The Perfect Sunset Engagement at a Family Beach House

Santa Rosa Beach, 30A, FL

There's only one thing better than a beach trip with friends... a beach trip when your friends are newly engaged and everyone celebrates! Sophie and Peter live in Washington, DC so we hadn't seen each other in months. We managed to coordinate a beach trip to Santa Rosa Beach, FL along 30A this August. I talked them into doing an engagement session at the same time. We have a lot of memories at Sophie's family beach house- high school girls' trips, college Spring Breaks, graduation trips, bachelorette trips, and now the weddings and babies are coming. The beach house is currently for sale so I knew it would be meaningful and complete Sophie's memories of the decades spent down here to have an engagement session.

Friends, Fiances, and a sunset

On a Sunday night at sunset we headed to the boardwalk. This is pretty typical for us to do. We take a drink, kick off our sandals, and watch the sun paint the clouds pink. But this time we had Peter, Sophie's fiancé and newest boy addition to the group. The beach house was always a girls' zone in our teens and twenties. Not until our thirties were husbands and fiancés invited to the special place.

So with cocktails in hand and best friends by our sides we treaded the familiar path across the warm boardwalk, down the stairs protecting the dunes, and out onto the white Florida sands that mix into the Gulf. In such a beautiful and peaceful setting I don't have to interject much in the way of photography. Sophie and Peter were free to be a happy, loving, goofy couple playing in the sea salt breeze.

The rest of our friend party tagged along for comic relief and White Claw refill support. It was the perfect way to spend an evening in a place that always feels casual and welcoming. I know we'll all miss the beach house and our trips together here, but at least we had this last session.