Young couple designs a new life in Connecticut
Driving across the Mojave Desert in May 2016, Ian Hunt pulled his convertible off the road. He dug a long-sleeved shirt out of the trunk to block the intense sun and walked around to the passenger side to Kate Burger, who had also gotten out of the car. They were seasoned road-trippers, but she was not expecting the engagement ring Ian suddenly presented.
Eight years earlier, dressed as a lumberjack, Ian met Kate, disguised as a Ninja turtle, at a Halloween party at her apartment. He was housemates with Kate’s best friend from childhood. Kate, who grew up on the North Fork of Long Island, was 24 and new to Manhattan. Ian, from Glastonbury, was 25 and living in Brooklyn. Though they saw each other often with their mutual friends, it wasn’t until January 2010 that they were suddenly dazzled with each other.
“We fell in love at a game night,” at Ian’s apartment, he says.
“We just had fun; we started flirting,” Kate says. She was working in interior design for Holland & Sherry, a 180-year-old textile company from London. Ian was working in wealth management for Merrill Lynch. With work offices a couple of blocks apart, Kate and Ian began meeting at lunch for walks through Central Park. Over the next few years, “He took me to all the great places in New York City,” Kate says.
Their enchantment with each other grew, but they were ready to move on from the Big Apple. “He was unhappy in his job. We were both burned out on the city,” Kate says.
Ian decided to move to Boca Raton, Fla., in 2012, for a new opportunity with Merrill Lynch. “We were just trying to figure out our career paths,” he says.
Kate’s employer saw Florida as an “unclaimed market,” and was eager to have her venture south to find a good location to build and open the company’s first Florida showroom.
After a couple of years “We were ready to come back,” Ian says. He was offered an opportunity to work in commercial real estate in Hartford with Colliers International and moved back home in November of 2014.
“We’re really close to our families,” says Kate, the second of four children. “I had to get the showroom open” in Miami, before returning north in January 2015. She moved back to her parents’ house because “I had the opportunity to start my own business in North Fork” on Long Island. Her first interior design project was at the Peconic Bay Yacht Club in Southold, NY. When that was completed, she realized, “It’s tough to have a business career out there. It’s really seasonal.”
Kate and Ian reunited in an apartment in West Hartford. “Ian and I love to go on road trips,” she says, which is what brought them to the Mojave Desert in May 2016. She joined Ian at his annual work conference in Las Vegas to drive to Palm Springs, Calif. “After he proposed, we couldn’t call anyone,” from the desert, but Ian had booked a night for them in Sparrow’s Lodge, designed by “one of my favorite designers.”
Five months later they were married at the Peconic Yacht Club. They wanted everybody included, with the honored guests being their grandmothers, both in their 90s. Ian’s father gave him the wedding ring worn by Ian’s grandfather. Kate’s brother was the officiant, and her mother performed a song she wrote for their ceremony. “I did everything,” to prepare for the event, except the food, for over 200 guests. “I should have had a planner,” Kate says. But a planner couldn’t have changed the weather. It sprinkled during their ceremony by the water and poured throughout their outdoor reception, but inside a tent with a live band, their guests danced and generated their own warmth.
For their honeymoon, the bride and groom went on a road trip through southwestern France up to northern Spain, stopping along the way to rent bicycles and explore.
The next year they returned to Palm Springs for a “babymoon,” and in February 2018 they had their first child, Charles, who, as the first grandchild in Ian’s family, is affectionately called Sir Charles.
Last month, after looking for two years, Kate and Ian bought their first home in West Hartford. Kate says they have become “professional rakers and painters” since moving into the house, which was built in 1914. Less than a month after they hauled their furniture in, the interior is decorated as if ready for a home tour show.
Kate now does interior design for high-end residential homes and venues in Fairfield and Westchester counties, Manhattan, the Connecticut shoreline— and she hopes soon locally— through her business, the East End Home Company. “I’ve been very lucky to be busy,” Kate says, noting most of her clients “have been through word-of-mouth.”
Ian also enjoys the “great flexibility” of his job, which is “totally self-directed,” he says. “I love it.”
When they are not working, Kate and Ian hike, go to the beach in Westerly, R.I., or Lake Winnipesaukee, N.H., where Ian’s dad’s family has had a home since 1912.
At home, “We like to cook,” Ian says, but separately, because they have two different styles. “I like making a complete dinner.”
He is “an amazing cook,” says Kate, who specializes in soups and sauces. “I wing it. I go by taste,” and Ian goes by recipes. “He wined and dined me in the beginning” of their courtship, “and he still does.” For her birthday in September, Ian surprised Kate with a trip to Ireland. Driving a rental car on the opposite side of narrow, winding roads blocked with sheep was a bit unnerving, they found.
“Kate’s very adventurous,” says Ian. “She won my respect” early on, plus, “She laughs at my jokes. … She’s a strong person. … Kate’s very motivated and makes sure she keeps me motivated.”
“We balance each other,” Kate says. “He’ll pick up where I left off. … He’s very patient. … We just kind of knew we were meant to be together.”
As for navigating the new realm of parenting, “We love it,” Kate says.
Having grown up an only child, Ian says, “It is the best thing in the world.”