Sometimes mutual friends can be a little devious. They can make plans behind your back - because they love you. And that's exactly how Max and Sam met. You see, Sam was having a birthday party (which her birthday almost always coincides with opening day of the NFL) and so she had invited a bunch of friends out to watch the game with her. Some of Sam's friends came, and they brought someone she did not know - Max. Now, Max told me that when he first say her his first impression was something along the lines of "dang!" - she is quite attractive. Sam, however, told me she barely noticed him, he was just hanging out. But as the night went on, Sam started to notice that Max would end up in her conversations (not in a weird way) quite often, with little bits of input, a quick quip, or something more. She started to notice him, and so she asked her friends "who is this guy"? But she didn't really know he was interested in her until the end of the night when he asked her for her number.

Coeur d'Alene Engagement Photos: Bryce & Krystal

Bryce and Krystal's paths seem to have been destined to cross. Krystal knew Bryce's brother in the police academy, she even helped Bryce get some medicine for his boy when he needed it (although she did so through his brother). They seemed to know a lot of the same people, yet it was none of them that caused these two to meet. No, that honor goes to the app called Bumble.

Coeur d'Alene Engagement: Brennan & Brooklon

If we want to get technical, Brooklon and Brennan met somewhere around third grade. They went to the same (small) school, and ulitmately had really just been around each other for a long time. But things don't always go the way you'd expect, and over time people start to notice each other in different ways.

North Idaho Engagement: Derek & Stephanie

Stephanie is someone I've never really known but always knew existed. What I mean by that is her (much) older brother and I went to school together in high school. He's my friend. We played basketball together. I had the privilege of photographing his wedding (shout out to Tony and Stephanie!) and while I always knew he had a much younger sister, when you're in high school and someone has a three year old baby sister you don't really think much of it. But now that three year old sister is getting married and they thought of me to photograph their wedding and I'm pumped for it! But one thing I loved about this engagement shoot was hearing how these two amazing people met.

Coeur d'Alene Engagement: Si & Jasmine

They met online, using an app called Hinge. I asked Jasmine what the difference was between things like Bumble and Tinder, and she said that Hinge had more in depth questions on the profile's, meaning you could see more about what that person wanted, and who they were, than you could on the other apps. The thing was, when both Si and Jasmine got in the app, they had terrible luck. No good matches, no good people (at least, for them).

Engagement Photographer: Hunter & Jess' Engagement Photos

They met at a BBQ. Hunter said he noticed her basically right away - because she was hot. Jess was in a similar place, noticing his blond hair and blue eyes and thinking "oh, this is the guy for me" - as Jess is a sucker for blond hair blue eyes. Either way, they may have noticed each other, but they certainly didn't talk. Jess had a friend that went with her, who then promptly left her with a full bottle of wine but no one else except the one guy who was hitting on her a little TOO strongly. Now they didn't really it off right away, but there was a point when Hunter realized that Jess needed a little bit of space from said person, so he kind of wedged his way in there and started talking to her instead. Really, at this point I could say "the rest is history" because from then on they would talk - all the time.

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Brent Looyenga is a Spokane wedding photographer based IN SPOKANE WASHINGTON and Coeur d’Alene Idaho area. He loves people and specializes in wedding, engagement, family and senior photography. You can like Looyenga Photography on Facebook or follow them on Instagram.