There are so many great little photo spots sprinkled all over Northern Virginia and Historic Occoquan is definitely one of them! From the cute houses and shops lining the streets, to the lush green waterfront, to the assortment of colorful flowers and trees found on properties throughout the hilly area, there’s a great variety of spots to be found just on the first couple of streets near the waterfront. And it helps when it’s an area with a little bit of special meaning to the couple. Bridget and Josh were visiting Occoquan and wanted to use the opportunity to take some engagement photos there, as it was also a spot where they’d been on dates and where Josh had family – he even pointed out the shop where his grandmother used to work.

Now I’m not going to lie – shooting here at sunset was a challenge I wasn’t expecting. Not having spent much time in Occoquan myself, I had no idea that the waterfront and historic main road was situated at the bottom of a quite steep, large hill covered in trees which totally blocked out our gorgeous sunset light – there’s nothing more heartbreaking to a photographer than having a beautiful, partly-cloudy evening with lots of golden hour light available all to have it blocked out by the landscape around you! Bridget and Josh were great troopers as we searched for the best spots we could despite the rapidly-declining lighting, and in the end we still got lots of cozy and colorful shots. In the future though – I will definitely be scheduling sessions here for sunrise or midday and save those gorgeous sunset golden hour sessions for venues that don’t ruin the fun by blocking it all out!

I’m excited to photograph Bridget and Josh’s wedding coming up this fall; they’ll be having their wedding at an AirBnB in Northern Virginia and I know they’re going to make such a fun bride and groom. I can’t wait to share their wedding day just a couple months from now!