·

Chris & Tyler’s Poets’ Walk Park Elopement

Chris and Tyler got married on a Sunday morning in June at Poets’ Walk Park in Red Hook, in the gazebo overlooking the Hudson River and the Catskills. It was a small day on purpose: immediate family, siblings’ partners and kids, and one best friend each. With their families coming from opposite coasts, the whole point was time together.

We walked in from the parking lot along the gravel path to the clearing, where Tyler and Chris each walked to the gazebo with their parents. Two best friends spoke, Tyler and Chris read their vows, and their moms helped with the rings. Then came bubbly, family group photos, and a loop around the park for portraits before everyone headed to the Airbnb, then dinner in Saugerties.

Chris and Tyler were relaxed, thoughtful and clearly having a good time with their people. Here is their day, in their words.

  • Gravel path through a meadow with guests walking in the distance
  • Meadow of tall grass and wildflowers beside the path
  • Wedding party and guests walking down a tree-lined path
  • Group walking along a shaded woodland path
  • Hand holding a suit jacket with a small boutonniere pinned to it
  • Guests walking ahead on a wooded path, seen from behind
  • Person in a taupe suit walking arm in arm between two guests on the path
  • Person in a tan suit walking between two guests, one in a floral dress and one in a gray suit
  • Person in a tan suit walking arm in arm with a guest in a floral dress and a guest in a gray suit
  • Two people in tan and taupe suits waiting at the end of the path
  • Two people in tan and taupe suits standing on gravel in front of trees
  • Guests gathered under the wooden gazebo

How We Met

We first met in January 2017 after connecting on a dating app. Chris had been living in New York for about a year and a half, and Tyler had moved into an apartment just a mile away about six months earlier. After learning that Chris worked at the Brooklyn Museum and would be staffing one of their monthly First Saturdays events, Tyler decided to stop by and see if he could catch a glimpse of him in action. But when he spotted Chris across the museum’s crowded lobby—and their eyes met for the briefest moment—he got nervous and promptly ran away.

A few weeks later, we finally had our first date at a bar near the museum, where we played pub trivia over beers and onion rings. We’ve been together ever since.

  • Guest in a navy floral dress laughing with the people in tan and taupe suits
  • Guests waiting under the gazebo, some holding bouquets
  • Guest in a hat and a guest in a pastel dress holding wildflowers, with two children
  • Guest in a floral dress speaking beside the person in a taupe suit
  • Guest in a floral dress hugging the person in a taupe suit
  • Guest in a tan vest laughing as the couple listens
  • Guests speaking and laughing with the couple in the gravel clearing
  • People in taupe and tan suits standing at the gazebo, one covering their mouth with a hand
  • Guest in a tan vest hugging the person in a tan suit, beaming
  • Person in a taupe suit reading vows to the person in a tan suit in front of the field
  • Person in a taupe suit reading from a paper under the gazebo as the person in a tan suit listens
  • Person in a taupe suit reading vows while the person in a tan suit holds a checkered notebook

Our Engagement Story

We first discussed the idea of getting married in January 2024 while staying at a ryokan in Japan, but it wasn’t until the end of that year that Tyler started putting together a plan for proposing to Chris.

For years, we’ve had a tradition of making scrapbooks for each other that tell the story of our relationship and capture important memories. Tyler gifted Chris the inaugural scrapbook – chronicling year one of our lives together – on our first dating anniversary in 2018, and Chris gifted Tyler an updated edition a year later for our second anniversary. So Tyler decided to create a new version covering our lives together from January 2017 through December 2024 and give it to Chris on New Year’s Eve.

The project took a lot longer than expected, and Tyler didn’t finish it until about 11:50 pm. Fortunately, our only plans that night were sitting on the couch together and watching the ball drop at home. Tyler handed Chris the scrapbook, started reading through it with him page by page, and in a completely serendipitous twist of fate, Tyler reached the final page—where he had hidden Chris’s engagement ring—and asked the big question just as the clock struck midnight and fireworks began going off outside.

We popped a bottle of bubbly that night and went out dancing with friends in the morning to celebrate.

  • Person in a taupe suit reading a paper while the person in a tan suit laughs
  • Couple facing each other during the vows in front of the trees
  • Person in a tan suit wiping their eye while the person in a taupe suit reads
  • Person in a taupe suit reading as the person in a tan suit smiles, a checkered notebook behind their back
  • Couple embracing during the vows
  • Couple facing each other under the gazebo roof
  • Person in a taupe suit standing with hands behind their back as the person in a tan suit smiles
  • Couple standing apart under the gazebo, one holding a notebook
  • Couple hugging under the gazebo
  • Child in a blue shirt holding a small ring box beside a guest in a floral dress with a bouquet
  • Couple at the gazebo with a child and a guest holding a bouquet beside them
  • Person in a tan suit smiling as a guest in a floral dress hands over a ring

Marriage to us means…

We’re new to this thing – we’re trying to figure out what marriage means! But if we’re carrying over any lessons from our years together, finding a way to meet in the middle is key. Sometimes that means compromise, sometimes that means finding alignment, and sometimes that means giving in. But at the core is a commitment to finding ways that we both feel happy and grounded in the long run, and coming back for more!

