Sonoma
• Lake Arrowhead
• Paso Robles…

You name it… we were there. But most of all, of course, we basically lived in Yosemite National Park.

In 2021 we were also able to cross two bucket-list locations: Alaska & Hawaii. We accomplished our goal of diving at least once a year, and we did 7 dives in 3 days in Kona! We were brave enough to do what’s called “black water dive”, where I jumped off the boat at 10:30 PM into a dark, deep ocean with tears in my eyes and so much nausea. Stephan was nervous, but as always, way less nervous than me, ha!

2021 was the year where we understood the scope of our job, and how much better we can be at serving our couples. And that’s not to say we don’t need to improve anything, nope. But this was the year that, even though it was messy, busy, and incredibly exhausting, everything fell into place. Our love for this job grew and we made some pretty major life decisions based on it. If you follow us on Instagram, you know that we bought our first home in California in the middle of our busiest season (21 weddings in 2 months) – 15 minutes from the gates of Yosemite National Park.

And even though things aren’t “normal”, this year felt much different than 2020. We got vaccinated, boosted, got to see our friends, family, travel, hug our couples, and be at ease being a part of their day. This is a year we won’t forget. I’m currently writing this from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, my hometown. The place where all of my family and friends are. This time, we are able to be here for a full 2 months. This wouldn’t be possible without our couples and all of the people that trusted us with telling their stories through our cameras.

If you’ve made it this far – thank you. I’m happy we’re able to take you guys along in this adventure, and we can’t wait for what 2022 has in store for us and for our couples! 🙂

PS. this blog post doesn’t have images from all of the wonderful people we’ve worked with this year. I actually only have one hard drive with me in Brazil, so I was a little limited on what I could share. But I wanted to write this sooner than later while the year was still fresh in my head.