filed in Brides, Engagement Session

Ringwood Manor Engagement Photos

Jess and Chris chose the gorgeous Ringwood Manor in Ringwood NJ for their engagement session this past week and I am so glad they did! Also known as the New Jersey Botanical Garden located in Ringwood State Park, this location is probably my favorite for your New Jersey engagement photos. The Skylands Botanical garden is truly one of the most beautiful places for your engagement photo session and of course they do weddings too! You do need a special use permit to shoot in this location, but I secure one every year for my clients because I love this location so much! It is such a glamorous setting and even though it is at the tippy top of New Jersey (super closer to New York)- it is SO worth the trip! You can get your own permit to shoot here by contacting the Ringwood Manor office. If you need more guidance on this, please feel free to shoot me an email! I am happy to help!

Since I have so many posts on my blog from this beautiful location, I thought it would be helpful to start including the date the photos were taken so you can see what the gardens look like through the seasons. So these photos were taken on May 17, 2022. As you can see, the trees were in full bloom and there were tons of flowers blooming!

NJ Botanical Gardens

This Skyland’s Manor session looks slightly different than some of the others I have on this blog because we started earlier in the day. Typically, I recommend shooting at golden hour which is the hour before sunset to get the most beautiful light. But these photos were actually taken between 3-4:30. I was a little worried we wouldn’t have the perfect glowy, golden hour light, but it actually worked out really well! We had a few puffy white clouds to diffuse the harsher sun and the trees in full bloom also helped to diffuse some of that light. I actually really like shooting a bit earlier in the day. During golden hour, this place is crawling with professional photographers. But in the afternoon, we nearly had the whole place to ourselves.

Chris and Jess met in high school and we joked because Jess actually took her prom photos at this location years ago but did not go with Chris! They are a great couple and we had so much fun getting to know each other better as we explored the acres of formal botanical gardens. I can’t believe it but we even found some new places to shoot in this location that I have shot at so many times before!

The great thing is that I’ve met them before! Jess was a bridesmaid in Chris & Georgie’s wedding at the beautiful Ballyowen Golf Club. Jess and Chris are also getting married at a golf club, but their wedding day will take place at Ramsey Golf Club, which is another beautiful nj wedding venue. They are such a sweet couple that will be getting married this August! And I am so excited that I don’t have to wait until next August to photograph their perfect day!

Anyway, here are some of my favorite photos from their nj engagement photo session.