Emma and Josh’s Riverton Yacht Club engagement session had one more star besides the two of them: a white vintage Porsche. Emma first reached out in January because she wanted engagement photographs for their wedding website, and she asked if we could shoot along the Riverton waterfront. The yacht club is pretty, she said, and she wanted good open roads for the car. She was right on both counts.
Riverton is a little river town in Burlington County, right on the Delaware, not far from my studio in Mount Laurel. The yacht club sits out at the end of the dock, and it’s the oldest yacht club on the Delaware River, founded in 1865. It’s a good spot with a few cool places to shoot, especially with a car. It also means something to Emma’s family. Her dad was a member here years ago, and his plaque is still on the wall inside the clubhouse.
We met up on a Friday in early May, late afternoon, with a big soft sky over the river.
The Riverton Yacht Club
We started on the grass along the river, then walked out the dock. The wind did most of the work with Emma’s dress.
The Porsche
Then the car came out. The white Porsche is her dad’s vintage Speedster, and it was not my first time shooting it. I photographed it at her sister Liz’s backyard wedding in Moorestown a few years back, and it stole that day too. Emma put on a head scarf, stood up in the passenger seat, and that was it. Josh just had to sit there and look good, which he handled.
Cruising the riverfront
After that we just drove. Up and down the riverfront, past the old houses, under the big trees, and back past the yacht club. I love a session where the couple gets to do something instead of standing still.
A few frames on film
I brought a film camera along for this one, and some of my favorite frames from the day came out of it. The grain and the softer color suit the car and the river.
From the engagement session to the wedding
That fall, Emma and Josh got married at Curtis Arboretum in Wyncote, Pennsylvania, and the car came along in spirit. The place cards were tiny replicas of her dad’s vintage Porsche, and their ring bearer cruised down the aisle in his own little version. They also had two big black and white canvases made from this session, the two of them with the car, and they hang on either side of their TV. That is exactly where photographs like these belong. You can see the whole day in Emma and Josh’s Curtis Arboretum wedding.
More from this side of the river: Liz and Kip’s backyard wedding in Moorestown, and Holly and Chris’ fall engagement session in Medford.
Ready to Start Planning?
If you’re engaged and have a spot, a car, or a town that matters to you, tell me about your plans and we’ll build a session around it.
Location: Riverton Yacht Club, Riverton, New Jersey
Photography: Jordan Brian Studios