In 2021 we:

• loved the doggies
• went on two trips
• worked every other second

 

The end.

No but for real 2021 was a year of actual exhaustion . Looking back it’s such a blur of working 60+ hour work weeks, while  simultaneously doing my best to take advantage of this downtime our world’s been given and focus on some personal growth. I’m trying to make this not sound all sound such a downer haha but TBH….I’m tired, emotionally and spiritually. Good news is that the season of wedding reschedules is over (hooray!), our other work obligations seem much more manageable and healthier heading into the new year. 2022 seems like it’ll finally be the end of the emotional rollercoaster whirlwind that was 2020 & 2021. A return to normalcy 🙂

But through the grind, were able to say goodbye to so many things that were holding us back or no longer serving us, mentally and physically. Things like credit cards, car payments, our trailer (goodbye home on wheels!), and are enjoying this new thing called a savings account. Yanno, making up in my 30s for what I did in my 20s. We’re SO thrilled to now be in a healthy position to buy a home this year, which we will begin the process next month. It took us forever to even figure out if we will be sticking to our Wisconsin roots or venturing off to the dreamy California, but we **finally** got some clarity (you’ll have to keep reading to find out!)

All the hard work in 2021 seems to be paying off. I can feel myself taking a deep sigh of relief. Some years are glamorous, and some years are those in-between, get in the zone and focus on your responsibilities type of years. After the past few glamorous years of travel, this year of staying put was SO necessary. And as someone who likes to always add adventure and new things and thrills, I’m very proud I finally put myself in check, and prioritized the hard things first.

Iceland

When we did have a break, we took full advantage! This year we finally crossed off our first international trip, to Iceland! To put mildly, it was INCREDIBLE. Hands down our favorite of all our travels thus far, and honestly there is too much I could say about Iceland to fit into this recap. So if you want the full breakdown, check out the 10 Days around Iceland blog where I dive into things like “Why Iceland?”, our packing list (did everything with no checked bags, also didn’t bring any of my professional cameras -eep! Can ya tell?). I include our 10-day Itinerary, why we choose to vancamp vs hotels, so many photos, and some of our most commonly asked questions. If you’re planning a trip to Iceland or have it on your list, definitely check it out. Otherwise here were some highlights of our trip!

Wedding Season

We returned to the height of our wedding season in July which brought us all over the state, from Milwaukee to Eau Claire to Up North. We even got to photograph a wedding just 10 minutes away from our house – so rare!

We always love a good road trip, and this year our drives to/from weddings became extra important. Our schedules were so busy in summer and fall that oftentimes the only time Alex and I could breathe and reconnect with one another was on these drives. 90’s jock jams anyone?

It’s already been two months since our last November wedding and I’m already missing the high and connection and purpose it brings. I know a lot of people won’t relate to this feeling, but as a wedding photographer, nothing beats arriving at the venue on a wedding day, walking in and greeting the beaming couple. We get to forget about our own lives and for that day, all our energy is refocused into capturing the JOY of another’s! No matter what is going on in our lives, weddings always feel like a mental release. There is truly no better energy to be a part of every weekend. This year, I think everyone was just so happy to finally reach this day and see extended family and long distance friends again, the energy was extra contagious!

Looking ahead, I am excited for a well-balanced 2022 season. I’ve found I truly love sticking to 10-15 weddings each summer because I can focus so much more on each couple with much more intention, so we continued with that mindset into 2022. We are now currently booking into 2023 and have some incredible venues and even a destination out to the East coast on the books! We are so excited to continue doing what we love and can’t wait to meet and work with all of you!

And of course, a very special thank you to all 2021 couples. It’s been quite the ride for some of you! We are so thankful to have been let into your special days, every couple blew us away with their kindness, grace, and warmth. I wish I could share so many details of each but this would get verrrrry long! So I’ll stick to just highlighting each couple 🙂 Cheers to another beautiful year of weddings! We all made it through the past two years of reschedules and everyone was happily married! Yay! Here’s a look back:

 

We also photographed some engagement sessions, lifestyle sessions, maternity photos, and a surprise proposal!

SWEET SUMMERTIME

In between weddings and editing, were so many backyard hangs. Grilling hamburgers, throwing the ball around in the yard, and getting out on the water as much as we could!

F I V E  Years Married!

We celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary in August by renting an airbnb in our favorite spot in all of Wisconsin. I almost don’t want to say cause it’s our secret spot!! If you’ve never been to the driftless area of Vernon County and you love rolling hills, you need to go! Ontario specifically holds a lot of meaning for us, so many memories of camping and Kickapoo River canoe trips! This is Amish country, so if you like having lots of things to do just be aware that this is more a place to seek out if you want some peace and quiet and nature. The rolling hills are so surprising, it reminds us of being in Tennessee. After a weekend of fully unplugging, it made us seriously want to live out on the country. We are always happier with less and less choices brings more peace and simplicity. We bought food at the only grocery store in town, and made all our meals. We watched the sun set and lightning storms and the sun rise. We hiked and kayaked and watched on top the hill the amish return home below us after a long day’s work. Cows moo’d and it never felt so…..soothing LOL. So typical Wisconsin, how could we ever leave this state?

 

2021 CULTURE

It wouldn’t be a 2021 year recap without mentioning alllll the other things that made up the year: NFT’s and Crypto becoming mainstream, Netflix shows like Squid Games & Bridgerton bringing in millions of views, conversations on mental health and normalizing therapy were at an all time high, the first same-sex dance couple were paired on Dancing with The Stars, Brittney is free!!, Chris Harrison exits Bachelor Franchise after defending racial insensitivity (as a long time Bachelor viewer this was HUGE), the realness of Cancel Culture, the Capital riot and Biden is president, continued polarization and The Social Dilemma documentary continuing to bring social media issues to light. The government finally confirms UFO’s are real and no one reacts lolol, burnt out workers, everyone (EVERYONE) is short staffed, workplaces reinventing the new workplace normal. The production and delivery of vaccines and boosters and reopening borders for travel, Jeff Bezos space flights begin, weather is more extreme and California is on fire….

Which leads me to our…

Cali Road Trip: From Vegas to Tahoe, Along Scenic Hwy 395

We just so happened to plan a trip through Cali along their current fire zone. It was a brilliant idea! To be fair, we had no idea when planning how badly the current fires would actually effect our trip. The month leading up, we knew there were some seriously bad fires just south of Lake Tahoe that did end up dying out thank goodness. There were still awful fires taking place further south in Sequoia National Park, but being that Cali is a large and long state, we truly didn’t think that we would be affected all the way up north. Turns out, when there is wind, we were way wrong.

California Fires are no joke, and although this trip was not quite at all what we had planned (for reasons I won’t mention like getting smoked out of Mammoth Lakes area where we planned to spend 3 days, poor visibility in Lake Tahoe, cancelling Yosemite due to air quality conditions – AGAIN lol some day we will get here, and lastly, having no good hiking air or visibility of the Sierra Nevada mountains the entire drive home – this was the main reason we chose this particular 395 highway road trip). For someone who is faint of heart and always thinks they’re going to die, this turned out to not be the best choice of location lol. If you’re trying to visit this California mountain area, it may be best to do so in June when fire season is less in full-swing.

After our first two nights in Vegas (one to sleep after a late flight, and 2nd night enjoying the night life), we were excited to hit the road. First up, Death Valley National Park just outside Vegas. We *finally checked this one off our bucket list* after being near this area so many times. If you are are on a road trip, and it’ll be faster to drive through it, definitely do it because although the connection in the park sucks, and the name of the place sounds frightening, it definitely offers some interesting landscape and views. Would it be a place I’d seek out more than a couple hours? Mmmm. Probably not. If you’re into photography definitely wait til sunrise or sunset. We traveled midday in the hot sun and the colors in Artist’s Palette definitely weren’t as vivid (normally it looks like pastel chalk covered the mountains).

As mentioned, there’s NO connection or radio stations whatsoever for four hours or more, so you’ll have to sing songs for like 4 hours, and then 4 hours more as you travel on the 395. This is a very desolate area so make sure your gas tank is full and you bring plenty of water in case of a breakdown. Especially at the end of the main road through the park, there is a lot of uphill climbing, and after spending 4 hours in one of the hottest places on earth, we definitely can understand why cars break down. There’s even a 15 minute section where they advise you to turn off air conditioning to avoid overheating. We took in the views and were very happy to make it out (alive) and with no car problems!

We drove along the gorgeous 395, with the Sierra Nevada mountain views waving to you along the left, and passed by the charming small towns. Stop in Lone Pine and check out the Alabama Hills if you have time. These rocks remind me of Joshua Tree and there are some picturesque views of Mt Whitney! We also highly recommend checking out some hiking around Big Pine, as seen in 2020’s Cali road trip. We were short on time so we kept going.

As we were finally approaching our first main location, Mammoth Lakes, we realized the mountains were looking really hazy. We kept traveling up the mountain, and the light between the trees was so eerie as the sun was setting. Almost like a heavy glowing fog in between the trees. I wish I would have stepped out for a picture. When we got to the top of the hill at our resort, the air was now thick and gray. No one was there except for one parked car, a complete ghost town. Out of curiosity, we covered our mouths from the smoke filled air and walked into the lodge entrance (half expecting it to be closed). The front desk man was busy answering calls on whether or not they were closing due to fires, and assuring people that he wasn’t sure, (LOL), and as far as he knows, they’re open. I wanted to leave due to my gut instinct, but we had spent $$ on this nicer resort lodge so we checked into our room, thinking maybe we’re just from Wisconsin and this is Cali-normal.

