Katie was an intern at church when I was on staff several summers ago.  I knew I liked her from the beginning, but what I didn’t know was that when the summer ended, our friendship wouldn’t.  And getting to see her over the next several years, chat about life and teaching school, and talking with her through her struggle with wanting to be married but having no idea where her husband was turned out to be some of my favorite moments with her.

This past spring, I was meeting with a bride at Stomping Grounds in downtown Greer when Katie walked in.  I hadn’t seen her in a while since she had changed churches so I was really excited to see her smiling face!  And when she told me that she was dating this guy named Adam?!?  I tried realllly hard to not be too excited :-)  We didn’t have too much time to catch up since I was in a meeting, but when I saw she was engaged and then I got an email the next day about photographing their wedding, I was able to get the FULL story shortly after!

Adam is in seminary full time but will occasionally substitute teach at the school where Katie teaches.  Some co-workers began telling her about this substitute that she HAD to meet. And when their principal (Katie’s mom!) said she needed to meet this guy, she knew he must be something special!  One night some co-workers invited her and Adam to a friend’s concert in downtown Greenville and while Katie knew what was happening, Adam had NO idea!

All Adam knew was that he sat next to this fun girl and really enjoyed the evening.  He then walked her to his car since they’d parked in the same garage and talked for another 45 minutes!  After running into each other several times the next several months and spending intentional time becoming friends, they went on their first date… and while no relationship is easy, these two have known that God was in this from the beginning.

Adam fell in love with Katie as he got to know her, but it was when he watched her help take care of his mom after she’d broken her elbow that he knew he wanted her to be his wife.  So he took her back to Stomping Grounds, one of the places they went as they were getting to know each other, sat her at the same table they’d sat at before, told her the sweetest things she’d ever heard and then got on one knee to propose.  Between laughing and crying and being utterly amazing and excited, Katie said, YES!

These two laugh so much together and I LOVE that their session started that way…
guys, please don’t hate me for posting these but they are so YOU!

But really, what guy doesn’t want his girl to laugh at his jokes and what girl doesn’t want her guy looking at her the way Adam looks at Katie??  All the heart eyes…!

Katie!  Get it girl.
Oh and her ring?  No big deal, but it belonged to her great-great grandmother!  Isn’t it amazing??

Greer has so many nooks and crannies, I feel like I’m always finding a new spot when I’m down there!

So much of their relationship has happened in downtown Greer that it only made sense for us to take their engagement photos there!

Oh I love this one!

One of their favorite things to do is play games so when they pulled out a checkers board from Cracker Barrel, I was so excited!
I haven’t played checkers in forever and I really wanted to sit down and play too :-)

Seriously, you guys.  Seriously!

Cindy McGrath did an amazing job on Katie’s makeup!

This little church has been on my list of places to shoot for ages… and the fact that we walked up just when the sun was casting a shadow of the cross onto the building just made my heart soar!

We were finished with our session and heading back to our cars when I realized we hadn’t taken one shot in front of Stomping Grounds even though we’d met there at the beginning of their session!  So, we snagged one more shot (or maybe 3) :-)
Congrats again, you guys!  I can’t wait for January!