What a roller coaster ride 2021 was for us here at Mocha Tree Studious, and no doubt for the rest of the wedding industry. The first half of the year was our slowest period since we opened our business, shooting only a handful of intimate weddings here and there. COVID's third wave in 2021 pretty much dictated the size and types of weddings our couples were allowed to have. Everyone was scared to set wedding plans in stone because local and provincial restrictions could change at any time!
Fast forward to August, with the vaccination drive in full force and with the loosening of restrictions, the wedding industry found itself in its (ironically) busiest season ever! We had 56 weddings between photography and videography from August to November and three more in December. To give you a bit of perspective, we usually have about 65 or so weddings between photography and videography in a regular calendar year. That's friggin bananas!!! Cramming all that wedding in several months was definitely exciting, but also ridiculous! In early August, there was a moment where we had 8 weddings in 10 days. How we survived that, I don't even know.
If that wasn't crazy enough, we also did a bit of travelling, albeit very briefly, to Europe to shoot a wedding! We landed in Barcelona on a Tuesday after working three weddings during the labour day weekend and returned the following Monday! It was definitely a privilege to have been able to travel and work during the pandemic. However, we were also afraid of getting stuck in Spain when we still had so many weddings left in Ottawa. We will be back in Spain in the future to really spend the time to enjoy that wonderful country and all its delicious cuisine.
As of the writing of this blog, the Omicron variant is surging in Ottawa. Our New Year's Eve wedding (yesterday) was already affected. We will definitely have another unpredictable, anxiety-ridden first few months of 2022. We are hopeful that this is only the beginning of Covid becoming endemic. We will have to live with the virus; people need to get their vaccines and boosters. We need to look out for each other.
A big thank you to our couples, particularly those who tied the knot in 2021 and those still planning their 2022 wedding with trepidation!!! Your patience these past six months has been an invaluable source of support and inspiration. We are so very grateful for your friendship - with some of you we've known for several years now. We appreciate all the love and trust you've bestowed on us during some of the most amazing and, no doubt, hectic milestones of your lives. There are not enough words to convey our gratitude to you all.
A quick shoutout to our peers in the industry, who we saw almost every waking moment of the last wedding season!! We survived 2021. Let's hope 2022 is not 2020-too! See what I did there?!
Now, on to what many are here to see: our yearly stats!! It was an impressive year, by all accounts! Below are some notable figures from 2021 for both photography and videography.
59 weddings in only six months (that's f-ed up!!)
7 weddings, setting the record for us for most consecutive days.
4 days in Barcelona, 2 days in La Vajol, shortest international travel!
1 wedding show
Netflix shows binged, significantly reduced by 80 percent.
Too many hours editing (and still at over, even over the holidays)
If you're feeling up to it and for comparison, you can check out the previous year-in-review for stats here (2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020).
We will always end our year with some of our favourite photos and videos from 2021. The caveat: we are still finishing some weddings from November and December, so those will be included in next year's review. Also, note that these are totally subjective. There are no set criteria for these selections. These are just photos and videos we as a Studio like for multiple reasons, including quality, composition, the feeling they evoke, the memory of the moment.
Engagement Session
Let's start off with Sarah and Lorinc's engagement session and this particular photo of them just hanging out on their rooftop sipping some champagne on one of the best blue-hour moments, making the Ottawa skyline look like a dream.
Wedding Details
We are changing it up this year and doing a reception detail photo. How can we not include this gorgeous table set up by Frid, complete with the French bulldog seal on the menu? Just gorgeous.
Getting Ready
For getting ready photos, we are including two of Melissa getting her touch ups done and peeking out just before she walks down the aisle in Adelina!
Wedding Ceremony
Tanya and Maxime's Mont Tremblant wedding in Chapelle Saint-Bernard is one of our favourite ceremony shots this year. Not only is this chapel gorgeous, not have middle-aisle frames Tanya and Max so well. We are crazy for symmetrical compositions, as you all know!
Bridesmaids
In this photo, Jane and her girls are just having a Vogue moment at Orchardview - how could we not include them! They are all so beautiful, not to mention super fun to be around with for the day!
Groomsmen
These are handsome men, right here. Jacob and his guys just having a boy-band cover moment before the ceremony. These guys are a riot to be around and definitely had more group photo ideas than we had time for!!
Bride’s Portrait
Vivian's portrait of her veil just flapping around is one of our personal favourites this year. Photos of moments like these is what we live for! :D
Groom's Portrait
If we choose Viv's la Vajol portrait, we have to complete it with Seb's modelesque pose overlooking the Girona valley below.
Wedding Party Portrait
The moment we took this photo of Eugenie and Michael's wedding party, we knew it would easily be one of our favourites. This was one of the wettest and coldest days of October. Having such a big wedding party be, so game to do any photos is a wedding photographer's dream!
Couple’s Portrait
This was tough, as I think we have one favourite portrait from every wedding we do. Still, we chose this one as we believe it encapsulates all of the things that we like in our portraits: the mood, the natural backdrop, the deep shadows, our couples being gorgeous. How beautiful as Cassandra and Adam?
First Dance
We love this first-dance photo as this is literally one of the first first-dance we got to photograph this year (how many "first" can we say in one sentence?). After all the restrictions, we were all yearning for some traditional wedding elements, including this photo of Audrey and Patrick at Le Belvedere.
Reception Moment
One of our favourite wedding shoe-game photos ever. Samantha and Jacob having a blast framed by Frid's gorgeous floral arrangements.
Emotion
We could probably do a photo-essay of all the emotional scenes from Kaylea and Dakota’s wedding: all the laughter and tears throughout the day just made us smile and aww-ed as we were editing these. This one below though is our favourite: Dakota looking back at his sister, who was officiating the wedding, as he waits for Kaylea to walk down the aisle, our hearts all melting collective.
Movement
The things we do for photos. In this series, we see Josh and Erin running away from oncoming traffic on this very rainy day after taking some dancing photos in the middle of the road. Erin trying very hard not get her dress wet and dirty.
Humour
Vivian being thrown up in the air to kick off this wild wedding reception in Spain is one that we will look back with fondness. Not only is Vivian a close friend, her facial expression her just captures her amazingly fun personality!! Love you Viv!
Winter
We haven’t had any winter photos in a while, given the restrictions in 2021 and this one here of Mark and Brady just made it in time for our yearly review. Orcharview, which is usually so green, was blanketed in snow first week of December!
Wedding Video
How excited we are for this wedding capture in this beautiful wedding film at the historic Château Valmont. Emily and Lloyd had the most beautiful intimate wedding during the pandemic with some speeches from across the pond all captured for their memories to cherish and share with friends and family who couldn't make it.
Engagement Video
A sneak peek into Alisha and John's incredible wedding! Complete with a first look, love letter readings to each other, and their first dance! It was made all the more special by capturing their special homage to John's grandfather.
