Kathryn Mawhinney 与 Grayson Judge 包下17世纪石屋村，在亚速尔群岛举办雾中崖畔婚礼

Kathryn Mawhinney and Grayson Judge’s first date was technically a phone call. A seven-hour phone call, to be precise. “We both grew up in the Bay Area but didn’t meet until 2024,” says Kate, who at the time was still finishing college in Atlanta. Rather than waiting until they were in the same place, the two spent six weeks talking on the phone every day. “After that first call, I knew I needed to have her in my life,” recalls Grayson. “She was unbelievably charming, funny, and warm, and I knew there would be a line of guys waiting for her when she got home.”

When they eventually had their first in-person date, it was in San Francisco, halfway between their two hometowns. Grayson planned a night out at a tequila bar (margaritas are Kate’s favorite), followed by tapas for dinner, and finally a lookout point in the Russian Hill neighborhood. “I texted one of my buddies on my way home and told him I would marry her one day,” he says.

Fifteen months later, Grayson proposed at that same lookout point. “I got her there by convincing her we were on our way to brunch with my cousin, and instead brought her back to the place where it had all started,” he says. Despite the couple having previously talked about a general timeline for getting engaged, the actual proposal caught her off guard. “The second I realized what was happening, I immediately started sobbing uncontrollably,” she says.

When the couple was deciding where to get married, they landed on an intimate gathering of family and friends in Fajãzinha on Flores Island in the Azores. (They also plan to have a larger wedding next summer in a town the bride’s family grew up visiting.) The island is among the most remote in the Azores, and is where Grayson’s maternal ancestors are from. “My Azorean heritage has always been a source of pride for my family and me,” he says. “Returning to my ancestral homeland to marry the love of my life was truly an indescribable feeling.”

They rented out the entirety of Aldeia da Cuada, a 17th-century stone village turned hotel that was able to accommodate everyone in town for the week’s festivities. “The little houses were originally built higher on the island to escape pirates, and the whole place felt like a fairy tale,” Kate says.

Kate took the lead with conceptualizing and planning, while Grayson spearheaded logistics. “My man of honor jokes that it was really just me and my 100-page Canva board against the world,” she says. Kate sourced vendors from all over the world, including Etsy stationery artists and commercial wholesalers for embroidered towels and aprons.

Among their standout vendors was their florist, Alice of Jungle Utopia, who purchased special headphones that translated French to Portuguese so she could figure out how to import the flowers they wanted. “And on top of everything else, she even foraged in the mountains for garnishes for our Palomas. She is truly such an angel,” Kate says.

Carlota, the owner of Aldeia da Cuada, was also instrumental in the planning process. “She and her team went above and beyond, building cocktail tables by hand, learning to make passion-fruit margaritas on the fly, and working with civil and parish authorities to help pull off the first wedding our church had hosted in more than 20 years,” Grayson says. “I joke that Carlota is the second love of my life,” Kate adds. “We truly could not have pulled this off without her.” A month before the wedding, they also brought on a team of two from Mason Market (Sam and Tyler) to bring everything over the finish line.

For their welcome party, Kate chose a Ralph Lauren gown circa 2001 (her birth year) and paired it with Jimmy Choo heels and her mother-in-law’s diamond studs. “The earrings were especially meaningful: They had belonged to her mother and were originally given to her by Grayson’s late grandfather, whose ashes were scattered on Flores,” Kate says. Grayson opted for a dark brown suit and tonal shirt from Todd Snyder.

The morning of the wedding, Kate slipped into a robe and slip she had thrifted in France to get ready. “We didn’t have elaborate dressing teams or glam squads for everyone,” she says. “My best friends [got] ready on the floor using their iPhones as mirrors. They joked that they experienced the purest form of girlhood.”

The ceremony took place in the Church of Nossa Senhora dos Remédios, a Catholic church constructed in 1776. Kate walked down the aisle in a long-sleeved, open-back gown that she had found while shopping with her grandmother and mother. “We customized the Sareh Nouri gown extensively, removing the bow and extra train in the back, changing the short sleeves to long sleeves, extending the train, and adding tiny buttons along the sleeves,” she says. She paired the gown with Amina Muaddi heels, vintage earrings, and a veil with a removable blusher.

“I will never forget the first glimpse I caught of her through a small crack in the wooden church doors,” Grayson says of Kate’s dress. For his own look, he wore a Saint Laurent tuxedo with a Giorgio Armani tuxedo shirt, which had been gifted to him by his mother-in-law a few years earlier.

A local priest named Júlio presided over the ceremony, which was half in English and half in Portuguese. A few of the townspeople sat in the back pews to witness the ceremony. “There was something so moving about having them there,” Kate says. “It made me feel like we were becoming part of something much bigger than just our own marriage.

After the ceremony, the two were waiting to sign the marriage certificate when Kate felt a light tap on her arm. “I looked down, and a little girl handed me a drawing and said, ‘This is for you,’” she recalls. It was a picture she had drawn of the couple. “It was the pianist’s daughter, and we were told later that it was her first wedding and she thought that Kate was a princess,” Grayson says.

The group proceeded down to the town square of Fajãzinha, where a wine bar had been set up. “Each guest had a wine glass with a Portuguese scarf tied around it, which Kate had embroidered with their names,” Grayson says. The priest, local townspeople, taxi drivers, and shepherds all joined the celebration.

When guests arrived at the reception, a handwritten letter from Kate awaited each of them at their respective place settings. “Kate is the only person I know who would handwrite four-plus-page, personal, heartfelt letters to 29 people expressing her gratitude for their role in helping her become the woman she is today,” Grayson says.

Once speeches kicked off, the couple were both brought to tears when Grayson’s mother took the microphone. “She hired a genealogist and began the speech by reading the names of Grayson’s ancestors who had lived on Flores, including multiple couples who had been married in the very same church where we had said our vows just hours earlier,” Kate says. “We had no idea, and it made the entire day feel even more special.”

The group eventually migrated to the circular stone roof of an old atafona (traditional mill) and danced under string lights, drank wine straight from the bottles, and partied into the night on the makeshift dance floor (“with a constant fight for who was on aux”). The after-party moved to the pool, where everyone swam and danced until 6:30 in the morning. “As proof that I was having the best night of my life, I managed to roll my ankle and just kept dancing,” Kate says.

Looking back, it was these moments of friendship and family they say they’ll remember most. “I think an underrated part of a wedding is that while you’re marrying the love of your life, you’re surrounded by the people who were your entire life first,” Kate says. “One of my relatives, who hadn’t flown in decades because he was afraid of flying, got on a plane because I was getting married. My mom pressed three of the groomsmen’s suits when they wandered into her little stone house looking for help… They say your wedding sets the tone for your marriage, but I hope that week sets the tone for the rest of our lives.”