Prospect Park and Brooklyn Botanic Garden Engagement Session

Brooklyn Botanic Garden Info

Brooklyn Botanic Garden (that’s the official name, rather than “Brooklyn Botanical Garden” as it’s sometimes called) came to be in 1910. It consists of more than two dozen gardens, conservatories, and exhibits dedicated to urban nature. It’s operated by a nonprofit corporation.

At 52 acres, Brooklyn Botanic Garden (BBG) is located in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, wedged as a triangle between Eastern Parkway, Flatbush Avenue, and Washington Avenue. Nearby are Brooklyn Museum and Prospect Park. My couple, Gosi and Nick, gave me some subway advice when I arrived at Grand Central Station.

Brooklyn Botanic Garden, unlike Prospect Park, charges admission. Normally, it’s just under $20 per adult. If you think about it, the fees guarantee that everyone around you during your engagement session wants to enjoy the park, too. (This is similar to Wickham Park in Connecticut.)

Reasons to Consider Engagement Photos at Brooklyn Botanic Garden

At 52 acres, there’s plenty to see during a Brooklyn Botanic Garden engagement session. Here are a few reasons to consider heading there with your photographer before your wedding day:

1. The diversity of locations: At BBG, Gosi and Nick enjoyed trees, grassy fields, the Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden (with its Shinto shrine), and interspersed urban features like asphalt and stairs. Point is, Brooklyn Botanic Garden is a haven for a good photographer because of the various backdrops.

2. Beautiful plant life: I photographed Gosi and Nick’s Botanic Garden and Prospect Park engagement session in late spring, so there were plenty of flower blooms literally everywhere. By the way, you can even have cherry blossoms in your Brooklyn Botanic Garden engagement session photos. Just like New Haven’s blossoms, those in Brooklyn Botanic Garden reach peak bloom in early spring (first couple weeks of April).

3. There’s great food nearby: Conveniently, Yellow Magnolia Café inside Brooklyn Botanic Garden serves food and drinks. But the real draw here is that Crown Heights knows food. So after your BBG engagement session, definitely head out and grab something to eat. A food lover myself, my only regret during Gosi and Nick’s Brooklyn Botanic Garden engagement session is that I didn’t have time to grab dinner afterwards.

Brooklyn Prospect Park Engagement Photo Session

Born and raised in the northeast, I admit that I never liked New York City until I was an adult. Now I love it. So, I couldn’t go all the way there and only see one park. Fortunately, Gosi and Nick were game to visit one more location. Therefore, I also created some Prospect Park engagement session photos for them.

The Story of Prospect Park

Development of Prospect Park began in the 1860s, designed by the same individuals responsible for Manhattan’s Central Park.

Prospect Park is massive, at over 500 acres. It touches the Crown Heights, Prospect Heights, Flatbush, Windsor Terrace, Park Slope, and Prospect Lefferts Gardens sections of Brooklyn.

Attractions of a Prospect Park Engagement Session

Here are some of the great features that make a Prospect Park engagement session a cool idea before your wedding day:

1. Plenty of nature: Prospect is definitely a park. You’ll find plenty of natural landscapes like trees upon trees, grassy areas, water features, a zoo, and there’s even an official Audubon Center in the park (the first one in an urban area in the entire country).

2. Cute activities for engagement photos: Want to try ice skating? Riding a carousel? Hiking or biking on trails? Prospect Park has all of these possibilities. By the way, photographers love that stuff and can turn those activities into fun-loving professional photos for you.

3. Accessibility: Unlike Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Prospect Park doesn’t have any admission fees. It has plenty of entrances opening into different parts of the borough. There are plenty of flat areas of the grounds, too.

4. Bonus Prospect Feature: The Boathouse and Picnic House are available as wedding venues. So if you absolutely love your Prospect Park engagement session, consider booking a location on the park’s grounds for your wedding day.

Prospect Park and Brooklyn Botanic Garden Engagement Photos