One of the first things I learned as a Washington, DC wedding photographer early on in my career is that the best time for shooting portraits is at golden hour. This ensures soft, even light which leads to beautiful skin tones and a dreamy glow. Sure, I can shoot any time of day — just look at a wedding when I often cover an event for 9-10 hours straight! — but, whenever possible, I love shooting at sunrise or sunset.

Often times, I end up shooting at sunrise as there are naturally less people out and about in the city. But when shooting in the colder months, you have to take other factors into consideration. For E & V’s engagement session, we were shooting in January, so I knew it was most important to have them comfortable in the mid-day warmth (since the sun sets at like 5:00PM this time of year!) rather than having a completely empty city. Luckily for us, we actually had both!

It snowed the week prior to our shoot, so I had my work cut out for myself location-wise — I wanted as little of the lingering snow (and lingering holiday decorations!!) in their photos as possible so it wouldn’t feel quite so seasonal. I’m happy to report that I’m thrilled with the results; with the exception of a few photographs, I feel like it’s almost impossible to tell which time of year we shot these photos!

We spent some time visiting all of my favorite spots in Old Town Alexandria — the cobblestone streets, the brick alleyways, and the waterfront area. Despite it being the late afternoon, we ended up having the entire place to ourselves which allowed these two to warm up in front of the camera in preparation for their big day!

I just captured their Army Navy Club wedding late last month and cannot wait to share more in the coming weeks!