Katie and Kyle met me out at Leu Gardens for a Jurassic Park inspired engagement. While their wedding location has not been officially announced, you can surely bet it will be filled with their favorite extinct reptilians.
Katie and Kyle first met one another at work, but both were dating another person at the time. Over time the two parted ways with the ones they were dating and found themselves drawn to one another. From hanging out around town to going on adventures, their friendship progressed into a relationship.
For Katie, Kyle has become the “calm amidst [her] hurricane of existence,” to explain it simply, he is her “center.” He is the one she can lean on when things get tough, the one that makes her laugh, and the one that is always willing to be silly and goofy no matter the situation. For Kyle, he loves how Katie is always willing to be on the “go.” Her passion for adventure, while exhausting at times as Kyle explains, is also very “fulfilling.” She keeps him on his toes and brings him out of his comfort zone.
It wasn’t long after dating before Kyle realized that their connection was like no other. Planning out a sweet surprise proposal, Kyle wanted to ask Katie for her hand in marriage at Disney, which happened to be where one of their very first dates was. Their day started off adventuring around Epcot before making their way to dinner at California Grill. Katie noticed Kyle was acting a little strange, but didn’t think much of it. After dinner Kyle asked Katie to join him on the balcony to watch the fireworks, followed by a drink at the Polynesian, which ended with a fun night of rides at Magic Kingdom. While each location could have been a perfect proposal spot, it wasn’t the perfect moment.
The next morning after a fun day at the parks, Kyle told Katie that he, “had one more anniversary gift.” Kneeling down on one knee, Kyle asked for Katie’s hand in marriage. He explained that he had wanted to ask her the night before, but just wanted it to be the two of them to enjoy the moment together without the attention of a crowd. As Katie reminisces, “it ended up being super sweet that it was at the house though, and my dog was there to witness it.”
I must say that I am SUPER excited for Katie and Kyle’s wedding – well that is a little bit of an understatement. While it will still remain a surprise for this story, their wedding is going to be anything but ordinary – at least ordinary at this age of time.
My dinosaur loving couple and I had originally planned to shoot their engagement at a local theme park that is based on dinosaurs. While I was wandering Leu Gardens on a day off for potential engagement spots, I stumbled upon an event posting of “Dinosaur Invasion.” I knew how much Katie and Kyle loved dinosaurs and couldn’t have imagined a better place. The dinosaurs were newly painted, would be at Leu Gardens during the time they wanted to have their engagement pictures taken, and there was a map that would take us on an ‘adventure’ as we traveled around for pictures – of course the cute green plastic dino you receive after finding all of the dinos wasn’t a bad surprise either!
Looking forward to capturing these two tie the knot this March at… shhh it’s a secret, can’t let the dino out of the bag!
Venue: Harry P. Leu Gardens
