Tracy & Matt's Fourth of July Beach Elopement at Crab Meadow in Northport | Long Island Weddings | Apollo Fields Wedding Photographer

My Fourth of July began at 4:15AM (the same time that many of yours might have been ending)! I woke up to a black night with no sign of sunrise, went downstairs, drank a cup of tea, and forced my reluctant dogs to go to the bathroom outside. Even they weren’t ready to be up, but I had been stirring every fifteen minutes for the past few hours, squinting at my clock to see if it was time to go to work yet.

Go to work. A sentence that I’ve been looking forward to for MONTHS during this pandemic. While many people might have eased into this stay-at-home lifestyle, I clung to the promise that I would be able to go back to shooting on location. Working with couples, documenting their important milestones, traveling to new locations, celebrating their love— all of this is my muse and very much what keeps the gas in my tank.

None of this quarantine felt like a vacation to me, and it did not “recharge my batteries” like it has for some. I love what I do, and that is why I was especially excited for Tracy and Matt’s elopement on the Fourth. At around 4:30, I grabbed my cameras, hopped in the car, and drove to the beach.

I was the first one there and loved the idea that this location would inevitably blow up with families later that afternoon, but for that moment, it felt like mine. The air was still cool and a breeze rippled across the sand. The first light of dawn was breaking, and before long, Tracy and Matt were exchanging their vows against the still ocean, with only the company of their officiant and myself (while I doubled as their witness).

I don’t take these moments lightly. To be included in these sacred experiences is a privilege and it brings me so much purpose to capture even—or perhaps especially—the most intimate of elopements.

There is no “right” or “wrong” way to navigate reschedules as a 2020 couple-- you just have to do what is best for you guys. But let’s be serious, that’s what weddings SHOULD be all about in the first place! If there has been one silver lining that the coronavirus has had on the wedding industry, I believe it is that couples are having to step back and reevaluate their priorities more than they might have had to in the past. A lot of the more frivolous parts of planning simply aren’t important anymore, and maybe they never were.

At the end of the day, a wedding is about two people committing their love and lives to one another. It is no secret that my favorite weddings have always been a bit non-traditional, incorporating personalized details and reimagined rituals. This new wedding landscape is naturally conducive to these kinds of weddings, and it has been so refreshing to see couples adapting with grace and mindfulness.