April 2020: Locked down at home
Update from Sam and Steve during the Covid-19 health crisis
It goes without saying that March and April 2020 have been pretty extraordinary. Like everyone else in the UK, we are in “Lock Down” at home ; in our case, at our house in Bicester. Its just Sam and I, and our two spaniels Poppy and Billy. Our 5 kids are grown up and have left home so, apart from the regular video calls on Zoom, we haven’t seen them in 6 weeks. From a wedding photography perspective, everything is on pause. We shot our last wedding on March 1st (soon to be on the blog); Daisy and Luke at one of our favourite venues, Cotswolds Hotel and Spa, Chipping Norton. We had our last wedding fair on March 15th at the lovely Manor Farm Barn, just before the lock down was announced.
An image from Daisy and Luke’s wedding in March at Cotswolds Hotel and Spa
Since then, we have been working hard with our 2020 couples with weddings from March through to July to reschedule. As this is over 20 weddings, trying to find alternative dates for later in 2020 (fingers crossed) or 2021) has been quite a challenge! We are pleased that we have been able to reschedule all but one of these weddings.
As this period would normally be one of our busiest, it would also, naturally, have been a our business receives a lot of revenue. Not surprisingly, wedding photography is a seasonal business, with 80% of our revenue coming in 6 months. So, like all wedding suppliers in these unprecidented time, cash is a little tight for us right now. As we are directors of a small limited company, we aren’t eligible for any of the government support schemes (for example, for self employed people). However, we do manage cash carefully, so, assuming we get back to some kind of normality later this year, we will get through this tough period.
As we were the 2019 Guides for Brides Award Winners for Photography, we were naturally delighted to have been named finalists for the 2020 awards. The awards dinner should have been in April, but have now been postponed until October. Whilst its a shame of course that it has been (understandly) postponed, it does mean we get to stay the current award winners a little longer!
Judy Mansfield, Cherish Celebrants presenting Sam and Steve with the 2019 Guides for Brides Photography Award. Photo by Nigel Chapman Photography
We paused our regular podcast, the Sam and Steve Podcast, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, we wanted to focus our efforts on helping couples with rescheduled weddings. Secondly, it didn’t seem right to do our normal show with other wedding suppliers who of course are also focusing on their customers, and their own business survival. However, the show will be coming back soon, with a slightly different feel and focus. Make sure you subscribe! (It is available on Apple, Google, Spotify, Breaker and most other well known apps).
Cover image for the Sam and Steve Podcast. Taken at the 2019 Birmingham Christmas Market
We will also resume regular updates and posts to this website! We are planning a new site and have been working closely with the fantastic Grizzly Bear Designs in Manchester on a brand new site and branding. This was scheduled to go live in May, hence us not updating our current site. However, whilst we will still be going ahead with the new site, we have paused the work on this, due to the need to manage our cashflow carefully with all the postponements. We hope to resume this in a couple of months. So, until then, we will be launching a new feature “Why I love this Picture”. This will be a regular posting of some of our favourite images we have taken over the last 7 years, with a little background to the photo and why we like it so much. Don’t forget to check it out!
Most importantly, we wish all of you a safe and healthy time in this situation. If any of our bride and grooms to be have any questions regarding their wedding plans in this difficult time just call or email us at any time. We are here to help.
Take care, stay safe and stay well everyone.
Steve
