The Island Wedding: It's a Local Affair

With Good Help Ready, Willing and Very Able

By STACEY WITT

If you're planning a Vineyard wedding, the one piece of advice you'll get on a regular basis is to "think local." It's advice not based merely on regional bias, but rather on experience and the usual number of disaster or near-disaster stories about cakes left on the other side and guests who couldn't get here because the boat stopped running.

But more than that, the advice also comes from the idea that if you want a truly Vineyard experience, it's a good idea to think Vineyard. Weather, of course, is at the top of the list and its New England unpredictably can lead to some jaw clenching moments in getting your guests on Island as well as your supplies.

Susan Stempien, the director of catering at the Harborview Hotel in Edgartown, has worked in the beverage industry for 17 years. One of the reasons she says "go local" is the weather. If you live here you know that if the water's too rough or the fog too thick, the ferry won't run. If you don't live here, you may want to rethink having the flowers shipped over the morning of your wedding. There's no real reason to take this kind of chance when all you need for your big day is already here.

Another Island-specific piece of advice she offers young adults: Bring your I.D. Many people don't think they'll need it here, but the reality is you will be carded wherever you go. Another pointer: Wait until the last minute to do your place cards. You'll save a lot of time since there are almost always a fair number of last-minute changes to accommodate in the guest list.

Brenda King, the owner of Sentimental Journey in Edgartown, is another seasoned wedding coordinator. The first two years in business, Brenda offered dresses, tuxedos and accessories but she has since branched out and now includes hair and makeup styling and advice, as well as full-service wedding coordinating.

One example of the benefit of using Island vendors that Brenda likes to note concerns a wedding she worked on last fall. The bridal party wanted to use a limousine service from off Island. An hour and a half before the wedding the limousine called and cancelled. Brenda was able to make a few phone calls and arrange for a new limousine. But this was a minor snafu in relation to what she calls the "hurricane wedding." It was September of 1996 and with a hurricane heading in the Island's direction, all Edgartown waterfront hotels and businesses were being forced to evacuate and board up their windows, including the one where a certain wedding was scheduled for that same day. Plan B - quickly concocted - was about the only option. The plan? Move the wedding to the Jonathan Munroe House and order some pizza. Everyone had a great time, Brenda says. The pizza was a particular hit.

Donna Feinsmith has been the general manager of Lola's Restaurant in Oak Bluffs for five and a half years. The restaurant, she notes, handles about 30 weddings a year and she, too, has her Island vendor story. One such tale involved the parents of a bride who wanted to order the wedding cake from a Boston bakery that they'd been going to for years. Again, New England's sometimes fickle weather interferred and the cake didn't make it to this side. So, "local" is her advice as well. Another piece of cake advice: When a friend tells you she can make your cake, as dear and wonderful as that may be, think twice if you're having a large function. At the very least, find out if your friend has ever made a multi-tiered cake.

For that old-fashioned horse and buggy ride, so often requested by bridal couples to take them from the church to the reception, Donna offers this thought: It's picturesque, romantic and fun. But don't forget to factor in how long it might actually take to go from point A to point B with this kind of horsepower. In one instance, she notes, it took the bride and bride groom almost two hours after they'd left the church to arrive at the reception. First, they had to take the requisite pictures, then the ride. By the time they arrived at the reception their guests had been drinking for almost the entire two hours on an empty stomach, kids were running around screaming and the bride's sister was in a panic.

One more recommendation: Put your place cards on a table near the entrance to the reception so that guests can see the table to which they're assigned. By putting them only on the tables, guests will end up wandering from table to table looking for their seats.

But perhaps the most important piece of advice: Have a wonderful wedding. And to do that, take that local advice.