Lauren + Damien | An Engagement Story Built on Competition, Pheasants + Capital Four
Some couples fall in love over candlelit dinners and long walks on the beach.Lauren and Damien apparently decided to test their compatibility through a never-ending series of competitive sporting events. 😂 Bowling. Putt-putt. Cornhole. Darts. Rummy. Pretty much anything that can produce a winner and a loser has, at some point, become a competition between these two.Eventually, they discovered the secret to a happy relationship: put them on the same team.That little detail tells you quite a bit about Lauren and Damien.
Before these two celebrate their wedding at The Home Farm Barn in Indiana, Pennsylvania, we documented this chapter of their story with an engagement session. As a wedding and engagement photographer based in Blairsville, Pennsylvania, one of my favorite parts of photographing couples throughout Indiana County and Western Pennsylvania is getting to know who they are before the wedding day arrives. Because the good stuff usually isn’t the perfectly posed stuff. It’s the way you look at each other between photos. The inside jokes. The laugh that happens because somebody said something ridiculous. The tiny interactions you’d probably never think to put on a Pinterest board. Those are usually the photographs that matter later.
Mom Really Does Know Best
Lauren has her mom to thank for this whole thing, which means Mom now possesses the ultimate lifelong trump card: “See? Mom knows best.”
It started on the Fourth of July during the summer before Lauren’s senior year of college. Her family had planned a float trip with friends and some people from work, and Lauren was already onto the fact that her parents seemed suspiciously interested in playing matchmaker. There were interns. There were coworkers. There was apparently no shortage of eligible candidates being casually placed in Lauren’s vicinity. 😂 Then there was Damien.
He was the only coworker who actually showed up for the float trip. Lauren, however, had already decided she was absolutely not dating one of her parent’s coworkers. So naturally, she spent part of the day giving him crap. Meanwhile, a family friend was basically providing live commentary from the sidelines: Lauren, he’s pretty cute. Lauren, he likes sports too! Subtle.
Lauren describes herself that day as a Sour Patch Kid, sour first, sweet later. And the sweet part came toward the end of the trip. A family with young kids needed help getting their kayaks to the boat ramp, and Damien waded over to help. Somewhere along the way, he badly cut the bottom of his foot. When everyone got back to the house, Lauren helped clean him up and take care of his injury.
Maybe it was the Summer Shandys. Maybe it was watching him go out of his way to help someone else. Or maybe Mom actually did know best.
A few days later, Lauren and Damien went to a Pirates game together…strictly as friends, obviously. Except not long after that, Lauren found herself trying to figure out exactly how she was supposed to introduce Damien when he accompanied her to her sister’s wedding. So much for that whole I would never date my parent’s coworker thing.
When Competition Is Basically a Love Language
For Damien, one of the first clues that Lauren might be his person was realizing he’d finally met someone every bit as competitive as he was. It started the first day they met, chipping a ball around the backyard, and continued through date after date. The problem? Neither of them particularly enjoys losing.
And when two competitive people compete against each other…well… Marriage counseling is expensive, guys. Just join the same team. 😂 That’s essentially what Lauren and Damien figured out. Team activities now come with one important rule: Lauren + Damien vs. Everybody Else. Problem solved. Mostly.
The Proposal…and the Accidental Photographer
By the time Damien was ready to propose, he had the ring. He had Lauren’s dad’s permission. What he did not have was a plan. Then Lauren and her sister began organizing a group outing to a concert at a small venue outside Pittsburgh. Suddenly, Damien had a date, a location and, perhaps most importantly, people around who could document it.
There was only one problem. He hadn’t told anyone what he was doing. Eventually he recruited Lauren’s brother-in-law as the unofficial proposal photographer and convinced everyone to take one of their traditional group photos behind the stands. That’s when he went for it. Except Lauren’s first moment of shock had absolutely nothing to do with the proposal. She was apparently more concerned with why her brother-in-law was suddenly casually taking pictures of them. She turned toward Damien, ready to make a joke about it……and that’s when she realized what was actually happening. Surprise successfully executed.
Their Perfect Saturday Looks a Little Different
If you’re picturing brunch, mimosas and a leisurely trip to Target, you have the wrong couple. Lauren’s ideal Saturday morning involves a brisk autumn day, a freshly stocked pheasant field and watching Milo work back and forth ahead of them. Or they’re sitting at the edge of a lake at dawn as the ducks begin flying overhead.
