I live in New Jersey these days, and I photograph most of my weddings in New York City, which means I spend a lot of time driving between the two. Over the years, I have shot engagement sessions on both sides of the river, and the New Jersey side has something Manhattan cannot give you: the whole skyline, all at once, from far enough away to see it.
These are the places I actually use.
Liberty State Park
Liberty State Park is the one I come back to. Twelve hundred acres in Jersey City with the Hudson on one side and Manhattan across it. You get the full downtown skyline, the Statue of Liberty, and enough open ground that you are not working around crowds the way you would in Central Park on a Saturday.
The light in the late afternoon comes across the water and lands on you rather than behind you, which is the opposite of shooting the skyline from the Brooklyn side. I have a whole session posted from here if you want to see what it looks like.
Parking is easy, which sounds small, but if you’re a New Yorker, you know it isn’t!
The Hoboken and Weehawken waterfronts
Both towns run a walkway along the river, and both of them put Midtown directly in front of you. Weehawken sits a little higher and gives you more of the skyline in one frame. Hoboken puts you closer to the water and closer to the buildings.
These are great for couples who want the skyline but don’t want to spend the session driving. You can park once and walk the whole thing.
The interior streets of Hoboken and Jersey City
This is the one most couples do not think of, and it is often my favorite part of a session.
Away from the water, both towns are where people actually live. Your block. The outside of the restaurant you go to every Friday. The park you walk through. Your PATH stop. The corner where you always end up.
None of that is scenic in the way a park is scenic, and that is the point. Those photographs mean something to you in a way that a skyline does not, and they will keep meaning something after you move.
I have shot sessions that started at the waterfront and then walked a few blocks inland, and the inland half is usually the half people frame.
At your own venue
If you have already booked your wedding venue and it has grounds, shooting your engagement session there is worth considering. You get to see the property in a different season, you know where everything is before the wedding day, and the photographs connect to the place you are actually getting married.
Pleasantdale Chateau in West Orange is the clearest example. I have photographed six weddings there, and the grounds are extensive enough that a session on the property never repeats itself. The same is true of any venue with real land around it.
Ask your venue whether they allow on-site engagement sessions. Many do, especially on a weekday.
Northern New Jersey wedding venues I have photographed
If you are still choosing a venue, these are the ones in northern New Jersey I have actually worked at, with what I have written about them.
- Pleasantdale Chateau, West Orange. Six weddings. Stone, ivy, and grounds that go on. There is a full wedding posted as well.
- Crystal Plaza, Livingston. Four weddings, most recently 2024.
- The Park Savoy, Florham Park. Four weddings.
- Liberty House, Jersey City. Three weddings, and it sits inside Liberty State Park, so the skyline is right there for portraits.
- Stone House at Stirling Ridge, Warren. Two weddings, and one posted in full.
- Rock Island Lake Club, Sparta. Two weddings, including an autumn one. On a lake, up in Sussex County.
- Maritime Parc, Jersey City. Waterfront, skyline views.
- Park Chateau, East Brunswick. Three posts on this one.
- The Madison Hotel, Morristown.
Also Hudson Terrace in Edgewater, Battello in Jersey City, and Seasons in Township of Washington, most recently in 2024.
A few practical notes
Permits vary by location and change over time. If you are shooting somewhere with a visitor center, a historic house, or an admission gate, call ahead. Public streets and open parkland are usually fine.
The skyline locations are best in the ninety minutes before sunset, when the light is coming across the water at you. If you want the buildings lit up, plan to stay half an hour past that.
Winter is underrated on the waterfront. The air is clearer, and the skyline is sharper than it is in August haze.
If you are planning a session
Tell me where you live and where you are getting married, and I will tell you what I would do with it. Some of the best sessions I have shot in New Jersey happened on a random street on a specific corner because the couple picked it and it meant the world to them.
