aperature priority

I posted a few days ago about images from a recent shoot being overexposed and when I looked at the EXIF data I realized that my shutter speed was set to 1/125 for all of my photos despite my using various apertures throughout the shoot. The shoot began in early evening (bright) sun and ended...

I usually meter manually but yesterday my photos seemed overexposed (children outdoors at sunset). I work in aperature priority when I use the Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 for the bokeh. Should I be matrix metering with this lens and for my subject?