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I met Katie and John on a beautiful September morning at the Duke Gardens in Durham, North Carolina, for their engagement session. 

Katie shares, “Our story began years ago when we both attended Small World Preschool in Burlington, Iowa. Little did we know, our paths would cross again many years later. I moved to Iowa City with my family during high school, went to Pittsburgh for college, and then moved to New York City to pursue my professional dance career. John grew up in Burlington and moved to Iowa City for undergrad and medical school. In 2020, COVID hit and I moved back home to Iowa City. In December of 2020, my younger brother (also named John) ran into John at the U of I hospital while they were working. My mom suggested that I reach out to John and reconnect, knowing we were both in Iowa City. I finally got the courage to make the move and messaged John on Facebook asking him out for a drink.

Almost 2 years later, we made the move to Durham, NC, where John started his residency at UNC in ENT. One of our favorite things to do in North Carolina is to visit and explore Asheville, with our dog, Lady, of course! On one of our trips, John got down on one knee at the base of a waterfall during a hike.”

And the rest is history!

Katie was my son’s babysitter in New York City in 2017-2018, and we have stayed in touch. I’m so excited to celebrate this special time with her and John and photograph their wedding! Katie and John will be getting married in Asheville on May 11, 2024, at the Biltmore. Happy engagement, you two!

I met Lilli and Patryk at Red Rocks to celebrate their engagement.

Lilli shares, “Patryk and I first met in Atlanta in 2018, forming a friendship as coworkers. When Patryk moved on to another company, we took the opportunity to begin a romantic relationship and have been happily together ever since!

We love having fun together, and spent our first year of dating enjoying a mutual love of travel, theme parks, and Broadway musicals. In 2020, we quickly transitioned to playing video games together instead – even if Patryk had to carry me through most levels. 

After 3 years together in Atlanta, we packed up and moved to Denver. We’ve since had a great time exploring the mountains, cheering on all the local teams, and doing our best to break out of every escape room within 50 miles.

We’re so excited to begin the next chapter of our lives together and can’t wait to see what comes next!”

The couple is getting married this June in Denver. Happy engagement Lilli and Patryk!

I met Brittney and Bryan at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal Wildlife Refuge for their engagement session. We had a nice breezy evening with the most amazing sunset and fields of wildflowers!

Brittney, thank you for being up for walking through this tall grass! We may have passed a thousand grasshoppers, but it was worth it.

Brittney shares, “Bryan and I knew of each other in high school. We did many similar activities, such as church and music, but our friend groups didn’t intersect. Fast forward 17 years, Bryan reached out via social media while I was in the midst of nursing school for a career change. I was not interested in dating while being so busy, but Bryan was the right amount of persistence, patience, and charm. We took dating slow ensuring that we would work well together and work well as a family (Bryan has 6 biological kids and 1 adopted special needs son).

We both feel incredibly lucky to have found someone who complements us so well. We look at our wedding as both an opportunity to acknowledge what we’ve each been able to overcome/endure in the past and celebrate the beginning of a wonderful life with a family full of love, adventure, and joy.”

I can’t get over this gorgeous golden sunlight. Brittney and Bryan–you guys look amazing!

The couple will be married this fall in Colorado. Happy engagement Brittney and Bryan!

I met Hannah and Sam at Mt. Falcon on a beautiful spring day. Their pup, Palmer, was so sweet and loved being on the trails.

Hannah shares, “We met working in Chicago in our early twenties. We often joke that our lives in Chicago were parallel and we have no idea how it took us so long to meet. We lived two blocks away from each other (twice, we both moved to new units and were still the same distance away!), we took the same commute at the same time to work every day… and then, we finally met when we both took a new job at the same company in June 2018. Sam started a few weeks before I did, and our first conversation was at a happy hour for my start class. Sam acted like he had everything figured out and I remember wishing for the day I felt like I knew what I was doing at work. We both remember that conversation vividly, as this was when we realized we would be working on the same client (different project, though, thank goodness!) in LA.

We spent the next year “professionally” – we were colleagues and dating other people, but still friendly. We traveled back and forth from Chicago to LA every week together. Then, the summer of 2019 came around and we started to hang out more and more… Sam started inviting me to non-work events, and finally I had the nerve to text him to meet me on a night out with some friends. It happened to also be my birthday, and now we have an extra reason to celebrate my birthday every year: our “unofficial” anniversary.

We spent the next year continuing to travel to LA together for work, taking advantage of our consulting lifestyles and traveling together on the weekends. When COVID hit in March 2020, we decided to continue our adventures and move to Denver together. The rest is history.

Sam proposed in Beaver Creek in March last year when my parents and brother were visiting for a weekend. He had a beautiful setup at the base of the mountain in the evening where he asked me to marry him, and it was the easiest yes of my life. We’ve known each other as many things – colleague, friend, boyfriend, fiance, dog parent, roommate. We’re most excited to be husband and wife in eleven short months.”

Congratulations Hannah and Sam! The couple will be getting married at the Manor House next spring.

It just so happened that I would be in California right before Cassie and John were flying across the country for their NYC wedding. The couple lives in Newport Beach with their sweet pup, Frankie. So we just had to plan an engagement session at the beach!

Cassie and John met in Laguna Beach. At the time, in April of 2021, Cassie was traveling around the West Coast. They started dating that June, and got along so well, that when Cassie was set return to New York, she changed her plans and stayed in California so they could be together. About a year after they met, in April of 2022, they got engaged.

Happy engagement Cassie and John!