CONNECT
Featured on Philly in Love
When They First Met
Bri and Jake met while going out with friends in Mad River, Manayunk. Bri was ordering a drink when Jake came up to her and complimented on her shirt. She liked Jake’s baseball hat in return.
It turned out that Jake had heard about “the legend of Brianne Kammerman” as a Saint Joe’s rower, so he wanted to meet the celebrity. It helped that Jake’s also a rower at Drexel. They hit it off immediately!
Also, Bri thought Jake looked like her celebrity crush, Jake Gyllenhaal.
Their First Date
It was Valentine’s Day and a week after they met, Jake took his Valentine to Rembrandt’s, a restaurant in Fairmount because he know she loved to paint. “I was stunned he asked me to be his Valentine!..,” Bri said, “…He picked me up in his blue Mini Cooper… even though I lived on the other side of the city.”
“When we got there, Jake opened up the door for me and told me he had something for me,” Bri said. “I was thinking chocolates or flowers, but instead he handed me a small piece of paper. I looked down to find that he had actually taken the time to draw me flowers instead of just going to the store and buying them. That was the moment I knew he was different.. really different.”
“And she ordered a hamburger with a fried egg on top,” said Jake, “I knew she was different… my kind of lady.”
Three and a half years later, Bri and Jake are blissfully engaged.
What They Love About Each Other
“Jake is so smart… he is the smartest person I know. He has worked really hard to get to where he is as an environmental and civil engineer.”
And Jake has never met a more caring person – “She has a bigger heart than anyone in the world.“
Their Favorites
Three of their favorite things are the woods, the Philly Java Co coffee shop near their place and last but not least, their labrador retriever, Harper.
The Woods
Minh (M): Why woodsy for a theme for your engagement session?
Bri (B): Jake grew up in central New York on nearly 300 acres of woods and trails. It is also where he proposed this past summer. It’s the kind of place where in the morning all you hear are the trees brushing against each other and at night you can hear coyotes howling. It’s where our hearts are. I really wanted to re-create this place in our engagement photos and at our wedding.
The Coffee Shop
(M): What is the significance of this particular coffee shop? Any favorite memory there together?
(B): This is our favorite coffee shop, most Saturday or Sunday mornings.. when we have nothing else to do- we take Harper to the dog park then walk over to the coffee shop for coffee and this Greek style bread they call “Labneh” which we could eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We have many memories there trying to get Harper to sit and stay still as a 4 month old puppy.
Hyper Harper
(M): Do tell us about Harper! What is her personality? What’s a cute thing that she usually does?
(B): Harper is a 75 pound yellow Labrador retriever and the center of our universe. She is named after the first street we lived on together in Fairmount. We got her last January when she was about 2 months old and only about 12 pounds. I remember taking her home in my lap, this little quiet yellow fur ball angel was perfection. We had NO idea what we had gotten ourselves into…she turned out to be the “most hyper” dog our vet had ever seen. We would run her for an hour in the morning and hour at night and she would still sprint back and forth in the house. In her lifetime she has eaten several holes in the wall.. dog beds have somehow exploded overnight, and brand new toys have been destroyed within minutes of giving them to her. She is just over a year now, and showing some signs of calming down… but not much. She is worth it though. The best is when we’re all sitting on the couch and she has to sit in your lap… or rests her head on your shoulder.
(J): Harper is my little tag-a-long dog. Any time I’m doing something in the back yard or around the house, she has to see and sniff what I’m doing.
Their Wedding
Jake and Bri are getting married in a clearing in the woods in Rose Valley, PA at an old historic mill next Autumn, on Halloween weekend. The theme? – “Glamorous spooky meets the 1920s,” with a color palette inspired by The Kiss by Gustav Klimt.
Share this story
COMMENTS Expand -
beautiful!