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This Mass. bride and groom skied Killington fresh off their vows and in wedding attire
"During our first dance, I was leaving a snail trail behind me of melting snow."
Evan Stark and Kristyn Brophy Stark, of Roxbury, skied Killington in Vermont earlier this month in a way few others have: They hit the slopes in a wedding gown and suit.
The Roxbury couple tied the knot mountainside at the Killington Grand Hotel on Feb. 7 and, shortly after saying their I dos, boarded a lift for the final run of the day.
“It was wild to see her dress cascading down,” said Anne Mientka, of Anne Mientka Photography in Burlington, Vermont, the couple’s photographer who rode behind them. “People were gawking and clapping and just celebrating them, which was such an added bonus.”
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The couple planned their entire wedding around a post-vows celebratory schuss that would take place before rejoining more than 100 friends and family members at the slopeside reception.
“During our first dance, I was leaving a snail trail behind me of melting snow,” said Kristyn, 36, a Wilmington native and senior marketing manager at an accounting firm.
The couple chose Killington for its beauty, mountainside facility, and because they could work a ski run into their special day. A February wedding would likely be cold — and the temperature on Feb. 7 wound up being a high of 22 degrees and a low of -4 — but that didn’t deter them.
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“Winter is my favorite season,” said Kristyn, a lifelong skier who has fond memories of childhood ski clubs, trips to Attitash in N.H., and race training at Nashoba Valley. “I like the cold.”
The indoor ceremony took place on site and was performed by a friend. It wrapped up at around 3:30 p.m., and the chairlifts stopped spinning that day at 4 p.m. So the couple hustled to a prep room where they quickly put on their ski equipment.
“We got on the lift probably 10 minutes before it stopped spinning,” said Evan, 39, a Gloucester native who works in IT at an asset management company.
The couple remained in their wedding attire but the groom added a coat, hat, and scarf, and the bride added a white jacket, gloves, scarf, and earmuffs.
“I haven’t shot in such cold weather,” Mientka said.
The photographer admitted that she’s not a strong skier and the extra 15 to 20 pounds of gear she was carrying made the trip down the mountain even more challenging. She said the bride and groom made sure she was assisted by one of the bridesmaids, who happens to be a ski instructor.
“It was the most epic post-ceremony I have ever shot,” said Mientka, who has been photographing weddings for eight years.
Mientka said the couple “spoke the same language on skis,” and she enjoyed capturing it.
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“They were so graceful and beautiful on skis,” she said. “It was amazing to see.”
Skiing was a topic that came up quickly when Evan and Kristyn connected on the dating app Hinge in 2021.
“Hinge was my favorite dating platform because you can really personalize your profile,” Kristyn said. “I put, ‘You will never see me on the weekends unless you are a skier.’ So Evan responded to that.”
Their romance began in the thick of the COVID-19 pandemic when masks and vaccines were at the forefront of many discussions. Their first date was at Bronwyn in Somerville.
“We had to navigate getting a reservation outside so we could potentially take our masks off to see each other’s faces,” Evan said.
The first date led to others. They discovered they shared a love of music, camping, and craft beer. As their relationship grew, they moved in together in 2022. When it came time for the next step, Evan knew a mountain proposal would be perfect.
The groom-to-be got down on one knee at the top of Cadillac Mountain in Maine’s Acadia National Park, named one of the most stunning scenic locations in New England, during sunrise in September 2024. He slid an heirloom ring from his grandmother on Kristyn’s finger while about 50 spectators cheered.
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“It was amazing,” Kristyn said.
In keeping with the mountain theme, their engagement photoshoot took place in Stowe, Vermont, in 2025.
As the couple thought about their wedding day, a ski resort wedding made sense.
“We’ve gone [skiing] together a minimum [of] 20 days every season since we met,” said Evan, who grew up skiing at Waterville Valley, N.H., with his family.
The couple legally married at City Hall in Boston a year ago, on Feb. 7, 2025, and hosted their ski wedding on the same exact date this year. It took a lot of the stress out of the situation, they said, and enabled them to relax and focus on the celebration.
Kristyn put her marketing skills to good use for the reception and ran with the ski theme, decorating in blues, warm whites, and golds; naming the guest tables after various ski resorts; propping old sets of skis around the ballroom; and putting cards at each place setting that featured a green circle, blue square, or black diamond trail marker symbol signifying the food choices. The couple also created old-school lift tickets for guests to find their tables.
“I wanted to make sure I was putting my own personal touches on it while also honoring New England ski season and winter without things looking Christmas-y,” Kristyn said.
Kristyn shared photos and videos of their wedding day on the Facebook page Ski the Northeast, writing “our dreams came true” at Killington that day.
“We’re grateful to be members of the best winter community in the world (this one),” Kristyn wrote. “Brides — if it’s your dream to ski in your wedding dress, just do it. You won’t regret it.”
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