Their hobbies take them everywhere, from hunting fields to volleyball courts, softball fields and golf courses. They travel for concerts, hunting trips and visits with friends who have moved away. They joke that their house becomes “the hotel with the worst cleaning service” during especially busy stretches of the year. Priorities.
Capital Four
Every relationship needs an inside joke that makes absolutely no sense to anyone else. Lauren and Damien have: Capital Four.
While setting up a new smart TV one night, both of them were already completely over the process when they needed to enter a password. Lauren’s phone wouldn’t cooperate. Damien offered to enter it from his. He asked for the password. Lauren told him. He needed part of it repeated. And in a moment of pure frustration, instead of saying whatever she was supposed to say, Lauren responded: “Capital Four.” Which is, of course, not a thing. Damien has never let her forget it.And now it’s on the internet forever.
You’re welcome, Damien.
If They Win the Lottery…
Forget the yacht. Damien already knows what they’re buying. Property.
But not just any property. We’re talking about an entire adult recess estate. Woods with deer stands. Fields stocked with pheasants. An indoor volleyball court. A softball field that can double for kickball. A pond for swimming and fishing. A luxury outdoor kitchen and fire pit. Basically summer camp for grown-ups with considerably better food and presumably no camp counselor telling anyone it’s lights-out. And after meeting these two, I assume somewhere on the property there would also need to be a scoreboard. Because obviously.
Why Lauren + Damien Chose Jen McKen Photography
One of my favorite answers from their questionnaire actually had nothing to do with how they met. It was about how they found me. Their venue recommended my work, so they started looking through photographs from previous weddings there. At first, they weren’t even paying attention to who had photographed them.
But they kept noticing the same thing. The images they were drawn to kept leading back to me. When they eventually visited my website, they noticed something even more important: I wasn’t only photographing the couple. I was paying attention to everyone around them. The little moments. The people they chose to share the day with. The interactions happening outside the obvious spotlight.And Lauren and Damien told me that’s incredibly important to them.
It is to me, too. Because someday their wedding photographs won’t just show them what everything looked like. I want them to remind them what being there felt like. The parents who cried. The friend losing it on the dance floor. The hand squeeze. The ridiculous laugh. The people who showed up for them. The things they didn’t even know were happening. That’s the emotional evidence of a life….and a wedding…well lived.
Lauren + Damien’s Wedding Is Next
Their engagement session is only the beginning of this story, and after getting to know these two a little better, I already know their wedding isn’t going to be about performing for a camera. It’s going to be about their people. Probably some competition. Almost definitely some inappropriate giggling.
And, if we’re lucky, absolutely no one will need to enter a Capital Four into anything.
FAQ: Engagement Photography in Western Pennsylvania
What should an engagement session feel like?
It should feel like you. Your engagement photos don’t have to mimic whatever happens to be trending on Pinterest. The best sessions incorporate your personalities, relationship and the way you naturally interact so the photographs still feel meaningful years from now.
Do engagement photos have to be heavily posed?
Absolutely not. I provide direction when it’s helpful, but I’m also constantly watching what happens between those directed moments. Often, the laugh after the “official” photo or the way you naturally reach for each other creates the image you’ll love most.
Why is an engagement session helpful before the wedding?
Besides giving you beautiful photographs from this season, an engagement session gives us a chance to work together before your wedding. You’ll know how I photograph, I’ll learn how the two of you naturally interact, and by wedding day the camera already feels much less like a stranger crashing the party.
Your Photos Should Feel Like Your Relationship
Whether I’m photographing an engagement session, wedding or family in Blairsville, Indiana County or somewhere else across Western Pennsylvania, my goal isn’t to make your life look like someone else’s.
It’s to notice what’s already yours. The weird jokes. The people you love. The micro-expressions. The ordinary moments you don’t realize you’ll miss someday. Because ten or twenty years from now, I don’t just want you to look at your photographs and think, we looked good. I want you to look at them and think:Yep. That was us.
If you’re planning a wedding or engagement session and want photographs that preserve the people, personality and little moments alongside all the pretty stuff, reach out- I’d love to hear your story.
