Congratulations on your engagement! Now that the big rock is on your finger, it’s time to think of ways to celebrate your new status with an incredible engagement photoshoot to commemorate this first-mile marker in your wedding planning journey. Having a romantic photoshoot is like a wedding-day dry run as it shows you what to expect from your wedding portraits. From revealing some of the most flattering angles of you and BAE to showing the best couple poses that work like magic for you two, the dreamy engagement portraits can give save-the-date and wedding-website photo content. Going for a dreamy engagement photography session also builds a strong rapport with your engagement photographer (and his team), who will most likely be your wedding photographer too. Considered to be the most important wedding-vendor relationship, the rapport with your photographer can yield amazing results for your couple photography sessions.

With countless run-of-the-mill couple shots and cheesy portraits that haven’t changed a bit in the past years, it can be a real task to get couple portraits that are truly your own, unlike the predictable poses and overdone locations. Clicking amazing engagement photos that feel one of a kind and innately yours requires you to follow some tips. The first being the location of your engagement photography session. With the recent shift of the world, where all of us moved indoors, couple photography sessions took a giant shift too. We’ve seen our fair share of outdoor photoshoots of couples in the pre-pandemic times- when couples used to channelize their outdoorsy spirits through planning a sports-themed engagement photography session in a giant stadium amidst thousands of people or some opting to plan a travel-themed engagement photography session by renting out charter planes and visiting some of the most exotic destinations in the world for the session. But with the recent shift, when we’ve all moved indoors, things have changed. We are growing fond of couple portraits in intimate settings!

Whether your area is experiencing incessant rainfall in an odd season or you want to celebrate “Hygge” in your couple portraits in the months of cozy winter, indoor engagement photography sessions are a thing of sheer beauty, intimate, classy, and sultry. If snuggling next to your love and saying “cheese” is your idea of clicking couple portraits, we have you covered. Bring in your favorite props for your engagement photography session like monogrammed balloons, your favorite musical instruments, your initials in hardboard cutouts, “save the date” props, or even your furry babies, and celebrate this momentous occasion in the comfort of indoor locations. There is something so ingenious about indoor engagement photo locations that create a sense of whimsy and intimacy, capturing our souls every time we come across them. In this article, we discuss some of the best indoor engagement photography locations to celebrate the milestone.

Indoor Location Ideas for Engagement Portraits

Own Home

There’s nothing like cozying up in the comforts of your home. Engagement photography sessions at a place where one stays can be a relaxed and intimate experience that can be unique to each couple. You can choose to do a fun activity that you enjoy doing with your partner like cooking or baking in the kitchen, watching TV, snuggling on the couch by the fireplace, or even reading books next to each other. It can be a great option for couples who are camera shy or aren’t excited about the idea of taking photos in a public place, or for couples who want to bring their kids and pets to their couple portraits without stepping out of their comfort zones. The engagement portraits clicked at home generally turn out to be full of honesty and affection.

Art Gallery or Museum

Museums and art galleries are beautiful places to click artistic portraits as they are full of beautiful wide-open spaces. Imagine getting clicked against the historical displays and corners of MET or The Art Institute of Chicago! However, you might need to obtain certain photography permissions and buy entry tickets. So, reading about photography permissions beforehand would be a great start. From striking couple poses in front of ancient dinosaur skeletons, mid-century exhibits, and ventriloquist dolls to posing against some of the most famous paintings in the world, art galleries and museums are home to vibrant photo backdrops that can capture and complement the creative union.

Train Stations

Bustling metropolitan and buzzing downtown spaces can be amazing places to get clicked with your sweetheart with the blurring cityscape in the backdrop. From famous train stations like the Grand Central Terminal in NYC and Washington Union Station in DC to a local train station next to your home where you first saw them, train stations can be amazing locations for your engagement photography. Long exposure shots while you both kiss or embrace each other can bring some of the most beautifully detailed shots with the glowing lights and soaring ceilings in the backdrop, making you feel like you two are the only two people in the world at that exact moment!

Upscale Hotel Lobbies

The chic upscale hotel lobbies around the US are home to the most interesting and unique décor and stunning lighting which makes them great backdrops to incorporate into your engagement photos. Especially for couples living in busy metropolitan cities, chic hotel lobbies can be the best spot for photography as the warm and unique backdrops can weave magic in their wedding portraits. If you’ve decided to host your wedding at a hotel, or you want to get away from the home for a day or two, and get a headstart with your wedding planning, ask your professional engagement photographer to find a friendly hotel with a stylish lobby to click remarkable photos. Imagine getting clicked at the InterContinental Miami featuring antique Florentine marble covers or the West Baden Springs Hotel in Indiana with a 100-foot-tall atrium that spans 200 feet!

