Hey friends! For Hunter and I, each January is largely focused around looking back on the past year, and spending lots intentional time reflecting on how the year went — in many different areas of our life together. When it came to our marriage, we spent a few days in the Outer Banks doing just that over the long New Year’s Eve Weekend. Now that we’re back in Charlottesville, these first few weeks of the year have been spent digging into all the financials and the systems in our business that help us serve our incredible couples and clients in the way that we do.

 

BUT! We’re taking a much-needed break from the spreadsheets and the accounting books to do some significantly more fun reflecting – our 18 favorite photos of 2018! Guys, this was really hard — we took a lot of photos last year. Like, just under 50,000 of them! So how could we possibly narrow it all down to JUST 18 photos? Well… we couldn’t – we were having serious trouble narrowing things down, so we allowed for two or three favorite photos from some of our favorite sessions – we just couldn’t decide!

 

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

 

Best of Family Photos

Blake and Morgan’s romantic maternity session combined perfect outfits and beautiful smiles. I mean, just look at those two!

 

We followed Mark and Uconda and their boys Landon and Nolan for an entire year, capturing SIX sessions of them from maternity to baby Nolan’s first birthday. This session was our favorite, because we finally got genuine smiles from both of the boys!

 

Anna and Hutton were another set of glowing first-time parents-to-be. Their sunrise session had us all doubled over in laughter at one point as Hutton “interpreted” some of our posing cues.

 

Best of Senior Photos

Briana’s senior session on the Downtown Mall felt more like hanging out with a new friend than work. We felt like best friends by the end of our time together!

 

Best of Proposal Photos

When Jon proposed to his girlfriend Kaitie at King Family Vineyards this fall, at least I wasn’t the only one swooning! Her surprise engagement party was waiting just around the corner…

 

Laura cried when her boyfriend Hunter got down on one knee, something that I can very seriously relate to. Their proposal at Crosskeys Vineyards was so bright it cleared away the rain for their portraits!

 

Hunter is a total sucker for anything UVA, so he insisted that at least one of our Lawn proposals HAD to make it into the Best of 2018. But I couldn’t argue, the photo of Chirag literally sweeping Pallu off her feet after she said yes is beyond precious.

 

Best of Engagement Photos

Abi and Justin used some family connections to secure us a rolling field of wildflowers for their sunset session that backed up against the Blue Ridge Mountains. No big deal, amiright?

 

Andrew and Ellen were up for an adventure when we asked them to literally hike into a new location for their Shenandoah National Park engagement session. Clearly it was #worthit P.S. We’re so excited to photograph their wedding in only 10 days!!

 

Even more than their beautiful photos, what Hunter and I remember most from Jenna and Blaine’s misty engagement session at King Family Vineyards was the impromptu dinner we had with them right after their session when they hired us to shoot their wedding on the spot!

 

Despite having just lost a sizable chunk from her finger in a tragic vegetable-cutting incident, Jennifer and her fiancé Michael were unhindered from dancing the evening away during their engagement session at James Monroe’s Highland. Their wedding is also coming up in just a few months!

 

Ashley and Kyle did what so many other couples tried to do – they booked their engagement session a month in advance and perfectly timed it with peak foliage! The yellows and oranges were out of control during their fall engagement session!

 

Theja and Sai were (sort of) repeat clients. We had met Theja very briefly during her sister Pooja’s engagement session in 2017, but were so excited when we got to capture their sunset engagement session this fall!

 

Tyler and Kathleen had several chances to give up on making their engagement session happen – it seemed like everything was going wrong that day! But we swear nothing could phase them, and their engagement session on UVA’s Lawn went off without a hitch!

 

Best of Wedding Photos

Yana and Spencer are both active-duty military personnel living in Texas, yet somehow found time to plan and pull off their classic summer wedding in Williamsburg with ease!

 

Although we were assisting the famous French destination wedding photographer Alex Tome on Kippur and Mary-Katherine’s elegant fall wedding at Castle Hill Cidery, we couldn’t help but add a few photos from their reception. Those details though…

 

Kaitlyn and Joshua’s fall wedding at Barboursville Vineyards was one of our all-time favorites to photograph. Their ceremony was held in front of beautiful 200-year-old ruins, and their portrait hour perfectly lined up with golden hour!

 

Finally, we can’t help but feature Abi and Justin’s fall wedding at Panorama Event Barn. Their wedding was a beautiful testament of their devotion to each other, and reminded us a lot of our wedding at Panorama less than 18 months before!

 

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If you’d like a more behind-the-scenes look at 2018, click here check out a recap of the entire year from our perspective behind the lens!