We are going to share some photos from Maggie and Layne’s Alvis Farms sunflower field engagement in Goochland, Virginia. 

Alvis Farms Sunflower Field Engagement

If you haven’t heard of Alvis Farms sunflower field before they are about 5 to 10 minutes outside of Short Pump in Richmond.  And they have these giant fields of sunflowers this time of year.

Truly when we were driving up off of 64 we saw the massive fields. It was just sunflowers right off 64 for as far as the eye can see.  We got off of the highway and pulled up and it was just this massive, massive field. I think the first one was 50 acres.

The owner of Alvis Farms sunflower field is a good friend of Maggie’s. So she met us and showed us around.  And that first sunflower field we went to, she said the sunflowers were actually on the way out. And since Maggie was such a close friend of hers she said that there was another field that they don’t open up to the public that she would take us to so we could shoot there.  Where the sunflowers were a little fresher.

And so we went to the second field and it was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. 

Even Layne, like halfway through the session looked at me and said “you know I’m not really in the flowers, but this is cool”.

It was so beautiful and a really fun location to shoot out because it was so different.

Sunflower Fields – Sunrise Engagement Shoot

Was this past weekend so the temperatures were insane.

Day before we went back-and-forth with Maggie and Layne trying to decide if we should do their Alvis Farms sunflower field engagement in the evening or the morning because of the crazy high temperatures.

I decided to do it in the morning and met them bright and early to catch the sunrise.

We usually recommend on a super hot day to reschedule.  But rescheduling wasn’t really an option here because sunflowers only stay in bloom for 10 to 14 days.

Which is a fact that we did not know.

So we had a very small window to be able to capture the sunflowers at their peak.

Also the sunflowers themselves face the sunrise. So we had to plan accordingly to get all the yellow.

I think the high was supposed to be 110° that day.  So we really didn’t want them to have to be dripping and miserable the whole time.  So we opted for a sunrise shoot which was definitely the way to go.

It was still really hot but again we couldn’t reschedule because of the bloom season for the sunflowers.  So instead of 110° it was like 85° with a cool little breeze.

We did get a little bit of shade at parts which was amazing.

Maggie & Layne – Alvis Farms, Sunflower Fields

Laura actually knows Maggie from middle school. 

We go back a very long way but thanks to social media we were able to reconnect. And she reached out to be able to book their engagement session which was so fun to be able to see her. 

It is such a weird time to get engaged.  She kept saying I just needed to “feel engaged”.  Wedding planning right now is such a weird thing to try to navigate, because you don’t really know what’s going to happen or what you should be doing. So they are holding off on planning but it was nice to be able to go and do their engagement shoot and feel engaged for a little while.

They came from Maryland which was crazy for a 6:30 AM shoot.  But they were such troopers and it was really fun to be able to see them.

They brought their dog and it was great because he was able to just kind of walk around while we were shooting.  Maggie would holler for her to come over.. It was great she was such a well behaved dog.

We love when people bring dogs to their sessions and this was a really cool venue to be able to do that. The dog kind of just roam round because we were in this huge 50 acre field.

They also brought a thing of champagne to be able to open so that was cool too.

Alvis Farms, Sunflower Fields

Alvis Farms also has a wedding venue in Scottsville, Virginia. 

I thought was super interesting is that it’s not a sunflower field just for people to look at pretty flowers and take pictures. It’s actually a working farm where they harvest the sunflower seeds and sunflower oil.

We will be able to post when the sunflowers will be in bloom next year to be able to go and visit. And hopefully we will be able to go again and do another shoot there because it was really gorgeous.

Enjoy a few of my favorites. Maggie and Layne, we love you both.. thank you for bearing with the extreme heat and a long drive to Richmond.

 

Liked this?  See more Richmond engagement sessions here:

Maymont Engagement Session 

TPott Bridge Engagement Session 

Wisteria Farm Engagement Session