After 15 minutes kicking our feet up in bed, we realized our noses and eyes were actually stinging. Okay….probbbbably not healthy lol. So we looked up the air quality online and saw the chart below. We were at 172 – the highest on the chart for the entire area of California and definitely not healthy, and nothing freaks me out more than not being able to breathe. It was too late to fully leave the Mammoth Lakes area, I certainly didn’t want to drive in the mountains in the dark to reach Tahoe. But at the very least, we decided to go back down the mountain where the air quality was much less intense and I felt I could sleep the night.

 

The next morning, we lucked out with the air being good enough to get a morning view of Convict Lake followed by a little hot springs soak. There are so many hot springs in this area we would have loved to explore them all! We continued up to Lake Tahoe where we were optimistic air would be clearer. I forgot how beautiful the drive into Tahoe is, it felt so good to be back especially after the place almost burned a month prior. We checked into our hotel and decided to listen to some live music and grab a bite to eat at our favorite Base Camp pizza. The musician felt connected to Alex’s dancing enthusiasm lolol and after the show, he came up to talk to us.

We got into talking about the area and how we were considering moving here. And he basically told us how terrible the fires and evacuation process has been on him. He laughed and said rather seriously, we should sit tight in Wisco cause soon everyone will be relocating to us in the midwest. I left this conversation realizing this dream of living in California, would always stay a dream. The entire past couple years since visiting California for the first time, I dreamed of moving out here. And during quarantine when everyone was relocating and able to work from home, we actually were truly considering it. So much so that this vacation was actually half us deciding where (which mountain towns) we might want to live. There’s just not a ton of mountain hiking in Wisconsin LOL, and being such lovers of hiking and mountains it made sense to move to them. But it finally all clicked after this conversation from this local.

As beautiful as my California dream was, my gut instinct was telling me this is not where we want to invest or be right now, or even long term. I came to the realization I could not live in a place that I didn’t feel safe majority of the time. I’d much rather live where the clean air and water is. After months and months of long talks and agony over wanting to make up our minds, the smoke ironically gave me clarity. Wisconsin now felt more appealing than ever. We can always just visit Cali on vacays and it’ll be all the more reason to appreciate the mountain hikes when we are able!

So our mountain trip through Cali Hwy 395 filled with alpine lakes hikes and hot spring soaks suddenly was cut very short and turned into us bumming around Vegas not knowing what to do for the last 5 days of our trip (ps: turns out, one night on the Vegas strip is **definitely enough**). But it felt good to finally have this clarity and peace of mind so in a way this trip served a huge purpose. And we were still so happy to get some time away and in the mountains. We got to explore new hot springs along the 395 and revisited some our favorite Vegas hikes. I think we’re ready to hang up the Cali towel for a little while, but eventually we’d love to come back for a second try when there is less fire risk and check off more hot springs & hiking trails we had initially planned!

Closing out the Year

The rest of October/November was spent in a work/editing haze, wrapping up the wedding season and sending off so many galleries. Putting in the most hours ever worked **in my life** juggling meeting demands at my other job. But in early November we got lucky with beautiful weather for a much needed girls overnight getaway in the Dells. Spa, shopping, restaurants, hiking. A perfect 24 hour escape!

 

At last, December. It’s actually so funny to compare this year in review to last year’s, the effort given in Christmas 2020 was AT AN ALL TIME HIGH lol. Instead, this year I spent my time in recovery mode, focusing on personal projects that I love, like sending out client gifts, and finally going through our vacay photos and putting together our Iceland blog. We had a great time getting together with the full immediate fam this year in-person thanks to no positive COVID tests. I got dressed up for something other than a wedding for the first time all year, and spent New Year’s Eve grocery shopping with Alex for the perfect cheeses in preparation to stay in to watch the ball drop over a steak dinner and charcuterie board 🙂

Looking ahead to 2022

We are excited for a much more balanced schedule. And less vacations (woah did I say that). As amazing as road trips are, doing two 10-days road trips in the same summer/fall season was a lot to plan out. For 2022, I think our biggest priority will be on buying a house and making sure we have everything set for that!

