Cara and James told us upfront they weren’t “classic wedding people.” They wanted something eclectic rather than staged, guests who know how to have a good time, and above all, real moments instead of poses — James doesn’t love a camera pointed at him, but Cara wanted the version of him that shows up when he forgets one is there, the kind eyes, the sneaky grin. Their ceremony was at St. Augustine of Hippo, and the reception, big and loud and full of the right kind of chaos, was at Turner Hall in downtown Milwaukee.
The women got ready at the Kimpton Journeyman downtown that morning, laughing their way through hair and makeup with what might be the most extroverted bridal party we’ve worked with all year. Cara’s one of triplets, and her red hair is a dead match for her triplet sister Elyise’s, so tracking who’s who in a crowded room takes a minute. Between the triplets, Cara’s two older brothers, and James’s own big, easygoing family, the room was never short on people who genuinely wanted to be there.
Before the reception, we took the wedding party over to the warehouses on South Water Street, three connected buildings James’s grandfather bought in the 1950s that are still in the family. From the back, the property has a kind of post-apocalyptic beauty to it, wide open and a little wild, exactly the backdrop Cara and James were hoping for instead of a manicured garden. We rode the freight elevator up with half the wedding party packed in at once. James and Cara ended up moving into a restored section of the building not long after the wedding, so in a strange, good way, we were photographing their future living room before they knew it yet.
Here’s the full day, start to finish:
Turner Hall runs as a real concert venue the rest of the year, and it shows: the reception was set up on the same stage bands play on, cleared off later for dancing, so the whole night had the feel of a great show instead of a wedding reception. Cocktail hour ran along the upstairs balcony looking down over the main hall, vintage bones and high ceilings, the kind of worn-in beauty you can’t fake. Even the guys got ready in the same room touring bands use before shows. Outside, wind kept catching Cara’s veil and her enormous protea bouquet, the kind of movement that makes a documentary wedding day actually look like one.
The kids stole a fair share of the day. Nieces and nephews ran the place, a couple of dads chauffeured them around in little chauffeur hats, and Cara spent a good chunk of the reception crouched down laughing with a pack of them instead of working the room. It fit the two of them exactly: they’d told us from the start that the ceremony and the party mattered less to them than the version of the rest of their lives it was launching, and a reception full of kids being kids and old friends being loud is about as good a preview of that as you could ask for.
Cara and James aren’t really social media people, and they told us as much before we ever picked up a camera: no posed shots for a feed, just the actual texture of the day, the people, the connection. That’s most of why they hired us in the first place. It’s also just an easy couple to photograph honestly, because neither of them knows how to fake a moment.
Vendors from the day:
- Ceremony – St. Augustine of Hippo
- Reception – Turner Hall
- Getting ready – The Kimpton Journeyman Hotel
