lauren + matt | patterson park golden hour engagement

All of my couples have such personality and fun-loving stories, but I can't get over how much Lauren and Matt have in common with each other (and with me)... making it so easy to capture their adorably sweet love for each other and where they live! (Spoiler alert: they live one block away from where Anthony and I lived for almost 8 years... within walking distance to the Patterson Park Pagoda, so naturally we had to start there!)

I can't begin to tell their story as well as they can in their own words, so without further ado... Lauren shares how their love story came to be (so many quintessential Baltimore bars/restaurants played a role in their first date! I love that!):

"Matt & I met right after he moved to Baltimore City. One of my best friends had just turned 21 and we wanted to find a place to go out. She had known Matt & his friends for quite some time and reconnected with his roommate. I got to meet Matt & Chris as Matt had just gotten back from the gym and gave us a tour of the house (and I knew I liked him immediately!) and then went to go get ready to go out. A little while later we took a cab (back when people still took cabs... :)) down to Canton and went to Nacho Mama's! We all shared a Hubcap margarita at the bar. Matt and I were pretty engrossed with each other at that point -- we talked and talked and learned a lot about each other. We even kissed in the cab that night on the way back to their place. :) They invited us back down the next night and we went to Ale Mary's and Bad Decisions and then Matt took me to the National Zoo in DC the next morning. And that was it. I think we both knew where we stood pretty quickly and hung out pretty much every weekend after that..."

Can we just stop for a second and have a moment with this GORGEOUS one-of-a-kind ring that Matt gave Lauren? I've never seen anything like it and can't stop staring at it! A custom pear shaped yellow diamond?!

Living steps from Patterson Park and loving the walk along the Fells Point waterfront,  I can't get enough of their perfect embraces and snuggly selves... everything about our night together was picture perfect!!

Their proposal story is SO sweet... but I also just love how real it starts out! How many of you have struggled with "...relaxing vacation or adventure trip?!"

"We have always struggled a bit with our travel preferences -- the best way I can describe it is that I prefer "vacations" where Matt prefers "trips". After a long few weeks of "trips" with our friends, we had a long conversation about my need for a vacation from our trips... He immediately got to work planning a weekend a few months later in Hudson, NY. A place where he promised that there was so little to do that even he could not turn the vacation into a trip. We stayed in a cute AirBnB, explored the town a little the first day and went to a nice meal. The next day we did some more exploring and then went back to the house to relax and then shower and get ready for dinner. I was sitting on the bed reading and he suddenly came in and let me know that he had decided we REALLY needed to go check this place a few miles away out. And that we HAD to go that evening before dinner. So, begrudgingly, I pulled my hair up in a messy bun, threw on a giant sweatshirt and converse and hopped into the car. We got to Olana (a gorgeous house designed and decorated by Frederic Church with beautiful details all over it, overlooking the Hudson River) and walked around a bit, the house was already closed, so I was honestly a bit annoyed that we were there... we made our way through the yard and sat down on a bench looking back up at the house, it was really nice because no one else was around since the house had closed for the day. And that's when he did it. :) It was lovely -- and I was super appreciative that he knows me well enough to have found such a peaceful quiet spot for it! I later learned that while I was hosting my best friend's bachelorette party in Ocean City a few weekends earlier, he had recruited his brother to drive all the way to Hudson with him, check out Olana, to make sure he liked it and had a plan and grabbed lunch and drove all of the way home!! He hadn't told anyone besides his brother, so it was fun making the calls and actually surprising everyone with the news."

L+M, we can't wait for your Accelerator Space wedding in less than a month and know it's going to be an epic evening filled with incredible food, family and friends but most importantly, the official start of YOUR married life together!!!

xo,
Naomi