Their Session: Amici’s Ice Cream Shop, Boardwalk, & Beach – Asbury Park, NJ

Emily and Jonathan’s ice cream shop Asbury Park engagement session is one of the cutest shoots of the summer! These two love birds showed up for all the FUN from sharing ice cream at Amici’s to exploring the art on the boardwalk to fullllly submerging into the ocean at the end of the night. I truly couldn’t ask for more from these two – they gave this session their ALL and it really shows!

Amici Gelato & Caffé was the perfect first stop, and their formal outfits were an adorable match for the Italian ice cream shop vibe! Their second outfits were casual and comfy for running, jumping, and rolling around on the beach! I love when my couples bring a variety of outfits that not only fit the environment so well, but also show off their personalities and style! Emily brought a cute neutral patterned blanket for a simple yet super adorable prop on the beach! This allowed us to get creative with sitting poses before literally ‘stop, drop, and rolling’ into the ocean. Trust me, you’ll want to scroll to the end for those shots!

The waves were WILD this evening, but these two didn’t back down! They were on the jetty looking so freaking cute when some massive waves hit the rocks. They embraced the foggy, moody evening fully and it made for the most epic pictures!! I felt so lucky and grateful that they were willing to go all in for their shoot – literally.

Jonathan is a photographer himself focusing on documentary and street photography. Having another photographer’s stamp of approval on how fun the session was made my heart soar!!

Their Love Story

Emily and Jonathan have been together for almost 8 years and got engaged in July of 2022. They started out as close friends while working at Best Buy during college and have been inseparable ever since! They’re travel bugs, complete foodies, and major puppy lovers to their furbabies, Barnaby and Alfie! Whether they’re home making dinner while music playing and sharing a nice bottle of wine, or they’re heading out to an amazing restaurant trying new foods, they have the most fun together no matter what they’re up to! And of course, they always end the night cuddling with the pups!

Jonathan planned the perfect proposal for Emily! She said, “I came home from work (I’m a nurse and I work in the city) and my whole house was decorated with flowers, candles and balloons.  He was waiting for me in our back patio with our pups and proposed with the most beautiful ring 🙂 Our family was waiting for his cue two doors down at my dad’s house and everyone came over and we celebrated all night! Next day we took off on our planned trip to Portugal and it was the perfect start to a lovely trip!”

They shared with me that they had been following my Instagram for years and “always said that we would love to work with you in our perfect world because of your work and the way you capture moments in the most beautiful way, leaving the cheesiness at the door! I cringe at the traditional wedding photos and could not imagine that for us.” It meant the world to me to hear that they’ve loved my work for so long and felt super connected to my approach to posing and working with couples!

Emily loves that Jon is so supportive, compassionate, a great cook, and always wants to get a laugh out of her! Jonathan loves that Emily always stays grounded, shows her goofy loving side, and has the ability to get along with everybody. After getting to know them even better, it’s so clear how loving, connected, and fun they are!

Emily & Jonathan,

If this was how amazing your engagement session was, I truly cannot wait until your wedding day this fall at Liberty House in Jersey City! It’s going to be SO incredible to get you two in front of my camera again (a little less soaked this time)! Thank you for being such a blast and for feeling like friends from the moment we met. I’m so honored to be capturing your love story and wedding day!! Enjoy the last bits of fiancé life – you’re almost MARRIED!!! <3

Ice cream and the beach were the names of the game this summer! If you loved this ice cream shop Asbury Park engagement session, come check out another fun summer Asbury Park engagement session here where we stopped for ice cream, tacos, and then headed onto the beach!