Alright, lovebirds, let’s get real about your couples photo ideas for a second. 

They’re good ideas. Really, they are.

But if we’re going to document your love story like the timeless romance that it obviously is, let’s at least do it right. Not just in some picture-perfect spot that came straight off a ‘couples photo ideas’ Pinterest board, but somewhere that actually means something to you. 

Somewhere that holds your inside jokes, your adventures, your slow Sunday mornings, and all of the things that you love most about your life together.

Ciara and Adam really understood the assignment. They took a page straight out of my well-loved, slightly-yellowed, notes-in-the-margin book, and they chose a couples photos location that feels like home: where they purchased their first house together, where the neighbors feel like family, and where they walk hand in hand through the perfectly ordinary, totally extraordinary life they’re building, brick by brick.

White Bear Lake isn’t just any backdrop; it’s their backdrop. It’s where countless coffees have been sipped at the Cobblestone Café, where swept-up-in-each-other kisses have fogged up car windows, and where playful moments have unfolded like something straight out of a Hallmark movie.

With a setting this sentimental, there’s no doubt these photos won’t be something Ciara and Adam only swoon over once, just to never look at them again.

They’ll be an heirloom pulled out at every family reunion and holiday party— a story that’s been lived and loved, in all of the real ways.

So where do you start when it comes to capturing couples photos that are enchanting and charming and sentimental, location and all? Let’s run it back, Ciara and Adam-style.

Go Full Nostalgic for Your Couples Photos (Please! For the Love of My Nostalgia-Loving Heart!)

The best couples photo locations are the ones that make you go, “Remember when…?”, followed by a long-story-short that is actually the furthest thing from short.

It’s the town square where you twirled under the Christmas light-wrapped streetlamps like you were the main characters in a rom-com (because you basically are). It’s the bookstore where you blow basically your entire paycheck together every other Friday. It’s the cute gazebo where you cozy up next to each other. It’s the first house you bought together, where your neighbor insists on bringing over (a little bit questionable) baked goods on a weekly basis and the backyard where you made snow angels for the first time in your life (like, how, Adam?!). 

These places aren’t settings of stories… they’re entire time machines. 

(Believe me, Future You will thank Present You for capturing them.)

Ditch the Generic Couples Photo Ideas, and Be As Romantic and Ridiculous As You Possibly Can

If your relationship is equal parts cute and totally unhinged (because let’s face it, all of the best ones are), let’s lean into that. 

Want to slow dance in the street? Go for it. Never made a snow angel before? Now’s your moment. Can’t resist an impromptu sprint down the middle of an empty Main Street? Run run, Rudolph, you know?

The best sessions almost always mix the swoon-worthy moments with the someone-almost-face-planted ones, and Ciara’s and Adam’s was no exception.

Hit Up Your Favorite Haunts

Your weekend breakfast spot is basically a sacred place, so why not immortalize it?

The Cobblestone Cafe in White Bear Lake is an old-school diner where these two cutie lovers always order the same thing. Oh, and the bookstore next door, that I mentioned earlier? Not made up; it’s actually where Ciara and Adam spend hours on end together. 

So, of course, I took that into consideration when coming up with the vision for this couples photos session.

The places that are actual parts of your love story deserve to be remembered, but you in them? Now that’s another story entirely.

Add A Little Bit of Cinematic Drama

Ever wanted to live inside a Hallmark Christmas movie? (No judgment. We support the dream.)

An empty and lamp-lit Main Street covered in Christmas lights, your initials etched into steamed-up car windows like you’re still just two kids chasing each other at recess, snow covering every surface… I mean, it was a whole vibe, and Ciara and Adam made the most of it. 

I totally recommend not only choosing a meaningful location, but capitalizing on the cinematic details that make it look like a scene straight out of One Tree Hill.

At the end of the day, your couples photos aren’t just cute pictures for the grid. 

They’re proof of what it felt like to be here, together, in this moment, living this sweet life of yours. One day, you’ll flip through them and say, That was us. That was our spot. That was our love, and that was where it all unfolded.

So don’t just pick a location because it looked pretty or because you drove by it once.

Pick your location. The one that holds your best memories, your biggest laughs, and your happiest sighs. 

Because the best love stories? They deserve to be told exactly where they happened.

Thoughts on telling yours, together?