He had waited so long for this moment. Despite having known her since their senior year at Skidmore College, it almost seemed like it took forever to get here. Their friends were so surprised when they started dating; the two couldn’t have been more opposite. While Caitlin was hard at work on her senior year thesis, which could have been a PhD dissertation, Ben was more interested in playing with his band, skiing, yelling and the like. However, they began to bring the best out in one another and it just made sense. Together they went out to conquer the world and moved to New York City. Together they went through career changes, grad school, law school, moving. They were poor but very happy and together. So midway through his MBA program, he decided to propose. He prepared the best plans for his proposal – a romantic ski trip to Utah in December. They would be on top of mountain surrounded by snow covered pine trees. He would turn to her, a small breeze would blow her hair in such a way and she would smile. That would be the moment he would bend down and proclaim his eternal faithfulness and ask her to spend the rest of her life with him as his wife. Only five weeks was a long time and the ring was just burning a whole in his pocket. He couldn’t wait. On their Thanksgiving trip to Ann Arbor to visit his grandmother, he took her downtown to a random dive bar that had a stuffed wolverine hanging on the wall and a special on a bucket of PBRs. And there in the back alley, he caught her off guard, pulled out the ring, and asked her to marry him. But now he had to wait just one minute more before he could see his bride, his future wife. It was so intense; the anticipation was almost too much to bare.
Caitlin and Ben choose to have their Oceancliff wedding in one of their favorite places – Newport, Rhode Island – and being a halfway point between Boston and New York, all of their guests, family and mutual friends could easily attend. Some people were surprised by Ben’s overwhelming emotional display of love – a.k.a he cried like a baby. Hardy was moved by it and Ben wasn’t surprised one bit. Ben said he had envisioned himself a nervous wreck at the altar but wound up enjoying himself more than he could have imagined. They were married at sunset on the lawn at OceanCliff followed by a true ‘Hardy wedding’ reception that was crazy. It’s hard to truly believe that there were young lawyers, doctors and scientists among Caitlin and Ben’s guests that night.