Sunrise Engagement Photos | Outer Banks, North Carolina

This sunrise engagement shoot in the Outer Banks was sooooo amazing. Emily and Henry were SO fun to hang out with, which is a good thing because we spent a total of 5 hours (!!!) together going to 2 different locations for their photos. Despite the longer drive to and from the Outer Banks, I went home feeling completely energized because I just had THAT much fun with Emily and Henry.

Emily and Henry first met back in kindergarten and were best friends all growing up, although they dated other people during high school. After graduating high school, they kind of lost touch before getting back in touch during her senior year of college and things were…different by then. As Henry said in his initial email, “We were both healing from past relationships and realized that we were looking for each other in other people and wound up disappointed every time someone didn’t live up to the other person” (excuse me while I’m CRYING that is so sweet). They worked on reigniting their friendship before finally making the jump into a real relationship. And now here they are…engaged!!!

The Locations

Henry originally reached out to me at the beginning of July. He had planned on proposing to Emily while on their annual vacation to the Outer Banks, and wanted to take some engagement photos a few days later on the same beach he proposed on. Seriously so sweet in how much thought he put into it all!! We first met up at 6am for sunrise beach photos in Outer Banks, North Carolina. I HIGHLY recommend sunrise photos at the Outer Banks for a variety of reasons: the sun is right over the ocean instead of behind you in the sand dunes, less people, REALLY good lighting, and the potential for some fun fog.

After the beach we got breakfast and coffee together and then headed over to Elizabethan Gardens in the Outer Banks and got there right at opening in hopes of beating the heat. Just as a heads up, there is an Admission fee *and* a Photography Permit required to photograph here. But it is worthhhhhh it, let me tell you! The gardens are seriously SO stunning with so much variety of flowers, gardens, statues, and more.