Best of 2020: Our Year in Pictures
Best of 2020: Our Year in Pics | Apollo Fields Wedding Photography | Destination Weddings During Quarantine
Apollo Fields 2020 Reflections
It will be impossible for us to ever look back on our business year of 2020 without thinking of COVID, but it is also important for us to acknowledge that in between all the quarantining and social distancing, there were a lot of celebrations and love that we were lucky to be a part of.
It’s easy to think of 2020 as a bust, but when I went back into each wedding, job, gig, etc and pulled one image from each one, I saw a year that was full of adventure and taking care of one another. It was a wild year, one with immense sentiment and adventure. We will never forget the ways in which our couples and families rallied to make their Plan B’s and even Plan C’s come to life.
So consider this complication mostly for funsies: a sweet throwback to a year that we will never forget. One where in the middle of a pandemic and my entire pregnancy, we still managed to capture 26 weddings and put almost 30k miles on our cars making it happen. A year where we said “yes” as much as we possibly could, despite all the curveballs and weird circumstances. Not a single one of our weddings was unaffected and I spent countless hours on the phone with couples who were devastated to leave their dream weddings behind, but through all the heartache, managed to find epic ways to celebrate nonetheless.
We will forever be grateful for everyone who cared for us last year— it was mostly the small things that carried our morale across the most unpredictable year of our lives. Kim and Alex sent us a package of specialty teas when they had to postpone their wedding, with a short and sweet note acknowledging the hardship of running a biz throughout the pandemic. Jackie and Eric handmade us an Apollo Fields Christmas tree ornament with our logo. My brother in law sewed us a blanket for our baby and stitched his name into the corner.
People sent us notes, gave us hand-me-downs, worked their reschedules around our calendars, and simply checked in when we needed it most. They offered to pay their balances early when they saw small businesses across the whole country hurting. We felt the reciprocity of real community in ways that we never could have imagined.
So year, 2020 was a bit of a trash year and we weren’t exactly sad to see it go. But looking back at these pictures, we have so much to be grateful for. Cheers to our Apollo Fields fam— the hodgepodge of beautiful souls that make up our livelihood and keep us hungry for more adventures.
Love,
Heather, Terrence, and Capa
Chief Hosa Lodge Wedding in Golden, CO
Surya & Meena’s Wedding | Chief Hosa Lodge Wedding Venue | Genesee, Colorado Weddings | Indian Weddings| Apollo Fields Wedding Photography
One of my favorite things about being a wedding photographer is getting to immerse myself in in different cultures, traditions, languages, and religions. I loved being able to capture Surya and Meena’s Indian Wedding at Chief Hosa Lodge because they did such a beautiful job of incorporating their values with their personalities.
It was a hot summer day on the top of the mountains in Colorado. This is pretty typical, especially for a brunch wedding, to have the sun just blaring down. Yes, it’s a ‘dry heat’ and having lived in both climates, I can attest that a dry heat is much, much more bearable. But at a certain point, hot is hot. This day was hot. The metal rings on my camera lenses felt like they were on fire! But I barely even noticed once the ceremony began, even when we had the fire going in the middle of the mandap. The energy was so strong that everyone became very focused on the rituals of the Indian ceremony.
Chief Hosa Lodge is a great location for weddings, too. It’s tucked away off of I-70 so you feel remote even though there is easy access to the city and easy-to-navigate roads. It’s also easy to get to from DIA without having to go too far into the mountains to still have an authentic, Colorado mountain wedding! The space is rustic and has an open cabin concept, but one of the big plusses is the access to their working kitchen. The food was DIY at Surya and Meena’s wedding so it was really easy for them to load in-and-out, prep, and serve! I was also enthusiastic to eat all of the authentic cuisine, especially because I knew that there would be tons of great vegetarian options!
I love all of the symbolism and meaning behind Hindu ceremonies. I think there is such a strength and beauty in the way that the union is officiated and how the families are honored. I’ve had the privilege of photographing a few Indian weddings and I love that every time I do, I learn something new. I was recently talking to a friend about this element of shooting weddings. She has a more conventional office job and hasn’t had the same exposure to different cultures through her work which made me really grateful to have the career that I do!
