A First Look 25 Years in the Making: Kat & Chris at The Hideaway at Hull Bay
Some first looks start long before the wedding day…
When Katharine turned the corner, Christopher was taken back to memories of their first date. She had turned a corner then, too, and Chris remembers knowing something had changed before he could quite explain it.
Middle school was where they first noticed each other. That first date was where something finally began. And 25 years later, here they were.
Chris’s face gave him away before Kat even reached him.
We shared a glimpse of that first look before, but a couple of photos could only tell so much of the story that led to it.
So here’s the part you didn’t see, 25 years in the making.
Before that first date, there was Eastwood
Kat and Chris met in middle school at Eastwood. He was in sixth grade. She was in seventh.
Chris had a crush and was fairly certain Kat was out of his league. Kat had noticed the cute younger boy too, although braces and the general awkwardness of middle school were taking up plenty of her attention at the time.
So nothing happened.
They just kept turning up in each other’s lives. School trips. Journalism class. Mutual friends. Years of being somewhere in the same orbit without either of them knowing where it would eventually lead.
Then came a first date.
Chris says his heart seemed to understand what was happening before his mind did.
And apparently, he wasn’t the only one.
One of Kat’s closest friends still remembers exactly where she was standing when Kat told her about the date. Twenty years of friendship later, she stood at their wedding in a bright coral dress, a major departure from her usual monochrome, and told the room she had known then that something was different.
Something about this one was going to last.
Their vows had laundry in them
By the time Kat and Chris stood together at the House on the Hill, there wasn’t much left to prove. They had already built the kind of life their vows were describing.
Kat promised to keep making Chris laugh, remind him to take his vitamins and go to the doctor, fold his laundry when he didn’t feel like it, support his career, and make sure he still watched football with his mom. She promised to keep walking beside him in his faith, too.
A life together worthy of the kind of rom-com you want to watch again and again.
Chris promised to choose her on the exciting days and the exhausting ones. To celebrate her wins as his own. To listen when things were uncomfortable, stay in her corner when life got hard, and keep learning how to love her better.
She is his best friend, his foundation, and his future.
Then, after 25 years, two kids who first noticed each other at Eastwood became husband and wife.
One weekend for all their people
A story with this many people in it deserved more than a few hours together.
Kat and Chris had friends who remembered their first date, family woven into their vows, nephews they adore, and a life already full of trips, concerts, pets, and shared adventures. They wanted those people around them for the whole thing, not scattered across St. Thomas and meeting up only when the ceremony started.
That’s why The Hideaway made sense.
For their wedding weekend, Kat and Chris took the full estate, giving their group one private place to stay, gather, celebrate, and wake up together the next morning. Instead of choosing a single backdrop for a single day, the weekend could move through the property with them.
The night before, 50+ guests gathered at The Shack for a welcome party by the water, with Lourdes & The Switch Band playing live.
By the next day, the celebration was moving through The Hideaway.
Kat and Chris shared their first look in The Secret Garden at The House on the Hill before guests arrived for welcome champagne and the ceremony. Afterward, everyone moved to the Cottages Terrace for Painkiller cocktails, mango margaritas, and passed bites.
Dinner took over the Lawn and Pavilion with a custom buffet and tables that looked very much like Kat.
The reception
looked like her, too
Her friend had described Kat as bright and color-loving. She wasn’t exaggerating.
Coral and pink ran through the reception tables, piled with orchids, anthuriums, and calla lilies from Buds and Roses. Hand-painted wooden turtles marked each guest’s seat.
Even the pets made it to St. Thomas… sort of.
Wild Flowers topped the wedding cake with Kat and Chris’s animals instead of the usual bride and groom. And once dinner was over, things got considerably less formal.
There was dancing. There were late-night snacks from The Shack.
And, because this was a wedding at The Hideaway at Hull Bay, there was eventually a pool jump.
We asked Kat what she thought of the day
She didn’t need many words:
“It truly was the
best day of our lives.”
For Kat and Chris, the first look lasted a few minutes.
Getting there took 25 years.
