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Plum and I have had a long history. I did the August, 2007, opening night reception interviews for the 5th annual Martha's Vineyard African American Film Festival as well as the 1st annual Diva's Uncorked Wine and Food Festival. I was also the host of one of their home shows where I interviewed the realtor in the house that was being sold. I worked with Festival Network at their Martha's Vineyard Festival featuring the Boston Pops concert of 2007. It was a great experience. My step-daughter, Dana, and I set up the trailers for Natalie Cole, Branford Marsalis and Keith Lockhart. The night was The Boston Pops returned to Ocean Park in Oak Bluffs on August 10, 2008. Featured with the Pops was Gladys Knight. The event was expanded this time and included The Neville Brothers, Steel Pulse, a reggae group, and the Minami Morita Trio, a jazz ensemble. Familiar Island performers also appeared including Kate Taylor, Willy Mason, and Entrain with Phil daRosa. In 2007, I was a volunteer. In 2008, they asked me to coordinate all of the hospitality for the talent. That included boat reservations, lodging, purchase the foodstuffs on the talent's riders, setting up dressing rooms, getting everyone on stage on time, feeding the crew, enlist volunteers and lots more! One of the volunteers likened it to the TV show, The Apprentice - 'my assignment was to put together the backend of a music festival from the bottom up' - it was an experience I will never forget.
The Clinton's have been coming to the Island for many years. Back in the day, when I had Twin Oaks Inn, the President's Communication staff stayed with me. My husband and I are still in touch with some of the folks we met back then.
This wedding was held at a huge waterfront estate in Chilmark. The house was absolutely beautiful with 5 bedrooms and 6 bathrooms, several fireplaces... Whatever this house hasn't got, it doesn't need!! The wedding was very small, just about all of the guests were able to stay there. All of the wedding activities were held there as well, i.e., the clambake, wedding and reception as well as the brunch the next day. They rented the house for the week, so it was also like having a family reunion.
This was a second wedding for both the bride and groom. The daughter of the bride planned the wedding with me for her mother and was the maid of honor. It was a beautiful wedding. The huge fireplace in the living room had a roaring fire in it and there were candles everywhere for the weddding dinner. It was very romantic.
When you plan an outside wedding without a tent, you always have to have a plan B. If you are planning a beach wedding, be sure to check with the town the Getting married on the beach needs preparation for both you, the bride and the guests for the choice of footware. This bride sported designer flip flops.
The menu was a clambake, chicken breast and steak. It is always nice to inform the guests if you are serving something like lobster, as it can be messy. However, it is also delicious! The reception was timed so that the dinner ended just as the restaurant's DJ began to play. The bride, groom and guests danced the night away without the bride having to hire a DJ!! Now, that's planning...
The reception was held at the Sailing Camp which is right on the water. The setting is rustic with a huge stone fireplace that was perfect for a rainy afternoon.
This digital age really makes it easy to show the The only vendors she used on-Island was the florist , a few servers and me. If you do plan to import your vendors, remember, you will most likely need to put them up in a hotel and pay for their transpsortation to the Island. I always say that when you look out in the crowd at your wedding, everyone that loves you is looking back. In this case, even the vendors were lovingly looking at the bride.
It was held on the grounds of a most beautiful Inn in Chilmark. The couple rented the entire Inn, restaurant and grounds for their weekend event. Family and close friends were all able to stay at the Inn. This was a large wedding, so other guests stayed at inns and houses around the Island. The bride's family has a long and storied history on the Island.
