Norfolk Botanical Gardens Bridal Portrait Photography of Shaneka

I was out at the Norfolk Botanical Gardens this past Friday to shoot traditional bridal portraits of Shaneka for her upcoming wedding May 24th. I also did the photography for her engagement session with her fiance Derek. What a GORGEOUS day out at the botanical gardens it was. Shaneka brought her wedding coordinator with her which was a big help and the session went wonderfully.

Shaneka flew in Thursday night from New York City and she and her dress had traversed the NYC Subway system on the way to JFK to make the flight down to Norfolk. Both the Bride and the dress arrived safely and unscathed! Nice!

Shaneka expressed interest in traditional bridal portraits at the Botanical Gardens so this is how I shot this session. Below you’ll find a few of my favorites from the session.

I had her use Baker hall as a changing area. She had hair and makeup done professionally earlier in the day. When she was ready we started a little loop that I like to do during bridal portrait sessions.

The first stop was the Perennial Gardens.

Then, we moved over to the covered arbor and Shaneka put on the jacket that went with her exquisite wedding gown. This is also the first break area after the first part of the session. It’s shady there, and there are benches which come in handy since most brides don’t really try to walk in their shoes before the wedding day. (so, I’ve learned to have seats nearby!). Once we finished there, we moved down the pathway toward the back of Renaissance Court to the shaded area to the rear of that garden at the base of the entrance stairs.

This first image is from the pathway.

Then, we get to the rear stairs for Renaissance Court.

The next two images are from the rear renaissance court stairway and then the pond at the Botanical Gardens.

Here is a veil shot into the sun to back light the veil.

The shot on the left below is in front of the Botanical Gardens pond and will be displayed at the wedding framed as a 16×24 wall portrait. The shot on the right below is spot colored.

We then started to loop back to Baker Hall since we couldn’t get through to the bridge the normal way. There is a Bald Eagle nest in that area and the park service has roped that area off. Nobody can go in there, not even botanical gardens employees. So, I used a few other spots on the back loop.

Looking forward to the wedding on the 24th! Should be fun!