Wedding at Vizcaya Museum and Gardens in Miami, Florida

Wedding Couple Portraits in the Garden

There’s something timeless and romantic about wedding portraits taken in a garden. The lush greenery, seasonal blooms, and natural light create the perfect canvas to capture the love and emotion between two people on their wedding day. For couples and photographers alike, garden wedding portraits offer both variety and intimacy, whether it’s a quiet stolen moment under a flowering arbor or a sweeping shot among rows of roses.

In this blog, we’ll explore four essential tips for capturing magical wedding couple portraits in Vizcaya Gardens, from timing your session right to using historical features as storytelling elements.

Getting There Before the Visitors Arrive

If the garden you’re photographing in is a public or semi-public space, such as a botanical garden, estate grounds, or historical park, one of the most important decisions you’ll make is when to arrive. Getting there before the visitors show up, ideally early in the morning, gives you uninterrupted space to shoot, fewer distractions, and more freedom to explore. At Vizcaya, there is an extra fee to arrive early, but it is SO worth it.

This photo was taken in the popular archway. It usually has 5+ people at a time, but we had it all to ourselves!

Couples also tend to be more relaxed when the environment is quiet and private. They’re not worried about onlookers or having to pause poses for passersby. The bonus? Morning light tends to be soft, golden, and incredibly flattering. It minimizes harsh shadows and reduces the likelihood of squinting—a subtle yet significant detail in close-up portraits.

Photographers should coordinate with the couple and the venue staff to schedule early access. If the location allows for special permits or private bookings, it’s worth the extra effort. The peace and flexibility of an empty garden cannot be overstated when it comes to creating beautiful, authentic portraits.

Wedding shoes on display at Vizcaya Museum and Gardens.

Creative Poses with the Sun During this Vizcaya Wedding

Natural light is the garden photographer’s greatest ally. While controlled lighting has its place, there’s an unmatched beauty in working with the sun—especially during golden hour. Think of the sun not just as a light source, but as a compositional element that can frame, highlight, and elevate your poses.

For this photo, I went for a silhouette and vintage look.

Backlighting the couple can create a dreamy, ethereal glow, particularly when the sun filters through leaves or florals behind them. Encourage movement—have the couple walk slowly hand-in-hand, spin in a patch of dappled sunlight, or lean in for a kiss with the sun just over the shoulder. These dynamic poses often feel more authentic than static ones and allow you to play with lens flares and soft focus techniques.

Silhouettes are another way to use the sun creatively. Position the couple between the camera and the light source, and look for strong outlines—holding hands, leaning into each other, or standing side-by-side under an archway.

Direct sunlight, when used right, can create the most interesting photos. When you learn how shadows can add to the story, magic is made!

Using History of Vizcaya Gardens to Pose the Couple

To create truly meaningful garden portraits, it helps to understand the design principles and intentions behind the space. Many grand historic gardens—especially those inspired by European estates—were created not just for beauty, but for drama, storytelling, and social impact. These gardens were designed like a series of outdoor rooms, each with its own purpose, view, and emotional tone. They were spaces meant to entertain, surprise, and impress guests.

At Vizcaya Museum & Gardens, for example, this philosophy is evident throughout the landscape. Built in the early 20th century but drawing heavily from Renaissance and Baroque influences, the gardens at Vizcaya were constructed with distinct sections, layered sightlines, and elevated edges. The designers intentionally placed high stone walls and terraces around the perimeters of the gardens. The idea was for visitors to look down into the different garden “rooms” and experience a sense of theatrical reveal with each new turn. (More about the garden's architect here!)

I wanted to honor that original vision in this wedding shoot—not just by using the garden as a beautiful backdrop, but by engaging with it as the immersive, intentional space it was meant to be.

For several key shots, I positioned myself on elevated ground, looking down at the couple from a viewpoint that mirrored the way Vizcaya’s guests would have once experienced the gardens. From that perspective, the photos tell a much larger story. The couple becomes part of the scene, not just subjects within it. You can see the structured symmetry of the hedges, the sweep of the pathways, and the way nature and architecture merge into a kind of outdoor theater.

An overlook location of Vizcaya Garden, looking down on the wedding couple.

This top-down angle allowed the viewer to feel like a guest of the estate, watching the couple from a grand vantage point—an intentional nod to the way the gardens were originally meant to impress. It created a sense of scale and grandeur that a ground-level shot just couldn’t achieve. Even in tighter frames, I used garden walls, arches, and staircases to mimic the sense of entering or exiting one “room” of the garden into another.

When you understand that the garden was designed to wow—to create pauses, reveals, and movement—you begin to think differently about how the couple can interact with the space. We didn’t just place them randomly in a pretty area. We used the architecture and structure to frame their love story.

This was taken in the "yellow room", a small room that used to be an outdoor orchid garden.

In one image, for example, the couple is captured standing at the center of a formal parterre, surrounded by geometric paths and clipped hedges. Shot from above, it feels like they’re in their own private stage. In another, I positioned them at the entrance to a small grove—an intimate corner of the garden that felt like a hidden retreat. It’s these subtle references to the garden’s purpose as a place of performance, escape, and romance that gave the shoot deeper resonance.

So while the flowers, textures, and sunlight were all essential elements of this session, it was the history—the intention behind the space—that truly shaped the creative direction.

If you're dreaming of wedding photos that feel timeless, emotive, and true to you, I’d love to hear your story. Inquire here and let’s begin planning something beautiful together.