J + J’s Romantic Vintage Engagement Session in Bok Tower Gardens
Shot by JLCapo Photography for Love & Photos, LLC
Every now and then, I am given the opportunity to work with Love & Photos, LLC, a nationwide company that specialized in wedding photography. Earlier this year, they reached out to me to cover this enchanting engagement session and said the couple wanted a garden backdrop with Jane Austen vibes. As soon as I saw ‘garden’ and ‘Jane Austen’ I knew precisely what location to suggest and was ecstatic to have been chosen to document Jackelin and Jonathan’s engagement session. Jane Austen and vintage aesthetics is hands down right up my alley and I knew that Bok Tower Gardens would be the perfect backdrop for the display of their love. As an enthusiast of everything romance, vintage, antiques and whimsical goodness, I was more than eager to finally meet them and collaborate with their vision.
Now, Bok Tower Gardens has over 250 acres of well thought out landscaping. There are different blooms during different times of the year and plenty of luscious greens to fill the spaces in between. These gardens are one of the few places you can see Giant Victoria (Victoria amazonica) in Central Florida. Unfortunately, due to the frost that affected us in the beginning of the year, they are not pictured here, having been put away to survive the cold. It is also home to the very rare and endangered Ziziphus, which they are actively in efforts of conservation. Additionally, the gardens engulf the historical ‘El Retiro’, a 1930’s Mediterranean style vacation home turned museum.
We decided to start up the bath behind the Visitor Center towards the iconic Singing Tower, an iconic landmark 205-ft tall with a bell chamber at the top that delights garden goers in melodic tunes. This first portion of Jackelin and Jonathan’s enchanting session took place on the foot of a small hill just before reaching the Singing Tower.
Jackelin and Jonathan came prepared for this session. A lace mantel acted as their picnic blanket while they surrounded themselves in antique candle holders and aged hardcover books. Amongst them classical works of Grimm’s Fairy Tales and The Betrothed Lovers.
The picnic session was a great start to Jackelin and Jonathan’s engagement session, which resulted in an array of photos to choose from. The hardest thing about this engagement session was having to choose which photos to post. This whole session was just chef’s kiss.
If you look closely at the background in the last photo above, you’ll see a small bush with countless sprays of small and delicate white blooms. Before we left this area to go to The Singing Tower, I asked Jackelin and Jonathan if they would be comfortable getting in between the branches, they said yes! As we highly respect nature in this household, we walked cautiously into this area, careful to not disrupt any of the plants there. I never forget my black and white film photography professor telling us that nature photographers should never break, pull or otherwise interrupt nature as it is, and it’s something I still live by today. Luckily, the bush had a gap where I was able to position them to create these dreamy photos below. This set reminded me so much of The Secret Garden (1993), one of my favorite movies as a child. The kind I would finish and rewind (yes, rewind) to watch again immediately after. Does anyone know what kind of tree this is?
A hop, a skip and a jump away, we finally found ourselves at The Singing Tower. And what visit to Bok Tower Gardens is complete without an iconic shot of this awe inspiring landmark? I brought out my wide angle lens for this one, wanting to capture all that the human eye could see if they were sitting on the edge of the Water Lily pond looking up to The Singing Tower. As the bells melodiously rung out in the back round, I snapped a few quick shots of Jackelin and Jonathan as they interacted in front of the tower.
As you can see, The Singing Tower is surrounded by a mote, often teeming with vibrant orange and yellow streaks from the koi that usually live there. Due to the frost, they had been removed and were being safely kept in a warmer enclosure until the threat of cold passed. Here I thought it a perfect opportunity to capture some images reminiscent of the 2005 film every romantic knows and loves, Pride and Prejudice.
Two hour sessions not only allow for extensive exploration of the locations we choose for engagement session, but they also allow for smooth transitioning between outfits. Both Jackelin and Jonathan had brought a separate set of clothing to change into. One of the many perks of Bok Tower Gardens is that they also have plenty of rain shelters and bathrooms along the paths, making it easy to find a spot to change into your next set of clothes. For the next portion of the photo shoot, Jackelin chose a light green, almost chiffon-like, dress. With flowey sleeves and a fairy-esque air, we ventured into the trails between the thick of the ferns, bright magenta Azaleas and lush wild Florida foliage to capture playful and genuine joyful interactions.
With the Singing Tower sitting on a hill, the gardens are one of the few landmarks to still be sunkissed as the sun begins to set on the Floridian west coast. We decided to move from the tower to another well known landmark within the gardens, El Retiro. This is a 1930’s Mediterranean style vacation home turned museum, nestled in what we could consider the ‘backyard’ of Bok Tower Gardens. The warm and charming aesthetics of this once vacation home now turned into a museum is full of personality with the years carving time into its walls and original fixtures. The gardens have done an amazing job at maintaining and keeping El Retiro’s history alive.
With the sun definitively setting shortly after these shots, we called it a day, satisfied with the number of photos we had managed and the locations we managed to cross off our list from Bok Tower Gardens. Thank you to Jackelin, Jonathan and Love & Photos, LLC. for the opportunity to capture such a whimsical engagement session. May it be the first of many. If you’ve stuck around this far, thank you too! 🩵
XO,
Jamie