Cozy Bookstore or Library

Are you both college sweethearts or just two bookworms who love the smell of coffee and text over everything else? Tap into your geeky and nerdy side in a completely fun and relaxed library photography session with stacks of books in the background. From some of the prettiest libraries in the US like The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts and Library of Congress in DC to some of the most quirky and vintage bookshops of this country like Bart’s Books in California and Brattle Book Shop in Boston, you have plenty of indoor options to narrate your love story that started from the house of books. Have some indoor couple portraits clicked that can also tell the world what you enjoy doing together as a couple. 

College or University Campus

If not a library, the vivid and quaint backdrops of university and college campuses should do it for you. Especially if you are college sweethearts, visiting your alma mater together and writing your own history in the existing historical archives is a great idea for indoor couple photoshoots. Explore the historic and unique spaces and find out the photogenic backdrops to get clicked. For high school sweethearts, the school you went to together should be the place! Some of the most beautiful college and university campuses in the US can give you glorious backdrops ranging from the Spanish Renaissance facade of the University of San Diego and Bard College with Frank Gehry’s Fisher Center to the Cornell University overdramatic Cayuga Lake and the gothic splendor of Princeton University.

Coffee Shops or Corner Cafes

Who said coffee shops and corner cafes are boring? Bring some creative props to the engagement photography session and turn your regular cafe or restaurant or pub into an interesting spot for couple photography. Whether you have a regular cafe for breakfasts on Sundays or you enjoy going to a nearby billiards lounge on Friday nights with your BAE, find a great space where you can create some really cool shots for your session. From the quaint little coffee shop Gimme Coffee in NY that looks straight from Guatemala to The Wormhole Coffee in Chicago that serves everything from peanut butter mousse to dark chocolate latte, some of the coolest coffee shops in the US can give you dreamy vibes during your couple photography session.

Greenhouses or Indoor Botanical Spaces

Want to celebrate the fact that you and your beau feel your best when closest to nature, but do not actually want to step into the wilderness? Plan your engagement photos at an indoor botanical garden, bring the outside vivid foliage to the inside, and capture some really gorgeous couple portraits without being exposed to the elements. Botanical gardens with greenhouses or glass-covered areas have great indoor natural light and vibrant backdrops for photos. From the surreal burst of cherry blossoms in the Missouri Botanical Garden during summers and Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden in Richmond featuring a striking southern charm to the 145 acres of desert plant species at Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix and the pristine spring blooms at San Francisco Botanical Garden, surround yourself with bountiful natural abundance in the famous botanical gardens of the country. Pro-tip- in case of an autumn season, bring in your favorite warm fall details to the photography session to bring out the seasonal spirits.

Indoor Aquariums

Are you always fascinated by the underwater world of wonders? Always wanted to swim with the belugas and play with the dolphins? Discover the amazing secrets of the sea and channelize your blue water baby spirits by planning an engagement photo shoot at some of the best aquariums in the country. Some people want to celebrate their “wild call” and be in unison with the "circle of life," and there is no place like the ocean. The surreal underwater world can give you some of the dreamiest and out-of-the-box couple shots which can be Pinterest-worthy. From the Ripley’s Aquarium lying in the heart of the Great Smokies to the Baltimore National Aquarium housing more than 660 underwater species, you have ample indoor spots to bring home one-of-a-kind engagement photos, while having an extraordinary experience.

Cathedrals, Chapels, or Churches

For many couples, their spiritual places bind them together, and they want to celebrate their new beginning in these spots. It is no secret that churches, chapels, and cathedrals are steeped in history and embellished with marvelous details like stained-glass windows, rustic pews, colorful mosaics, and high ceilings that can pose as dreamy backdrops. Along with being home to dramatic architecture and rich history, the beautiful churches and cathedrals in the US are also popular spots for engagement photography. From the Notre-Dame-esque facade and towering stained-glass windows of Washington’s National Cathedral in DC to the striking white and gold facade of the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Savannah, we’ve seen some of the most striking details in these landmark buildings boasting rich history and heritage. 

Theaters or Music Halls

Love drama? What can be better than a theater or music hall to spill out the details of your dramatic personalities? The phenomenal lighting effects of a good spotlight will set your stage ablaze for a dramatic engagement photography session. A hub for lovers of entertainment and everything vintage, music halls, and theaters are hotspots for memorable snaps. From some of the most historic music halls like the Ambassador Auditorium in California and Hampton Coliseu in Virginia to some of the most celebrated historic theaters in history like the Kauffman Center in Kansas City and the Fox Theatre in Detroit, there are myriad dramatic places to get clicked while doing what you love the most!

Certain walls are good for relationships. There’s something so poetic about snapping couples in intimate spaces of their own homes, the college library they first saw each other, the coffee house they went on their first date to, or even the indoor aquarium they bumped into one another and fell in love with. The way playful and flirty vibes intertwine with intimate and cozy moments of a couple in an indoor setting is truly incredible and capture-worthy. From couples floating in love with balloons in engagement portraits to couples bringing their children and furry friends to the photoshoots, we love capturing newly engaged couples, and to cut the mustard we’ve found love once again in the nooks of vibrant city spaces surrounded by high walls and at home, where it smells like nowhere else.