“This engagement session was SO much fun! Dyann and Doug are such a light-hearted, playful couple, and their love for Target is pretty intense. So intense that they asked if we could do part of their engagement session there. Of course, I’m always up for an adventure, and I love when my couples come up with cute ways for their personality and relationship to shine in their photos! Dyann & Doug wandered the aisles, finding their favorite things from sequin pillows to pizza rolls, and it was such a blast capturing their love!” –Sami Kathryn Photography
How did you find your photographer?
I have known Sami for a little while through one of our mutual friends. She was actually Maid-of-Honor in a wedding that I also a bridesmaid in, and got a front row seat to the kindness, love, and attention to detail Sami had when planning the bachelorette party for our friend. It was so amazing to see how much Sami did for our friend but also the way she treated her brides with such care and love.
Our friend got married two weeks before Doug proposed, so Sami and the rest of our the bridesmaids knew that the proposal was coming and it was so fun to hear their stories and what went on behind the scenes after the big reveal!
I’ve seen the photos Sami has captured and loved how light, airy, and intimate they were and knew that I wanted to have Sami be part of our engagement/wedding process somehow.
It turned out, Doug had the same idea in mind when he asked her to shoot our proposal! Having built a friendship with Sami, it was so sweet to have her be part of our proposal and I love the way she cared for us and knew what shots to get without us having to worry about it.
The engagement photos is one of the biggest highlight during the engagement season for us! I had this crazy idea of doing half of our engagement photo session at one of my favorite places: Target! Sami was all in on it and she did all the coordinating with the store to get us to be able to take photos there. The photos came back amazing and I loved the way Sami ran with my crazy idea and the details/work she put to making it happen for us!
What are you DIY-ing for your wedding?
We’re DIY’ing our invitations and RSVP’s, post-wedding ‘thank yous’, seating chart, signs for the wedding, the cross and design for the cross and photos and picture frames. I love doing the design and making things look pretty, so it was only natural for me to work on the invitations and RSVPs, etc. It was super helpful that we had a template we could use on Etsy and change it to make it our own!
I definitely relied on Etsy a lot to get some of the details of our wedding and even Amazon to get our bubbles in for our send-off. I’ve done some event planning before, so it was really fun getting to work with our wedding planner in getting all the details and logistics nailed down for the big day!
Of all your wedding plans, what are you looking forward to the most
Doug and I really had the best time at our food tasting and our cake tasting! We decided to go for a brunch theme for food since we both love brunch and mimosas! It was so fun getting to taste the different brunch food and we wanted it to be unique and special. Our caterer did an amazing job and we still get compliments of how great our food tasted!
We ended up doing a “dessert” bar over just cake – we did have two cakes, but also had macaroons, brownies, cookies and other dessert available for folks who don’t like cake! -Dyann, the Bride
Event Credits
Photography: Sami Kathryn Photography // Shoot Location: Target // Bride's Attire: Madewell // Engagement Ring: Lyles-Degrazier // Groom's Attire: J. Crew
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