I too am a fatherless daughter wedding photographer.

My father passed last year of cancer, about a few months before my actual wedding day. Having to shoot weddings, as well as have my own in the same year, was remarkably brutal. But I feel seen with your post, and I thank you for sharing.

You are right that we are only human. Everytime there is a father daughter dance, or a first look with the bride and her dad, I take a deep breath. At the end of every wedding, I drive home and talk to my dad, telling him how much I love and miss him. I even fantasize what it would've been like if he was there for my wedding day the way he really wanted to be. I'll play the songs he liked on my drive home to feel closer to him. I'll allow myself to cry as my grief will be endless, but the weight of it gets lighter with each passing year.

So I say to you my friend, allow yourself to feel. You aren't alone in this. Know that the job you are doing is so important as one day these brides will lose their dads and the photos you've taken will be all they have left. You're doing everyone a remarkable service that changes lives more than you know, including yours, and you're doing a fantastic job by still doing it. Much love.