This was the wedding that every little girl dreams of. It even brought tears to my eyes. The bride was the youngest bride that I had this wedding season. She was radiant. My first wedding, without the safety net of working at a hotel with staff, was in June of Many lessons learned - most minor, like making sure I have a screwdriver in my emergency kit! - others were hard learned, like trying to cut the cake after it got warm sitting on the cake table. I had the chocolate mousse filling on my elbows, shoes, pants, etc... Oh, the horror! The bride asked me to cut the cake and put it into the favor boxes. My initial thought was how hard could that be???!!! I later found out from the baker, that the cake should have been put back in the refrigerator to chill for at least an hour before cutting. Needless to say, that was the first and last cake that I will volunteer to cut!!! UPDATE !!- Got a call from the groom - his bride is ex She had a great wedding website that told her guests everything that they would need to know for her wedding from how to get here to what to do when they got here. She had
The second wedding in September, my third this summer, the bride had just three weeks to pull together The bride had her dress overnighted to the Island from a bridal shop. She sent out invitations, but then called all guests to see who was coming since there was no time for RSVP's. Her flowers came from a local florist and the centerpieces were from a local farm stand. On such short notice, she was not able to get a caterer, so she called a local Brazilian restaurant and they were able to put together a feast of salmon, chicken and the biggest roast beef that I have ever seen. The food was absolutely delicious. The salmon melted in your mouth. The cost was half of what she would have paid for the caterer. We had plenty of anxious moments when we could The bride's best friend was to sing the song that the bride wanted sung to her new husband. The friend came to the wedding with a bad case of laryngitis! The bride stepped up to the plate and sang the song herself. The song was My Angel by Anita Baker. There was not a dry eye in the place. The bride did a wonderful job. How's that for the "show must go on!" Several tour companies come over to the Vineyard with groups from all over the I love showing people our beautiful Island. We usually go up -Island to Aquinnah to see the cliffs, to the Campground to see the gingerbread houses and points of interest along the way and all around the Island.
Many, many thanks for all you did to make Marina's wedding day so special. It was terrific to have your experienced hand in so many of the last minute preparations and also to have someone so knowledgeable to call on for suggestions, help or specific Island information. From the very start, your warmth and 'can do' attutide made it easy and fun to work with you and helped to take some of the stress out of the planning process. I think I mentioned before, my mother's name was Doris, so Marina and I felt we were being well watched over. I'm enjoying the photos on Marina's online album you took. They were great? I am so looking forward to the Plum TV wedding show. I hope our paths cross again. If there's anything I can ever do for you, just let me know. Best of luck with all of your other weddings and events this summer. - Mother of the Bride What can I say?! I could not have done our wedding weekend without you. You helped to make the entire process and weekend such a memorable time. Thank you for your help gathering all the items, in recommending the audio/video man, remembering to pick up the Chilmark chocolates and getting it all put together. You were invaluable. You made it all work. Rollin and David were so happy to have you helping them. Your calm and warm style was so reassuring and made the whole gift bag experience perfect. We did not worry about one single thing because we knew you would take care of it. We had the utmost confidence in you and you delivered beyond that. Thank you. Thank you from the depths of our hearts. It was a pleasure. If you ever need a recommendation for your work, please let me know. Have a wonderful summer.- Mother of Groom "Thank you for helping Tony and I pull our day together on a very limited budget. We appreciate your flexibility and professionalism. I think it was a great challenge to everyone behind the scenes, but it came together fantastically. Thank you again!" - Bride & Groom "We would just like to thank you for all the hard work you did to make our day perfect. It was perfect, we had so much fun. Everything looked beautiful and our guests had a blast. You were so helpful and always around when I had questions or needed help. Thank you so much!" - Bride & Groom "Thanks again for accompanying us to some of our vendors and being so helpful and great with everything. Plum TV seems really cool to work with and it definitely made the day exciting!" (Plum TV is doing a wedding show for the 2009 season and followed us around to the vendors filming. Next stop is the wedding in early June) - Bride, Groom to be and Bride's Parents "I can't begin to tell you how much I appreciate all that you did for all of us this past week! I really enjoyed spending time with you. I feel as though I have a new best friend/family member! We did accomplish a great deal and are off to a terrific start, all thanks to you! We will all spend time talking today and tomorrow after digesting it all. I will give you a call tomorrow. The bride and groom to be both feel so relieved and fortunate to have you at the helm and look forward to having you be a part of their 2010 wedding. Talk to you soon." - Mother of the Bride "I cannot thank you enough for everything that you have done already. We never would have accomplished as much as we did without you. It seemed funny yesterday morning not running off to meet with you as we did all week. The bride and groom to be do have a lot to think about and to do. Again, it was such a treat to meet you and to work with you. We will bring down some 'salt potatoes' for you when we come back! Thank you again and we will be in touch." - Mother and Father of the groom. "On behalf of The Festival Network, I would like to take the opportunity to thank you for your excellent work in conjunction with the 2008 Martha's Vineyard Festival. I appreciate your time and efforts. Your expert facilitation of SO MANY different requests and needs pertaining to the festival was invaluable. The professionalism and dedication you displayed truly helped to make the Martha's Vineyard Festival a successful and enjoyable endeavor. We are looking forward to working with you again. Thank you very much." - Rick White, The Festival Network "Thank you for the opportunity to volunteer for the festival on Martha's Vineyard this year. I had a great time and felt like I was on The Apprentice! (our 'team's' task was to put on a music festival...) It was so exciting and a wonderful day. Please keep my name for the future. I would love to volunteer again! "- Volunteer
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With my Plum TV hat on, in 2009 I was part of Plum's wedding show - 
magical. The weather was beautiful. The location spectacular. The music delightful! 
were only $50. Everyone that wanted to see Hillary to hear what issues were most important to her were able to do so at a nominal cost. Hillary may not have won the presidential election, but President Barack Obama has chosen her for our new Secretary of State. You go girl!
