I am so happy that it’s summer – the days are longer, the sun is out, and planning shoots gets just a bit more exciting in this season. It helps when you’re shooting with a classic chapel, gorgeous flowers, and even a hidden community garden (which is so totally Vienna). In fact, our hour-long session felt way too short and I could have spent another hour with these two if it hadn’t been so gosh darn hot outside!

If these faces look familiar, it’s because they are! Wei and Paul were my bride and groom earlier in June and I just blogged about their Vienna Presbyterian Church wedding and lunch reception at Hunter House a couple weeks ago. Some timeline changes meant we weren’t able to capture more than a couple portraits of just the two of them that day, so we went back out another day soon after and took our time getting lovely portraits with less stress and plenty of time! While we always strive to get portraits on the wedding day since getting all dressed up again later can be quite a hassle (and expensive if you want hair and makeup done again), it ended up being a great choice for these two as they were able to spend that time together more relaxed and with more privacy than they would have if we had tried to fit it into the actual wedding day after some bumps in the road affected our timeline. The added-on session is an excellent choice for couples who want more privacy and more time together for portraits in their dress and tie!

Just like the wedding day, we started back at Vienna Presbyterian Church for some portraits in front of the historic chapel where they got married, romantic images along the path out front, and some sneaky but gorgeous photos among the flowers at the historic library across the street. Then we moved over to Hunter House at Nottoway Park where we were surrounded by greenery and found a vibrant community garden tucked away behind the bushes. I’m hopeful that I’ll get to come back to that garden for another portrait session sometime soon because we only got to spend a few minutes here before the heat of the late summer afternoon became too overwhelming and it was full of greenery, roses, sunflowers, and more!