Planning your wedding in the Washington DC area means you potentially have some tough decisions ahead of you. Take it from two DC wedding photographers who celebrated part of their own nuptials in the city! There is a wealth of great venues for you to choose from. And we know from experience that picking the best one is not always easy! The city literally offers something for every bride’s and every groom’s tastes and sensibilities. If you want a luxury hotel, you will have plenty of options. If you prefer a site with a rich history, you will not be starved for choices. If you want to exchange your wedding vows outdoors, you can do so with ease. If you are looking for a venue with a more rural feel, you can get one within a short drive of Washington. Vineyards, terraces overlooking Washington’s most famous monuments, swanky private clubs, working farms, elegant manor houses… Whatever you can dream up, the Washington, DC metro area can deliver! So even though choosing the right venue might be tough for you, you are pretty much guaranteed to get a great location.
Obviously, all of these DC wedding venues have the potential for some truly stunning images of you and your intended getting married. The other thing that is great about Washington is the wealth of great spots it has for couples portraits. In addition to the famous landmarks, such as the Lincoln Memorial and US Capitol Building, that give wedding photography a typically Washingtonian feel, there are thousands of little places where we can pose you and your future spouse. It sometimes seems to us that every street in the Nation’s Capitol has a dozen nooks that can be used to frame two people who have exchanged or are going to exchange their wedding vows. A walk through Washington’s historic and opulent Georgetown neighborhood, for example, reveals a treasure trove of leaf-shaded alleyways, historic doorways and grassy parks that can be used to make stunning pictures of two people in love. The resulting images will make you look as beautiful as you feel when you are in the arms of your beloved.
As we have mentioned elsewhere on this site, we always love finding new places to take you for your portraits. That is why we were so excited when these particular new spouses requested that we go to the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in the Federal Triangle section of downtown Washington DC after their marriage ceremony. Dedicated to our country’s 40th president and opened in 1998, the edifice is the first building in the Nation’s Capital to be designed for both public and private sector use.
More importantly, at least from a photographic point of view, is the Ronald Reagan Building’s beautiful and ornate exterior. Constructed to fit the architectural style of the surrounding buildings, the Ronald Reagan Building has typically Washingtonian limestone walls and two hemicycles supported by an elegant series of columns, both of which will add touches of elegance to your wedding images. On its east side is a lovely little courtyard that leads to an alleyway running along the southern edge of the edifice. In our professional opinion, this area is where the best spots for couples photos are. The various doorways, porticos and colonnaded overhangs do a great job of letting in just the right amount of sun, so that you and your intended are bathed in a very soft and flattering light, even during the middle of the day. Other parts of this side of the building have great textures for making the backgrounds of pictures more interesting, as is the case with the iron fence behind the newlyweds in this image.
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