Cumberland Island and St. Marys Maternity Photo Session

I’m excited to share one of my favorite photo sessions to date. This Maternity Session at Cumberland Island and St. Marys, GA was beyond what I could have ever dreamed. John and Hannah are two of our favorite people to travel with so when they told us they wanted to have their session at Cumberland Island in Georgia, my husband and I literally did a happy dance. There was no better place to capture their maternity photos. If you have been here a while, you’ll remember when I photographed their engagement photos and their wedding photos.

St. Marys, Georgia

We didn’t stick to JUST Cumberland Island for the photos, though. We stayed in this cute little Airbnb in St. Marys, Georgia and we were pretty much right across the street from the ferry to get to Cumberland Island. St. Marys is such a cute little town so as the sun started to set, we decided to walk around the town and the docks on the first evening we were there.

It was the perfect start to the weekend and they are actually my favorite images from the entire trip. Hannah wore the CUTEST outfit for the location and the lighting was perfect all evening. We got a perfect mixture of coastal and the low country all at once. It was so beautiful.

Jekyll Island and Driftwood Beach

The next day, we were ready to visit Cumberland Island. But, the ferry tickets were already sold out for the day. PRO TIP: Make sure you book your ferry tickets at least a few days in advanced. And if it’s busy season, I would book them as early as you book your room/Airbnb.

It worked out really well because we decided to go spend the day on Jekyll Island. We spent a few hours on the beach, grabbed some food, and then visited Driftwood Beach for a few more maternity photos before we drove back to St. Marys. This was my first time at Driftwood Beach and it was so cool! The beach was extremely crowded during this time, but we were able to make things work and got some great photos from it.

Cumberland Island

The next day was a Monday and we were able to get ferry tickets to get to Cumberland Island. The earliest we could leave to get to the island was 9am. So that’s the time slot we opted for. We had to be back at the ferry by 4pm so we weren’t able to explore the entire island. But we got to see a lot of the major landmarks there. We were ready to hike. The trails were so gorgeous that we had to stop and snap a few photos while we hiked.

Once we got to the Dungeness Ruins on Cumberland Island, John and Hannah changed clothes for a final look for their maternity session. It may have been mid-day full sun during the session, but we were able to get a lot of great images. We watched the wild horses run around and tried to capture them in as many images as we could.

After the official photo session was over, we hiked to the beach. It was NOT an easy task. Although it was only 1.5 miles in, we had to hike up and down some sand dunes. And for me, that is NOT a strength. Inclines and sand and 90 degree heat with high humidity makes hiking a little more difficult. But I’m here to tell you, it’s worth the hike. I’ve never seen a completely empty beach before this. It was so surreal to feel like we were the only people on the entire island at that point. Plus, the sand dunes made for some amazing photos.

Baby Jonah will be introduced to the world in August and I can’t wait to meet him!