Our Story

We met as first-year students at Hamilton College in the fall of 2015. We became friends easily and naturally, with no expectation that it needed to be anything more. For our first few years of college, we moved through overlapping social circles and academic settings, occasionally bumping elbows, but largely navigating in parallel.

We lived in the same freshman dorm and shared academic interests. Chris studied biology; Kaitlyn environmental science. We sat in the same introductory chemistry lecture. Kaitlyn eagerly and diligently took notes, visited office hours, and earned an A; Chris took a more lackadaisical approach, occasionally missing a Friday morning lecture, but cleverly sneaked by with a B.

Late in our second year, we both signed up to study “abroad” together and soon found ourselves preparing for the upcoming fall semester in the Adirondack Park. Kaitlyn remembers learning Chris was joining the program and feeling quietly thrilled—certain that the semester would bring us closer. And it did. Living together with a small group of students, we studied forest ecology, bonded over the everyday challenges of cooperative living, cooked extravagant meals, shared chores, and enjoyed the chance to live so intentionally in a beautiful part of the world.

We also worked together on a full-diet CSA farm, where the work was beautiful, but grueling in a sort of exhausting, satisfying way. We participated in every part of the farming cycle (including a memorable chicken processing day) and packed CSA boxes for members in New York City for hours at a time, “trapped” in refrigerated trailers. Every week we were rewarded with impossibly fresh vegetables, rich dairy, and unfamiliar cuts of meat that forced creativity in the kitchen (with mixed results! We never quite nailed the beef tongue, but Chris and his Aunt Ann did make a very delicious chicken liver pate).

During parents weekend, we met each other's parents for the first time. Kaitlyn’s parents would later reveal they left that weekend asking “why isn’t Kaitlyn with that great Chris guy?!”

After Kaitlyn’s spring abroad in New Zealand, we were back on campus for a brief stretch of weeks the summer before senior year—free, sunlit, unstructured, and joyful. Chris remembers running into Kaitlyn the day she first came back on campus that summer. He biked by her, and did a double take, looping back to invite her over to have dinner once he was back from the garden, delighted to have her presence back in his life.

Summer turned to fall where classes intensified and theses loomed. When the job hunt began, we found ourselves in a friendly competition interviewing for the same position—and we later bonded over our rejections. There were moments of quiet flirtation throughout the year and friends began to notice sparks of connection. At a New Years party, our friend Meredith encouraged Kaitlyn to kiss Chris at midnight—but Kaitlyn hesitated, worried about making a friendship awkward.

In the final week of college, everything aligned.

We shared a kiss on the dance floor at the Senior Gala. It was surprising and completely undeniable all at once. That last week before graduation felt disorienting—something entirely new and thrilling had begun, just as life as we knew it was about to turn on its head. Kaitlyn was headed to Washington, D.C., and Chris to the Boston area to start new internships. Neither of us was eager to rush into a long-distance commitment, but we both knew there were deeper feelings at play.

Kaitlyn remembers telling her dad two days later that she and "Chris from the Adirondacks" had "agreed to stay in touch" after college, much to his chagrin. Staying in touch quickly became texting, which turned into long phone calls, and eventually into Kaitlyn’s first weekend visit to Boston over the Fourth of July. 

Chris recalls telling his parents that Kaitlyn was visiting, and explaining, "Well, it's definitely more than a friend situation. I think we might want some space to be alone." We spent a few warm, easy, unhurried days together. Though we didn’t admit it right away, we were falling in love.

What followed was an era of back-and-forth—Boston to D.C., D.C. to Boston—growing closer with every visit. We fell in love across train platforms and weekend trips, building a shared map of memories tied to both cities and the spaces in between.

March 2020 arrived, and COVID introduced new hurdles and complications to our long-distance life. Kaitlyn spent time in Rochester while her dad was sick. Travel became fraught, plans uncertain, and time together required more intention and care. But we made it work.

Later that year, Chris moved into an apartment in Jamaica Plain and Kaitlyn returned to D.C, but remote work gave us more flexibility for longer visits and time together. We traveled, explored cities, hiked national parks, and enjoyed more than a few restaurants we could hardly afford. Slowly and unmistakably, a shared life took shape—even across distance.

Our families began to intertwine. Chris visited Rochester and joined Kaitlyn’s extended family for Fourth of July celebrations at Loon Lake, a tradition that anchors the summer. Kaitlyn grew close with Chris’s parents too, bonding over fiber crafts, easy conversation, and a shared appreciation for food, movies, and art.

2022 was an intense and transformational year for us both. Kaitlyn started a new job and moved to Boston in the spring, closing our three-year long-distance chapter. Soon after, Kaitlyn’s father’s health took a turn, and he passed away from lung cancer in August. Chris was in Rochester with the Thayers that week, supporting Kaitlyn, Ellen, Ally and Owen through some of their hardest days.

The month that followed was a whirlwind: we moved in together two weeks later and got into a minor car accident, Kaitlyn helped plan her dad’s memorial and traveled for work, and Chris began grad school and a new job. It was a season of raw grief and upheaval—but also of deep partnership and commitment to one another.

In the years that followed, things settled. We spent time with friends, creating and sustaining traditions we hope will last well into the future: winter ski trips, summer camping excursions, making music together, hosting dinners and gatherings, and celebrating milestones and new beginnings as a group. We traveled to Utah and London, and continued annual summer trips to Loon Lake and Maine. Chris graduated from his master’s program. We adopted our cat, Jacoby, who quickly made himself an essential part of our everyday life.

In December of 2024, after a big snowstorm, Chris proposed to Kaitlyn on a quiet morning at the top of the hill in the Arnold Arboretum near our apartment—just the two of us and a magical, soft blanket of fresh snow. After a cozy breakfast date, we spent the rest of the day sharing the news with our family and friends.

Now fiancés, 2025 brought more community and travel, including an epic trip to Slovenia! We moved into a bigger, brighter apartment that quickly became both a gathering place for friends and a place that felt more like home. Somewhere along the way, we began planning our wedding—a celebration of this story, and of the life we are continuing to build together. Notably, a celebration set on the coast of Maine!

By chance, this is a region where we both spent parts of our childhoods vacationing and where where so many of our meaningful memories now live. Annual summer trips to this region and visits to see the Tucker family have become a favorite tradition of ours—we are so excited to be hosting our wedding at the Tucker’s home and to share this special place in the world with all of you this coming September!