Kayla and Drew met in high school. They knew each other for years, sat together at lunch and worked on endless projects together, all as “just friends”. They began secretly dating after spending long hours and late nights working on their senior class video together and after keeping their relationship behind closed doors for several months, they made their status officially public by going to their senior prom together. How adorable is that?! If the story of their relationship isn’t meant to be an early 90s rom-com then I don’t know what is.
Kayla is an incredible florist and owner of Wildroot Floral, so finding some greenery during this wintery shoot was a must! Our amazing associate, Michele, followed these two love birds around the Buffalo Botanical Gardens for a few hours and let them work their high school sweetheart magic in front of the camera, before heading over to the Albright Knox to get a few shots in some formal attire.
We can’t wait to share their wedding day with you too!! But in the meantime, please enjoy soaking in the sweetness of this engagement shoot!
Kayla: “Since we met in high school there was no real ‘first date!’ We’ve been together for so long at this point that neither of us can even really remember the first official time we spent alone together. Prom may have been our true first date, which seems ridiculous because we had spent so, so, so many hours together working on projects at school before then. It’s all a bit of a high school romance blur! At one point we also went to a Shea’s performance of West Side Story fairly early on in our relationship. We had good seats and I had made a joke that I felt so fancy. That night Drew made me laugh so hard trying to act ‘fancy’ and adopting a British accent. I remember now it so distinctly, and knew I’d found someone just as strange as me – it was fantastic.“
Kayla: “Drew and I were living in Austin, TX on the weekend that Drew proposed. I had flown home to Buffalo to go to my sister’s high school graduation and a Buffalo Boss Babes event. It was too expensive for us to both fly home so I left Drew and our puppy, Ember, in Austin. My mom suggested that we go to Sonnenberg Gardens in Canandaigua on Saturday which I was happy to do. Drew and I have visited the gardens there multiple times. It’s one of our very, very favorite places. When we arrived, my sister had me pose in front of one of the greenhouses so she could take a picture. Funny enough – I actually said ‘Oh – take my picture here and send it to Drew! His mom has this photo framed at her house!’ As I was smiling for the photo, I heard steps behind me. I turned around to move out of the way and saw Drew and was SO EXCITED. I had absolutely no clue that a proposal was coming. It didn’t cross my mind whatsoever. I thought he had just flown home for the weekend for a surprise because that is so like Drew and he knows I hate not being with him. When he got to me and gave me a hug I still had no clue and was ready to just go walking through the gardens. Then he got down on one knee and I was totally blown away. My parents and sisters were there to photograph/video/scream in the background which was crazy and fun. The video of the moment is just hilarious because I’m truly speechless and so confused. The entire proposal was so special because of the place, the surprise, and the fact that I got to talk with my family immediately after. He also brought gorgeous flowers (a necessity in my opinion, of course) and the perfect ring from Alexis Russell in Buffalo.“
What do you get when you cross a unique, fun loving couple with National Puppy Day? You get Megan and Jody’s incredible wedding!! (Ba-dum-CHING!) Ok, so maybe we aren’t good with jokes, (like, at all) but we must be at least somewhat good with photographing weddings or else Megan, a wedding photographer herself –> Megan Dailor Photography, probably wouldn’t have chosen us to document her own very special day. It’s always such an honor and a truly humbling experience to be photographing the wedding of a fellow pro photographer, and being able to capture all of these amazing moments with Megan and Jody was certainly no exception.
One of our favorite parts about M+J’s big day were the unique locations they chose. This was our first time shooting at Rochester Brainery and Studio 180, and we’re dying to go back!! The spaces were enhanced by Megan’s beautiful vision of clean, bright, cozy and natural, and was brought to life with help from her wonderful florist, Lisa Meyer of Kittelberger’s Florist & Gifts.
