Sometimes One Big Day Isn’t Enough!
Story by HJ Bernstein
Photos by Peter Simon
Destination weddings, so popular on the Vineyard, usually mean a long weekend packed with parties. Many couples follow up these festivities with celebrations on the mainland for those who couldn’t make it to the Island. Sometimes couples even duplicate the ceremony. But for Felicia Taylor and Shannon Bianchi, it wasn’t their intent to have three wedding dates – or the dilemma of deciding their anniversary date.
As one of the Island’s beloved songbirds, Felicia sings almost every weekend at Lola’s in Oak Bluffs, the restaurant where the party moves to, if it doesn’t simply start there. She’s been with one of the Island’s top dance bands, The Sultans of Swing, for six years singing her signature song Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.
Shannon is from North Carolina and came here to caddy at the Vineyard Golf Club in 2005. When the older guys he was with said they had to pick up a singer on their way to a restaurant opening, he didn’t figure the singer would be the beautiful young woman of his dreams. Cupid shot an arrow, and Felicia Taylor and Shannon Bianchi got struck. They were hand-in-hand by dessert and kissed their first kiss that night. They could hardly be separated after that
Some months later, Felicia caught the bouquet at Shannon’s brother’s wedding. The next day, Shannon was on his knee with an engagement ring for Felicia’s finger. The ring had been burning a hole in his pocket for a couple of months already. He was waiting for the right time to pop the question. Felicia, who has sung to Vineyard wedding crowds for much of her young life, hit high C with a “Yes.”
They planned to marry in the summer of 2006, but Shannon’s sister was pregnant with triplets and wouldn’t be able to come, so family-oriented Shannon and Felicia decided to wait. But “wait” was a relative term, as Felicia got pregnant within weeks of what would have been their wedding date.
The young couple had wanted to marry before the baby came, but time ran out last spring when Felicia went into labor. Their friend Elaine Allen, a spiritual reverend who performs wedding ceremonies, met them at Martha’s Vineyard Hospital with three red roses – one for each member of the new family.
Felicia was on the hospital bed in her “gown” (hospital cotton). Shannon, in khakis and a golf shirt, put his arm around her. Elaine conducted the ceremony from the foot of the bed. A few vows and four contractions later, the groom was told he could kiss the bride while teary-eyed nurses stood nearby. A few hours later, a healthy five-pound, eleven-ounce daughter, Ariana Aurelia Bianchi, was born.
The family went home to a small celebration in a room dressed in pink. When asked about the unique venue for a ceremony, Shannon beams, “I was happy to marry Felicia anywhere.”
In retrospect, he says they should have gone ahead with their initial plan the year before, instead of trying to work around others. But in the end, their daughter’s birthday was just the first of their “wedding dates.”
Because of requirements of the state (which don’t easily accommodate impromptu ceremonies), they ended up with an official wedding date that was a couple of weeks later. But the big big day took place on Columbus Day weekend at Robinson’s Wedding Compound in Edgartown. It was a huge, two-day affair that crescendoed to a beautiful Sunday evening wedding ceremony. Afterward Felicia sang the perfect number for her husband – can you guess? – At Last.