Dan + Lauren have sooo many awesome wedding photos I already know I’m going to have to blog in two separate posts to cover their day in it’s entirety. I also have their love story to tell in their own words!
We first met at Headquarters Salon in uptown Continental. Lauren is a professional, she did her own make-up. This is one area I am lacking… I should put “learn how to do make-up” on my ever exspanding to do list…
Full of emotions… very touching. I really enjoyed spending the morning with you Lauren & your family. It was a very relaxing day…. typically not words I’d use to describe a wedding! Plus, the unlimited Dr. Pepper in the fridge won me over. 🙂
Lauren & I talked on the phone several times about a first look session. She had wanted an evening wedding at sunset… which is followed by twilighted and soon after NO NATURAL LIGHT for photos. It is a special time to get married… I did it too. But it doesn’t give you the same look to your wedding photos as others bathed in natural light. Plus, you have less time to wear THE dress and be seen in THE dress. 🙂 That’s a fact that most brides will agree on is very important. Lauren went back and forth for awhile debating on if she was to see Dan before she walked down the isle. Not long before the day she said it was a go. I walked with Lauren to the exact spot where she would see Dan for the first time. Lauren I remember you saying how you were calm all day then the butterflies came moments before the “first look.” It was magic!!!
Soon after I asked Lauren if she would have had it any other way… she said absolutely not… it was so much fun! You can see the passion that you just don’t get when you watch a couple walking down the isle toward each other. This is MAD LOVE! 🙂 Love it.
So I asked them about the moment they became engaged… here is their story in Dan’s words:
It was Lauren’s 24th birthday & the two were planning to see Wicked in Cleveland that evening as Lauren’s birthday present. Lauren had been hoping Dan would propose that day, but she wasn’t depending on it.
Lauren was getting off work early that day so they would have plenty of time to get ready, have dinner, & make it to Cleveland on time for the show. The plan as Lauren knew it was for Dan to get to Columbus around 3, then they could begin their night. Little did Lauren know, plans had changed.
After Lauren got off work, Dan texted her to ask if she was off yet & to tell her that he was on his way to Columbus to meet at the house. Lauren would soon know he’d actually been in Columbus since 10 a.m. As Lauren drove down her street, she was surprised to see Dan’s car already parked in front of the house. Still trying not to get her hopes up, she just assumed he wanted to surprise her in getting there early as a little extra birthday surprise, considering he had a tendency to do things like that. She walked through the front door to find a living room floor covered in orange rose petals with a trail leading all the way into her bedroom. Candles were lit throughout the house & the Peter Cincotti song they’d shared their first slow dance to was playing in the background. Lauren then spotted Dan standing in the doorway to her bedroom. After sitting her things down, she walked over to him to give him a hug & a kiss, when he handed her a rose. She noticed that he was shaking, which obviously, wasn’t normal. After a minute, Dan told Lauren he had something to tell her. This made her hopes seem as if they could be a little more of a reality…they were waiting for engagement to say “I love you”.
After Dan led her from the doorway to sit down on her bed, he sat down next to her & told her “Happy Birthday”…She said “Thank you” with a skeptical look on her face. Of course, Lauren’s eyes had already started tearing up, & nothing had actually happened yet. Then he said, “Actually, I have something else I want to tell you…” And then he began his speech of how amazed he was at how early his feelings & desire began for her & continued to only grow over time, even after losing touch. Both were crying throughout the amazing things he had to say. Then, he leaned toward the head of the bed & pulled out a ring box from beneath the pillow. Lauren gasped & the tears really came. He knelt with the ring & said, “Lauren Lynnette Kirk, I love you, I have always loved you, & I will always love you. Will you marry me?”
Of course, the answer was, “YES!! I love you too!”
I was also curious when Dan knew Lauren was THE one. In his words again (he’s such a great writer!)
“Lauren and I met when we were in junior high at a christian church camp. Neither of us seem to remember the moment we met or even how we became such good friends. Although our beginning is sort of a mystery to both of us, I knew without a doubt the first time that Lauren caught my eyes that she was the perfect girl for me. Every moment with her, or talking to her, reading her letters, reading her texts, even just thinking about her after that very first moment was like pouring gas on a flame. I had an indescribable desire, something that i had never, and would never feel for another.
Unfortunately, She did not share in these desires. This fact made it even more difficult to have such an unfamiliar and untaming longing for her. So at 14 years of age, I found myself in such agony over this that i was praying that someday the Lord would make her my wife.
Finally, after we both traveled long and very trying journey’s, Lauren began to share desires that i had always felt for her. It was at the beginning of our dating relationship that God slowly revealed and affirmed to me that it went far beyond just my desires for Lauren. As if it isn’t enough that my God provides for me, protects me, heals me, speaks to me, and plants a purpose in me. He placed those desires for Lauren in my heart, setting an unchanging and unconditional love in motion 12 years ago. That is when I realized that she was always the one for me.
Once this was revealed to me, everything made perfect sense. Why i could hardly breath when she entered the room, why I couldn’t pry her from my mind, why everything about her made me crazy in love, and why after so many years those desires never went away. It isn’t everything that I love about her that tells me i want to spend my life with her, it’s the fact that it is her. She is the love of my life.”
Who said “I love you” first:
We wanted to wait until engagement to share the phrase, “I love you,” with one another. We wanted to make sure the next time we said those words, it would be to the one we would share the rest of our lives with. So, naturally, Dan was the first to say “I love you”, right before asking Lauren to be his wife.
Part II of their wedding is HERE.