Ok so, how does any of this tie into National Puppy Day exactly?? Well, it doesn’t really – BUT – in honor of the day, and their love of dogs, and their love of one very special dog in particular, Megan and Jody honored their own sweet pup Pepper throughout their wedding. Pepper walked Jody down the aisle, he stood up in front as an honorary groomsdog, and they even had special reception beverage glasses made to celebrate their “Puppy Love”. Basically, this wedding was right up our alley in every possible way, and we hope that you love it as much as we did :)
Megan: “Jody and I met on Match.com! Jody messaged and said he couldn’t believe how much we had in common, and we had a very fun correspondence for a couple of weeks before setting a first date. Obviously we were both trying to be our wittiest selves, and at one point I referred to ‘troglodytes’ and he bitterly lamented that he was not the first one to use the word in our writings. He later made me a custom family crest style poster and across the top in a banner he found a Latin translation of ‘first to troglodyte.’“
Megan: “One of my favorite things about our first date happened before it even started. Jody asked if I wanted to meet right after he got out of work (around 5:30) or later at 8. I said 5:30 so he didn’t have to drive home and back. He then said ‘I’m so glad you picked 5:30, I didn’t want to have to wait any longer to meet you!’ After dealing with some annoyingly wishy-washy guys on the apps, it was refreshing to have someone be so excited and genuine. And it just got better from there. We met for drinks at Good Luck, which turned into dinner. We were there for about five hours, just talking and laughing and having a great time. It was clear from the start that this was special.“
Megan: “We just have so much fun together; all the time. Good times are immeasurably better. Mediocre times, like cleaning and running errands, are tons more fun. And bad times, like his 14 days in the hospital and 3 months of medical limbo this summer, are tolerable with each other to lean on and laugh with. We love to ride bikes, make up songs about our dog, laugh about stupid things, then laugh about how stupid we are for laughing at them. We turn pretty much everything into a silly adventure.“
Megan: “Jody‘s a scientist and I’m a photographer, so he leaves all the visual stuff up to me! I wanted a clean and pretty look for our ceremony. The Brainery is totally my aesthetic – clean and bright with a little industrial edge. Adding more greens to the existing plants was my amazing florist’s idea (Lisa Meyer at Kittelberger’s – I trusted her completely and let her do what she wanted). She even filled the shelves right behind the ‘altar’ with candles to make it a little warmer.“
Jody: “Being able to have our dog as part of the ceremony was the best. She’s an important part of our family and it would not have been the same without her. I had fun walking her down the aisle as she stopped to lick everyone along the way.“
Megan: “I wasn’t even sure if I wanted a wedding at first, but the more I thought about it the more important it felt to make these promises to each other in front of our favorite people. I’m not typically super open with my feelings so the fact I felt compelled to do this was kind of striking to me, so I went with it.“
Megan: “By far my favorite part of our wedding day was the ceremony, which I wasn’t expecting. I had no idea what our friend Jon, who was officiating, was going to come up with. He’s a chemistry professor so I know he has the ability to be serious, but he’s also one of the weirdest, funniest people I have ever met (and I say that with the utmost affection) so I wasn’t sure how it was going to go. It was so heartfelt and beautiful and hilarious and perfect for us. People were laughing and crying, it was just outstanding. I wish I could live in that 20 minutes forever.“
Jody: “Jon’s ceremony was awesome. When we first met with him to talk things over, he made an offhand comment about basing the ceremony on a 1970’s Clint Eastwood movie and I thought he was kidding because it was so left field. He ended up actually tying it in, and it was beautiful. It blew my mind. The whole thing was fantastic.“
Megan: “Being surrounded by all of our favorite people and seeing how much love and happiness they were all carrying for us felt so special. It was also a real treat to be able to show them how much we love them by creating a day that really kept their comfort and enjoyment in mind. We picked Studio 180 because of how cozy and inviting it is. I have been to multiple parties there and love that on top of the dinner seating there are little lounge areas and a loft for people to hang out in so if they want to get comfy they aren’t stuck at their table. Our caterer, Farmhouse Table, are all about quality- local, in season ingredients and creative dishes. I wanted the food to be like a hug to our guests.“
Megan: “Jody and I are really silly with each other and have a whole list of dumb inside jokes, made up words and phrases. We had my mom, a former wedding calligrapher, do some of our phrases in gold lettering and framed them around the place for our own amusement. It was such a fun project, deciding which ones to use and seeing our goofy things written elegantly and framed around the place.“
Jody: “Not being plugged into the wedding industry like Megan is, it came as a surprise to me that would could really pick any music we wanted. Knowing they’re one of my favorites, Megan suggested ‘Legend Has It’ by Run The Jewels for introductions, and I was immediately on board. The two of us dancing out to that was so fun.“
Megan: “Jody and I chose ‘Heart of Gold’ by Neil Young for our first dance. We are music people and had a really tough time deciding. ‘Heart of Gold’ felt like it embodied what we have found in each other and what it took to get here. It’s also a classic, but one I haven’t heard at dozens of weddings.“
Megan: “Before the wedding I didn’t have much of an opinion on sweetheart tables. We ended up doing one because it made the overall seating chart easier and ended up LOVING having a little bit of time to ourselves. It’s such a whirlwind, and having some private time was really special.“
Megan and Jody: “Our advice? SIMPLIFY. Don’t bother with traditions you don’t care about. The more things you have to do, the less time you have to enjoy your day. We also really liked how simple and laid back everything was with Jenn, and we love so many of the happy memories they captured!“
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