How do I come back from failure after health crisis?

Cross posted

All advice appreciated… I know this was a f up but I really didn’t want to use AI or an editor

Back story: started my wedding photography career and booked around 25 weddings last year. During my busy season September to end of December I got very very ill. I was misdiagnosed with the wrong condition and put on hardcore pills. These made me so sick, extremely depressed. Couldn’t even get out of bed. I wasn’t working, couldn’t edit or accept clients anymore.

Note, I showed up to all my weddings, did the full job, sent sneak peeks. But.. once I became so bedridden I couldn’t even edit. Galleries were late. I’m talking 5 weeks past contract date the latest. Average 1-2 weeks late. This made people very angry. I also didn’t want to use AI tools due to my specific editing style.

I’ve had people call me out on facebook groups, do chargebacks, demand full refunds due to this. Which is absolutely ridiculous to me.. I’ve been so understanding why people would be angry but I did deliver the fully edited photos. And the contract was completed. My contract protects me, but still people were so angry at me. They even would recruit people to attack my personal facebook page. It was a health crisis.

I have seen where photographers have upright scammed people and never delivered photos after a whole year. I never did that and I always showed up, was kind and did the job. I tried to communicate each late gallery.

Moving forward, I will not accept weddings.. but how can I even get clients now? My income dropped drastically by not doing weddings. How can I still make money? My primary focus is engagements and elopements. I’m so guilty I don’t even want to post photos. I haven’t posted since September.

Edit: not acting like a victim just wondering how to move forward. I did offer partial refunds & some 10% to ones that were 1 week late.