Getting a big house really saved this couple a lot of money in that they did not have to rent three different venues for their wedding. They didn't even have to pack up everyone to go to the beach as the beach was in their front yard!
I actually did not meet the mother until the week of the wedding. The bride and groom met each other while commuting from work in 1998 and they have been together ever since. They both love Martha's Vineyard, so decided to 'tie the knot' here. 
There are so many beautiful places to get married on 
Martha's Vineyard. I'm sure that is why the Island is second only to Las Vegas for weddings. This couple decided to get married on Menemsha Beach. It was a beautiful day. By getting married on a public beach, you have built in guests. The beach goers got their cameras out and ohhh'd and ahhh'd at all the right moments.
beach is in, to see if you need a permit. If so, plan ahead and get the permitting done at least 6 months in advance. Menemsha Beach allows only one wedding a week! First come, first served. Every beach/town has its own set of rules for events.
Everything the bride chose had a beach theme. Right down to the cake and the menu. The reception was held at a local restaurant that was also the Plan B site. 
The next wedding was very traditional, in that, the couple got married in a Church. The ceremony was very religious and absolutely beautiful. The setting in the Campgrounds in Oak Bluffs was perfect. It rained 'cats and dogs' that day except for the moments that the bride needed to get from the Rectory to the church. 
The bride imported most of her vendors. The Chef was a good friend of the brides. He transported all of the food from out of state and prepared it all at the Sailing Camp. The DJ was from Rhode Island. He kept everyone on their feet dancing. It was truly a party. The photographer was also a friend. All of the pictures that he took of the preparation it takes to get married, the ceremony and the photoshoot he showed in a slideshow on the wall of the reception venue. 
pictures instantaneously. All he did was bring his laptop and a small projector. The guests were very impressed. 
Last, but certainly not least, this was my last wedding of the season. It was the fairy tale wedding. The handsome Prince married his beautiful 
Princess.
A large tent was set up off to one side of the Inn. There was a violinist and bagpiper for the ceremony and a DJ for the reception. The bride had a slight accident before the wedding, spraining her foot. Under her beautiful wedding dress, she wore a removeable boot cast.
2007. The bride and groom were delightful people and very easy to work with. The bride has impeccable taste and it showed in every aspect of what she chose for her wedding. The colors were beautiful. 
pecting their first child in 2009. It's a Girl! I had two weddings in September 2007 - The first wedding the bride and groom again were lovely people and very easy to work with. The bride was very particular about all of her wedding details. 
pictures of her and the groom-to-be as well as all of her attendants. It also had all of the stores that she was registered at. The wedding website is a great tool to get information out to all concerned. There are several online companies that have templates for your online site that are free. It was great for me to put a face with the names of the bride's attendants. 
The wedding was held on the cupola deck of the Mansion House. It was a beautiful day and a beautiful setting. That was where I was working when I met the couple. So when they set their date, they called me to ask if I could do the event day coordination. That is actually how I decided to start this business. So I have these guys to "blame." Actually, I am loving every minute of it. Every wedding has been different in a lot of ways and the same in a lot of ways.
her wedding. The wedding was held at her family's house on the Vineyard. They have been coming here for several years. It was a beehive of activity going on. Instead of just event day, this wedding was a partial event plan. I was able to get a couple of houses for the wedding guests to stay in on short notice, gave recommendations on flowers, photographers, caterers, etc. It was great to be involved from the beginning. 
The bride drove up in her dad's vintage apple red convertible car.
not find a caterer. But in the end, it all worked out. The bride also used cupcakes instead of a regular wedding cake. Again at the last minute, that was all she could get. The cupcakes were on a graduated stand with a small cake on the top tier for the bride and groom to freeze and eat next year for their anniversary. 
World. I have had groups from as close as the mid-west United States to as far away as Europe. They bring the buses over and hire a 'step-on' guide to narrate a tour around the Island. I was lucky enough to do a few tours this past summer. 
dinner 
