Hey friends! Each winter, our business transitions from the non-stop shooting and editing of weddings and engagement sessions of the fall into a more internally-focused time. We often use the month of January to reflect on the last year, and really delve into the business side of our photography business. This means lots of spreadsheets, lots of numbers, and lots of future-focused conversations.

But in the midst of combing through all the numbers and meeting with tons of potential brides (we’ve met with 8 in just the last two weeks!), we love to be able to take a break and write a few blogs that are a bit more fun, like this one! Each year, we love to post our favorite photos from the entire previous year of photography! Well, actually, it’s really two or three photos from each our favorite sessions, but after taking 135,000 photos in 2019 (more than 50 weddings and engagement sessions), we think we have an excuse to narrow things down a bit 🙂

So without further ado, here are Hunter and I’s absolute favorite photos that we took in 2018!

Best of Proposal Photos

Matt got down on one knee and asked Christy to marry him literally moments after they turned in their final assignment of law school! We’re so excited to capture these new attorney’s during their engagement session and their wedding later this year!

The best part about Monish and Samantha’s proposal was that unbeknownst to Sam, her family had flown to Virginia and was waiting just around the corner, watching her surprise proposal! Of course, they revealed themselves once we snapped a few portraits 😉

Best of Engagement Photos

We had the opportunity to capture Jeremy and Teresa’s couple session in the thick of the Arizona Desert when we were visiting Phoenix last Spring! We finally checked “desert session” off our photo bucket list!

Debbie and Andrew’s high-end, fashionable outfits were the perfect complement to the breathtaking environment that we were able to capture them in during their Richmond Engagement Session this past summer!

Almost a year after booking with them, we finally met Christina and Patrick during their summer engagement session. Believe it or not, we shot these at a park right in downtown Charlottesville!

Charlie and Bailey’s couple session wasn’t our first beachfront session of 2019, but it was SUCH a blast. Plus, the Outer Banks of North Carolina is Hunter and I’s happy place!

We shoot a lot of sessions at James Monroe’s Highland, but something about Christie and Adam’s engagement session still gets us excited. Maybe it was the light. Maybe they’re just really cute.

Tanner and Jess were our first international couple session, and the streets and lakeside of Como in northern Italy were the perfect backdrop for their romantic European photoshoot!

We finally caught up with Lindsey and Adam barely a month before their wedding, but the wait was well worth it. The way the sun hit Shenandoah National Park during their mountainous engagement session took our breath way… for like 90 minutes straight!

There’s only so much that we can say about Mary Kate and Justin’s engagement session at the Market at Grelen this fall. Adorable puppy. Smokebombs. Picnic basket. Fresh flowers. That’s all we need to say!

Best of Wedding Photos

Jennifer and Michael’s winter wedding was so simple, yet so elegant and full of love. Plus, a stop for dumplings on Charlottesville’s Downtown Mall in the middle of portrait hour didn’t hurt!

Melissa and Baris were simultaneously our shortest, and most-published wedding of the year! Melissa’s untraditional floral dress had me fangirling as hard as all the publications that have featured our photos of their elopement since!

Our longest workday of the year was on Kaitlin and Jack’s early-summer wedding. We shot for 13 hours, plus 5 hours of travel. And honestly, we’d do it again tomorrow if we got to hang with a couple as fun as them again!

If you know us, you know we love anything related to the beach. So when Alex and Timmy told us they’d be getting married at the Virginia Beach oceanfront, we were even more excited for their big day!

It’s hard to describe how surreal it was to find ourselves photographing Dean and Lisa Graziosi’s extravagant luxury wedding in Lake Como, Italy this past August. We had this “pinch us, we’re dreaming” look on our faces for a couple weeks afterwards!

Something about the sunset on Jenna and Blaine’s wedding day still has us obsessing over their images. This western-Virginia wedding is one we won’t soon forget!

Okay, totally not fair that Lindsey and Adam made this blog twice, but just look at these images from their wedding day at the Farm at Glen Haven! Lindsey was channeling Elsa from Frozen, and expertly so, if we might add.

Aaron and Julia’s wedding day was so rich in deep fall colors and may or may not have concluded with a sunset photoshoot on the roof of a parking garage.

Another fall favorite, Ashley and Greg had such a wonderful, family-oriented wedding day at the Lodge at Mount Ida, but didn’t skimp on time for those sunset portraits! Not to mention those details!

Well, that’s it! Thanks for reading 🙂 These were our favorites of last year. Want to know what YOURS were?! Click here to view our Top 10 Most-Read Blogs of 2019!

If you’d like a more behind-the-scenes look at 2019, click here check out a recap of the entire year from our perspective behind the lens!