  • Close-up of a ring being placed on a finger
  • Couple exchanging rings in front of the field with two guests holding bouquets
  • Couple holding hands and facing each other with guests behind them
  • Couple kissing as two guests in floral dresses watch
  • Person in a tan suit hugging a guest in a light blue suit
  • Person in a tan suit laughing as sparkling wine is poured into a glass
  • Couple kissing each other on the cheek, each holding a glass
  • Guests raising glasses in a toast under the gazebo
  • Paper fan and a printed ceremony script on a wooden bench
  • Guest in a gray suit, a person in a tan suit and a guest in a floral dress taking a selfie in the field
  • Group portrait of everyone in the field with the gazebo behind them
  • Guests walking through the field toward the gazebo

How did you choose Poet’s Walk?

We took a scouting trip up to the Hudson Valley in December 2025 to look at potential ceremony locations, as well as restaurants and bakeries for our wedding weekend in June 2026. We knew we wanted to have an outdoor ceremony, so we visited a few spots we had found online, including the Mountain Top Arboretum in Tannersville and the Catskill Mountain House Site at North-South Lake. Both were beautiful, but neither felt quite right.

On our drive home, we came across Poets’ Walk Park in Red Hook while browsing Google Maps and decided to make one last stop. From the parking lot, a gravel path winds through a wooded area before opening into a clearing with a beautiful gazebo overlooking the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains.

The moment we stepped into that clearing and saw the view from the gazebo, we knew it was exactly what we had been looking for. We submitted an official request to Scenic Hudson to have our ceremony in the park a few weeks later, and we could not be happier with how it turned out.

  • View across a grassy hilltop meadow under a cloudy sky
  • Couple walking away across the meadow, one with an arm on the other's back
  • Couple standing close and holding hands in the meadow, looking away
  • Couple facing each other and holding hands in the meadow
  • Couple smiling and holding hands in the meadow
  • Couple walking toward the camera along a mown path
  • Couple laughing as they walk hand in hand through the meadow
  • Couple laughing together in the meadow
  • Couple standing close and smiling in the meadow
  • Couple leaning together and smiling in the field
  • Couple standing side by side in a meadow with yellow wildflowers

A memorable moment from our wedding was…

The toasts given by our siblings, parents, and best friends brought us some of the most touching and comical parts of the wedding. Being showered with love, praise, and the occasional affectionate jab carried our spirits through the weekend. We got to hear stories about ourselves – some we knew and some we didn’t – that we may not have heard otherwise, and we’re grateful to our friends and family for making us laugh and cry more than we planned!

  • Couple embracing on a path far in the distance, framed by tree branches
  • Person in a taupe suit photographing the person in a tan suit in a meadow
  • Couple taking a selfie in the meadow
  • Couple touching foreheads in the meadow with the gazebo in the distance
  • Couple standing on the gazebo's wooden platform
  • Couple smiling close together at the gazebo, leaning on a bench
  • Couple standing together inside the gazebo, seen through its branches
  • Couple laughing and walking hand in hand on a wooded path
  • Person in a tan suit standing on a gravel path with the meadow behind
  • Person in a taupe suit standing on a gravel path with a hand in a pocket
  • Close-up of two people adjusting suit jackets draped over their shoulders

If I could give other couples one piece of advice…

Make your wedding what you want it to be! We waited for almost a year before starting to plan anything and we felt that having a large wedding would require more time, energy, and money than we wanted to spend! Our primary focus for the weekend was for our families to spend quality time together because they are from opposite coasts and don’t get the chance to meet often. Because of that, we chose to go small, with just our immediate family members, our sibling’s partner’s / kids, and one best friend each.

We rented one house for each family and planned out meals and activities that would allow us to connect but also have some time to explore the Kingston, Saugerties, and Woodstock area separately. We ended up asking everyone to pitch in their own way over the course of the weekend, which made things more manageable for us, and also allowed everyone to be included – whether that was through a sharing toast, helping to cook, picking up cake and flowers, choosing our cake toppers, making a box for our rings, or subtly directing bypassers around the gazebo at Poets’ Walk Park.

Similar Posts