Kaitlyn McCarthy and Chris Van Buren

Kaitlyn & Chris

A garden party by the water at the Fluegel Alumni Center. Formal invitation and full celebration details to follow.

Where to Stay

We recommend making downtown Annapolis or Eastport your home base. Fluegel Alumni Center, our venue for the ceremony and reception, sits about a mile from the harbor along the edge of the Naval Academy grounds. Downtown puts you close to Main Street, City Dock, State Circle, and Maryland Avenue; Eastport is a short walk across Spa Creek, with waterfront restaurants and views back toward town. Both neighborhoods make it easy to explore most of the weekend on foot.

Things to Do in Annapolis

Make time to explore the waterfront, historic streets, and a few of our favorite local spots while you’re in town.

Getting to Annapolis

Flying in? Choose BWI Thurgood Marshall. Coming from Washington, D.C.? Take Metro’s Orange Line to New Carrollton, then finish the trip by taxi or rideshare. Traffic can change both drive times, so leave a little room in your plans.

Our Story

We met in Decision Science 101 at Duke in the spring of 2018. Kaitlyn sat in front of Chris and mostly played online jigsaw puzzles during class, which became Chris’s first impression of Kaitlyn. We often teamed up for think-pair-share activities and eventually were assigned a group paper with two other people who never showed up. Kaitlyn wanted to leave their sections blank; Chris ended up writing them the night it was due.

Cut to one year later. Out of the blue, Chris texted Kaitlyn to grab dinner, so we met at the West Union dining hall. We had a great time, and Chris started figuring out how to ask Kaitlyn on a real date. Remembering Kaitlyn’s Phillies gear from class, Chris sent a text at 2 a.m. one Sunday night: “You like the Phillies, right?” The next week, we met up for our first real date at Tobacco Road Sports Cafe to watch the Phillies—and the Canes. From there, we saw each other most days.

After Chris graduated from college, we each got an apartment in Raleigh and lived just a mile apart. We kicked off this chapter by running our first half marathon together—an accomplishment!

During our time in Raleigh, we escaped to the mountains of western North Carolina and loved—or, in Kaitlyn’s case, learned to love—backpacking. It all started with a not-very-well-timed trip to Grandfather Mountain, ladders with long reaches, and the heaviest equipment REI had available. Chris also discovered indoor rock climbing. Kaitlyn tried it and hated it, then went a few more times and decided she actually really liked it.

We took weekend trips in the other cardinal direction, too, heading to Ocean Isle Beach, where Kaitlyn’s family had a place. We most closely associate our time in OIB with Sunday night Chinese takeout, James Bond movies, and reading books in hoodies on a blustery beach—it was the off-season, after all.

For our second Christmas together, Kaitlyn gave Chris a swimsuit and heavily insinuated that our next trip should be a relaxing tropical beach vacation. Chris started looking into options. The final choice? A four-day hike at 12,000 feet to Machu Picchu, Peru! We completed the hike, ate lots of lomo saltado, visited floating islands made of straw, and even got Kaitlyn’s parents, Bev and Kev, to join us. It was a magical trip that foreshadowed just how big the world might be.

Mere months later, we sold 90% of our belongings—though neither of us was willing to sell our beds—and got ready to hit the road for our next great adventure. We called it Arnie, short for Arnold Schwarzenegger. This was a pivotal point in our relationship; many people close to us considered the trip make-it-or-break-it. During the 17 months of Arnie, we lived in 22 different places, drove from one to the next in Jester the Jeep, and packed only what a four-door Jeep Wrangler could hold—which was not that much. While packing in Raleigh, Kaitlyn did have to convince Chris to bring less once or twice.

It was an action-packed year and a half: snowshoeing at Crater Lake, hot-tubbing and reading The Lord of the Rings in Palm Springs, seeing the Grand Canyon for the first time, sleeping under the stars with bears nearby in Washington, driving Going-to-the-Sun Road in Glacier, and eating at Fast Burrito in Port Angeles, Washington.

We wanted a way to remember it all, even the smallest moments that could otherwise fade with time, so we wrote postcards. Each week, we picked out a postcard that represented the week behind us and filled it with everything we could remember. We promptly mailed each one to Bev and Kev, who kept them safe until we returned from Arnie.

After Arnie, we felt that we had seen the country thoroughly and were finally ready to decide where we wanted to live. That place? Denver. Here, Kaitlyn yet again discovered something she loved to do thanks to Chris: skiing! We especially love shredding pow at A-Bay—shoutout to the Beavers tree runs. We also found our endurance mojo again and have been summiting fourteeners since moving here. Nine and counting!

Then, the weekend after Thanksgiving, Chris dragged Kaitlyn to New York City for a “holiday work party.” As we were getting ready to head out, Chris asked Kaitlyn to join him on the hotel rooftop overlooking Central Park and the Hudson River—and popped the question. Kaitlyn said yes! We spent the rest of the night completely to ourselves, ice skating, eating the spiciest Thai food of our lives (with mung beans), and taking in a New Orleans jazz show.

Most importantly, we love the life we’re building together. Thanks for reading our story and for coming to celebrate our special day!

The Wedding Party