Best of 2025

hello, my dear friends!

It’s that time of year again: where I become deeply introspective and reflect on the year that has passed. In so many ways (just about all of them), 2025 felt like a complete and utter shitstorm. The ongoing ascent of fascism and AI and state-sanctioned violence, attacks on the queer community, the deployment of ICE as a secret police force. I’m not sure how else to describe it except to say that it is profoundly fucked.

It’s weird to be a creator in a time like this, and I often struggle to know what exactly my role is. Sharing wedding photos in the midst of such an incredible crisis feels surreal; I never want to draw eyes away from the much more pressing atrocities we face in this moment.

So much of my work revolves around joy and presence. Around holding onto a tiny little sliver of a second where things felt good. Maybe right now that’s worth remembering? I’ll leave you with one of my favorite Mary Oliver poems to consider (I told you I’m feeling introspective).

If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy,
don’t hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty
of lives and whole towns destroyed or about
to be. We are not wise, and not very often
kind. And much can never be redeemed.
Still, life has some possibility left. Perhaps this
is its way of fighting back, that sometimes
something happens better than all the riches
or power in the world. It could be anything,
but very likely you notice it in the instant
when love begins. Anyway, that’s often the case.
Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid
of its plenty. Joy is not made to be a crumb.

Don’t Hesitate by Mary Oliver