Downtown Milwaukee Engagement Photos | Amber + Corey
Some of our favorite engagement photos we've ever made happened within about two blocks of downtown Milwaukee. No elaborate location list. No driving across the city trying to hit every Milwaukee landmark before sunset. No field of tall grass required.
Just Amber + Corey, matching denim, good light, and us saying some variation of “wait, stop right there” every five minutes.
Downtown Milwaukee Is the Location
When couples ask where they should take their engagement photos, there's sometimes this pressure to pick the location. The Milwaukee Art Museum. The lakefront. Villa Terrace. The Third Ward. We love all of those places. But you also don't need any of them.
For this session, we basically picked a pocket of downtown Milwaukee and started walking. A crosswalk became a location. So did a rusty staircase. A random building facade. A patch of good light. The side of a building that most people probably walk past without thinking twice about it. That's the fun part for us. We don't need every location mapped out before we start. Give us a neighborhood, a little time to wander, and permission to yell “WAIT, THE LIGHT IS GOOD OVER THERE” from across the sidewalk.
We'll figure out the rest.
Engagement Photos That Don't Feel Like Engagement Photos
You know the engagement photo pose. Stand here. Turn toward each other. Hand on chest. Foreheads together. Smile. But we don't want your entire gallery to feel like you spent two hours cycling through poses. We'd rather have you walking down the street, sitting on a questionable staircase, laughing because something we asked you to do felt ridiculous, crossing the street together, fixing each other's clothes, and actually interacting. Then, when we see the opportunity for something more intentional, we'll step in and create it.
That's pretty much our entire philosophy: Editorial when we're creating. Documentary when we're observing. Some photographs are carefully composed. Some happen because you looked at each other a certain way for half a second. We want both.
Couple Holding hands during engagement photos
The Matching Denim Deserves Its Own Paragraph
Because COME ON. Amber + Corey's denim-on-denim situation worked ridiculously well downtown. It coordinated without feeling like matching engagement photo outfits, and against the stone, brick, concrete, rusted stairs and downtown architecture, it gave the whole session this effortless editorial feeling without either of them looking overdressed for who they actually are.
That's generally how we recommend approaching engagement-session outfits.
You don't have to suddenly become people who wear beige linen because Pinterest told you that's what engaged couples wear. Please wear something that feels like you on a really good day.
Great denim. A tiny dress and ridiculous shoes. Your favorite jacket. A suit. Something vintage. Something colorful. Something you've been waiting for an excuse to wear.
You Really Don't Need Five Locations
This session is also proof that more locations do not automatically equal more variety.
We stayed within roughly two blocks and still made photographs that feel completely different from one another.
Sometimes moving 20 feet gives us a completely different photograph.
And we'd much rather spend your engagement session actually photographing you than put you back in the car three times because Google told us we needed five Milwaukee engagement photo locations.
What If We're Awkward?
Perfect. Welcome to basically everyone who emails us. 😂
You do not need to know what to do with your hands. You do not need to practice poses.
And you definitely don't need modeling experience.
Our job is to know when you need direction and when you don't.
We'll tell you where to stand when the composition matters. We'll give you something to do when standing still starts feeling weird. We'll fix the tiny things that need fixing.
And when something good is already happening?
We'll shut up and photograph it. That's the balance.
Downtown Milwaukee Engagement Photos Without the Landmark Checklist
There's something we really love about making photographs that feel unmistakably urban without needing a famous building in every frame.
Downtown Milwaukee gives us historic architecture next to modern glass, old fire escapes, alleys, crosswalks, parking garages, storefronts, little pockets of light and streets that completely change once the sun starts disappearing.
You can dress it up and make the session feel polished and fashion-forward.
You can throw on denim and make it feel like you're wandering around the city together.
Or we can start while it's light out and keep shooting into the evening when the streetlights come on and the flash comes out.
So... Where Should We Take Your Engagement Photos?
Maybe downtown Milwaukee.
Maybe not. Maybe the best location is the bar where you had your first date. Your neighborhood. Your apartment. A bowling alley. The lakefront. Your favorite restaurant. Somewhere architecturally insane.
Or maybe you tell us:
“We trust you. Pick somewhere cool.”
Those are dangerous words to say to us.
We will absolutely take you up on it. 😂
If you're still deciding, we put together our guide to the 15 Best Milwaukee Engagement Photo Locations with some of our favorite places around the city and what kind of session each one works best for.
And if none of them feel like you?
Even better.
We'll find something else.
Looking for a Milwaukee Engagement Photographer?
We're Charlie + Taylor, a husband-and-wife photography team with a documentary approach and an editorial eye.
We photograph weddings and couples throughout Milwaukee, Chicago, the Midwest, Mexico and wherever else our people take us.
We like photographs with movement. Weird little in-between moments. Beautiful light. Direct flash. Good clothes. Architecture. Film. Photos where you look hot. Photos where you're laughing so hard you don't.
Basically, we want to give you the photographs your grandparents would frame and the ones you'd immediately make your profile picture.
If that sounds like your kind of engagement session, come tell us what you're thinking →
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