Now of course we can’t go a full year without travel, so we did score some $100 round trip flight deals from Appleton to Denver for early June, where we plan to do another 10-day road trip (insert cry emoji….we just can’t get enough road trips!). While in Colorado, we’ll be seeing my fav band Lord Huron at Red Rocks Amphitheater, a venue that has been high up on my bucket list  am so stoked! Not sure what else we’ll do in Colorado as it isn’t fully mapped out yet, but we would love to do some hikes around Aspen and see what that fuss is all about! As well as Colorado Springs/Garden of the Gods, and the town of Ouray to try out UTV’ing for the first time. Overall, just take in the mountain views and hot springs. Hopefully being June there won’t be any fires in this area. We plan to do this by van again, since we have a voucher for Escape Campervans after we cancelled our trip to the Tetons in exchange for Iceland (are you sick of our van travels through mountains yet)? Maybe someday we’ll sit on a beach on a tropical vacation LOL.

As far as goals…we’ll have a bit more tangible goals for 2022 after this coming weekend. I rented a winter’s getaway retreat airbnb in the woods for Alex and I to just be still. I always love this quiet time after the new year. There’s less distractions and I have much more capacity to think clearly and creatively. So we’ll be doing a necessary lil detox from 2021, get some pampered massages at Sundara (which we have never been to before!! So excited), and use the stillness to brainstorm and listen to what we truly need right now, and from this coming year.

If I had to choose a word for 2022, it would be: Connection

Did anyone else feel a bit disconnected this year? It feels like 95% of my waking hours were spent working from home, so I guess it’s easy to see why lol. I spent so much of this year behind a computer screen, that at times, it felt my only connection to the outside world was listening to podcasts.. while at work LOL.

This was the year that therapy and mental health became normalized. It seemed everyone was using this downtime to really put in the work and challenge and grow themselves. I spent my workdays listening to so many podcasts on self-growth and life coaching this year that I’m a littttttle burnt out haha! But this was a goal of mine going into 2021, to further this exploration into thine self, and I will say, the hours put into listening to these types of conversations every single day (shout out to Jay Shetty’s On Purpose) have definitely helped tremendously over the course of a year. I was able to recognize and address some unhealthy patterns and realize that I do not always need to be *doing*fixing*planning* something. I can simply just be.

 

The biggest mental health takeaways this year:

A few stood out from the rest, so I wanted to share them in case anyone needs a lil dose of self-growth heading into this new year!

• You do not always need a plan. (MEEEEE MEE ME). It’s okay to sit back and just experience what comes.
• Your life is only as good as your mindset. If you’re not happy, change your mindset.
• Be more interested in how your life FEELS than how your life looks. You can’t be present when you’re on your phone.
• Get inspired by your own story, your own vibe, YOU are all the inspiration you will ever need.
• Pay attention to what you feel like after spending time with someone. It’ll tell you everything you need to know.
• You are not responsible for other people’s happiness. Release this pressure.
• Just because you carry it well doesn’t mean it’s not heavy. Let it go.
• You don’t have a soul, you are a soul and you have a body. (I don’t know how to explain my feelings about this one without going super deep, but basically…this one helped me finally release the pressure of physical perfection most woman like me have. I realized the soul is just so much more profound than the body. Like, if you really think of it, the body is really just an outer shell, a platform that allows our soul to be in the physical world. I’m not saying don’t take care of your body and be healthy, but definitely don’t measure your worth or let anyone else measure your worth based on this outer shell).
• Setting a boundary is not being rude, sharing your feelings is not being dramatic, having needs or holding others accountable and having expectations is not being difficult.
• Don’t forget to drink water and get some sunlight. Because you’re basically a house plant with more complicated emotions.
• Just Be (thanking Alex for reminding me of this one when I need it most) 🙂

 

So many lessons learned this year, and I’m happy to have done self-reflective work, but now I am ready to expand outward again. At the end of the day, all I know is I am not my fullest, happiest self when I am in isolation 95% of the time. Is anyone? I want to build more connection with other people and things around me and outside my four walls.  I understand that I am who and what I surround myself with whether it’s the TV shows I watch, the podcasts I listen to, the people I follow, or the company I choose. I think the world can all agree we’re a little burnt out and we just want some peace, happiness, joy again. I’d love to start finding the connection and community again. Whether that’s getting back to sharing my purpose/ voice through my photography business, moving to a new area, finding new hobbies and meeting new friends, volunteering or helping out in a cause we believe in to make an even greater impact and connection to the world we live in.

So long 2021. You exhausted me and challenged me. But I’m ready to take these lessons with me in 22′. Cheers to everyone for making it this far! You are here. You are alive! Let’s hope for a lighter, more connected year!

 

Thank you all for following along with me another year! I truly hope you have found something beautiful to take away from the past year. Do you have a word or mantra for 2022? Leave it in the comments below and let’s cheer eachother on!

As always, stay adventurous – Meghan