When you hire your Washington DC wedding photographer, it pays to find someone who is intimately familiar with the city. The Nation’s Capital is filled with some of the world’s best locations for stunning wedding and engagement photography. Finding photographers who can use those places to create unforgettable pictures of you and your future spouse is well worth the effort.
As DC wedding photographers, we have taken pictures couples like you in nearly every significant location in the Nation’s Capital. The Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, the National Gallery of Art, the Kennedy Center, the National Cathedral, the National Arboretum… you name the iconic landmark in Washington, and we have probably taken couples portraits there!
Great wedding and engagement photography does not necessarily require famous buildings as a backdrop, of course. Some of the best pictures of couples in love are set in places that are well off the beaten path. And as longtime residents of the Washington area, we know some fantastic little spots away from the touristed areas that are ideal for your couples portraits. More importantly, we are also always on the lookout for great new locations and come to your photo session armed with ideas for unique backdrops for your pictures. One of our great satisfactions as DC wedding photographers is finding a new spot that we know our clients are going to love.
The couple in this particular image wanted their engagement photos in exactly such a location. They wanted something that was unique and typically Washingtonian at the same time. With that in mind, we did some digging and came up with a beautiful venue that was just what they were looking for. Just north of the District’s famous and elegant Georgetown neighborhood are two connected parks tucked into an otherwise residential area. Dumbarton Oaks Park and Montrose Park offer Georgetown residents a beautiful and refreshing green space in the middle of an urban zone. They also provide a lovely woodsy backdrop if you and your intended are looking to take engagement pictures amid the beauty of nature.
We started in Dumbarton Oaks Park, which is the grounds of a former estate by the same name. Purchased in 1920 by the Bliss family, the Dumbarton Oaks Estate now consists of a 27-acre stream-side park. Ten of those acres are dedicated to the Dumbarton Oaks house’s formal garden. We met the lovely future spouses at the Ellipse. That is an oval expanse of grass surrounded by a ring of boxwood trees with a ornate fountain in the middle. As much as we liked that spot, though, we decided to cross over into Montrose Park and pose the couple in its iconic Ropewalk.
The original owner of the property that became Montrose Park, Richard Parrott, was a rope-maker. He created on his grounds a long, straight building called the Ropewalk. This was where long strands of hemp were laid out and twisted into rope. The Ropewalk building is no longer there. Instead, the space has been turned into a lovely, tree-lined avenue running hundreds of meters through Montrose Park. We got some beautiful images of the couple amid these trees before moving on to the next spot.
Just to the side of the Ropewalk is a trellised garden area that was another great location for creating images of the fiancés. We loved that the layout of the area, because it gave the impression that we had happened upon two lovers sharing a private, romantic moment. It was from behind one of the pillars supporting the trellis that we captured this particular photograph.
From there, we walked down a steep hill and crossed back into Dumbarton Oaks Park. At the bottom of the hill runs Rock Creek, whose enormous eponymous park abuts Dumbarton Oaks Park and Montrose Park on their northern edges. Straddling the creek is a beautiful rustic stone bridge (appropriately named Dumbarton Oaks Bridge) upon which we posed the couple. We used a wider-angle lens to get the full breadth of the bridge with the future spouses embracing in the middle, but fortunately, the forest was thick enough in that area that branches and leaves covered much of the empty space in the frame, giving the resulting images a close, intimate feel even at the wider angle.
Interested in learning more about our services? Please visit our Wedding Photography FAQ page for answers to all your questions! Ready to inquire about our availability on your wedding date? Contact us now to get the conversation started!
Location: Montrose Park, Washington, DC 20007.
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