Our 12 Most Popular Blogs of 2020
January 29, 2021
The year 2020 looked nothing like a normal year in a multitude of ways, especially in the wedding and event industry. However, one thing that that didn’t change in 2020 was Sarah and I’s commitment to blogging every single one of our couple sessions, and continuing to provide great content for our audience. Whether it was a personal peek into our own lives, advice we wrote for our clients, or educational material that we posted for newer photographers to follow along, it was a busy year for the HSP Blog!
And you guys — our wonderful and gracious readers — really showed up! With more than 24,000 reads on the blog this year across 138 posts, you guys apparently couldn’t get enough of us! But from those dozens of posts, 12 emerge each year as the most popular content. And here they are, ranked by number of views!
Our 12 Most Popular Blogs of 2020
#12 – Socially-Distant Virginia Beach Oceanfront Elopement
When lockdown hit and Caroline and Connor’s big King Family Vineyards Wedding Celebration was pushed to 2021, they went for the next best thing: saying “We do!” near Caroline’s family home in Virginia Beach. Although originally scheduled for early-April, they made a last-minute decision to move their elopement up a couple weeks to late-March. Good thing! The Governor shut down beaches literally the morning after they were married 😳
#11 – Breathtaking Spring Wedding at the Market at Grelen
It’s no surprise to us that Kalene and Reid’s gorgeous Spring wedding made this list. This was the last wedding we shot in 2020 before the words “quarantine” “stay at home” and “mask” were as ubiquitous as they are now. With a March 14th wedding date, none of us truly knew what was about to hit us 😂
#10 – Lovely Autumn Wedding at Keswick Vineyards in Charlottesville
Thanks to extensive COVID-19 testing, this was the closest thing we had to a normal wedding in the post-COVID world. Christy and Matt’s wedding was a flurry of gorgeous, high-end details, fall foliage, and wonderful people excited to celebrate! Just like Kalene and Reid above, we first met Christy and Matt during their surprise proposal!
#9 – Double-Reception September Wedding at Sylvanside Farm
Joanna and Brady took a totally unique route when it came to mitigating COVID risk while still hosting a wonderful celebration: they essentially split their wedding in two! Their wedding party and families were invited to their ceremony, followed by an abbreviated outdoor reception, complete with dinner, cake-cutting, and speeches from parents. Then, most of the family left, a few additional friends arrived, and the dance floor opened for a party!
#8 – Emotional Fall Wedding at the Lodge at Mount Ida Farm
Although every wedding we shot in 2020 was up in the air at points due to COVID, no wedding was closer to not happening than Alex and Brandon’s! Brandon had been stationed in Japan for the last 18 months with the US military, and due to flight delays and travel restrictions, didn’t arrive in Virginia until 36 hours before the wedding 😱
#7 – Elaborate COVID-19 Backyard Wedding in Charlottesville, VA
Deep in the midst of COVID uncertainty, Mary Kate and Justin made the decision that they were getting married on June 23rd one way or another! Also, shout-out to MK and Justin for making this list two years in a row! Their engagement session was featured as one of our most popular blogs of 2019 as well!
#6 – A Guy’s Guide to Proposing Well | Part 6: How to Propose to Your Girlfriend
Although we first wrote this blog series waaaay back in 2018, it got a total facelift and a major update in the Spring of 2020! This guide apparently made friends with Google, as dozens of nervous boyfriends turned to the internet for help on planning their proposal — and found us!
#5 – 3 Tips for the Best UVA Graduation Pictures
Despite the fact that the University of Virginia effectively shut down and sent students home in March, enough students remained behind in off-campus housing, or came back to C’ville for a photoshoot, that we still had plenty of grad sessions this Spring! And apparently, they and their peers were eager to learn how to get the best grad photos possible!
#4 – Faux Engagement Session Turned Surprise Proposal in Corolla, North Carolina
I may be a bit biased when I say that this was my favorite session we captured in 2020, but hey — you only get to photograph your brother’s surprise proposal once! This proposal was almost 8 months in the making, and worth every bit of planning that went into it!
#3 – How We Renovated our Basement Into an AirBnB Apartment
Just days after posting this blog, it immediately jumped into our most-viewed blogs of all time. This blog was the culmination of 4 months and $60,000 of basement renovations, and it sparked a real Chip and Joanna Gaines vibe that Sarah and I didn’t know we had inside us!
#2 – A Guy’s Guide to Proposing Well | Part 4: When is My Boyfriend Going to Propose Already??
Like we said before, after giving our “How to Propose” blog series a makeover in 2020, it was getting some serious Google Search love. Of course, the ONE post from the 7-part series that Sarah wrote got more views than the other 6 (that I wrote) combined 😂 I guess that just goes to show the power of curiosity as girlfriends across the country wait on their boo to pick up the hint!
#1 – Best Engagement Session Locations in Charlottesville, VA
Although we technically wrote this blog in 2019, we updated it back in April with a slew of new locations, and for the second year in a row, it became one of our most popular blogs! We know that with almost 1,500 views, it wasn’t just our couples who were checking out this blog, but couples and photographers from all over Charlottesville. Hey, we’re happy to help!
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Interested in more Best-Of Content? Check out the best blogs from other years!
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If you’d like to see more of our favorite wedding content (and learn about what a wedding photography experience with us is like), head over to our wedding page by clicking here!