Up-Island

The Beach Plum Inn & Restaurant

Hoping to capture “the farm feeling of Chilmark,” Erin Palacios and Byron Goldstein were married on the lawn of the Menemsha Inn & Cottages and celebrated at the Beach Plum Inn – a perfect combo of woods and meadows, with a view of the waters beyond.

Menemsha

Karyn met Bill Robertson when he was stationed with the US Coast Guard in Menemsha, the Island’s storied fishing hub, thus the detour for some photo ops after the couple’s ceremony in Chilmark.

Grange Hall

Brittany Spitz and Adam Golding, who got married on the farmer’s porch, love the “historic post-and-beam structure” and how the Grange Hall, built in 1859, conveys the Island’s “natural, minimalistic side.”

Edgartown

Old Whaling Church

John Heath and Mary Ashley Anderson live in New York City but were married on the Island, as that’s where John proposed – on a boat in Katama Bay. The elegance of the church fit with the couple’s vision for a classic, somewhat formal ceremony befitting the bridal party attire of long dresses and morning coats.

Dr. Daniel Fisher House

John and his many groomsmen posed on the porches of the historic 1840s house (next to the Old Whaling Church) where John and Mary Ashley held their reception.

Streets of Edgartown

Alyson Walkenstein and Stephen Bagley also exchanged vows in the Old Whaling Church. Alyson says the already lovely building “has been made even more so by Margot Datz’s mural.” (Done in 2013 to replicate the original trompe l’oeil mural of the mid-1800s.) Guests followed the couple to the Harbor View Hotel reception. The Island is unique, says Alyson, “because it more or less remains unchanged, and yet there is always so much left to discover.”

Edgartown Lighthouse

Leah Piskioulis and Peter Larossi are avid cyclists who fell in love on a bike ride on the Island. “I remember getting off our bikes, looking out at the water … and being held in his arms,” says Leah. They got married at the Edgartown Lighthouse, where Peter had proposed.

Katama

During vow renewals that included their toddler son, Madushini and Michael Craner dropped love messages into the bay – named Katama for the princess who is said to have canoed across it with the young chief of a warring tribe. Madushini wanted to celebrate their unity, and “the sun, the sea, and the sand: Simple, just like our love.”

Nicoleta Trandafir and Bogdan Buftea grew up a block away from each other in Bacau, Romania, but didn’t meet until high school. They moved to the Island in 2007, and had always wanted to get married on the beach. On the eve of their fourteenth anniversary as a couple, they were married on the white sands of South Beach in Katama.

Oak Bluffs

Sailing Camp Park

Kate Schuettinger and Ichiro Takayoshi had guests from as far away as Japan and Thailand. Kate’s gown (and the kimonos worn by Ichiro’s mother and sister) seemed especially elegant in the setting of woods and meadows, and the rustic lodge with its vaulted-timber ceilings and fieldstone fireplace.

East Chop Lighthouse

Lisa White and John Weilnau wanted a private and intimate wedding and chose the East Chop Lighthouse as their ceremony site. With the beautiful backdrop of the harbor and Vineyard Sound, Lisa says, “our day was picture perfect, capturing all the boats in the background.”

Ocean Park

George Smith and Sarah Biggers held their reception at her family’s Oak Bluffs summer home – one of the grand Ocean Park cottages, where the bride says guests could “experience what makes OB so special: the charming architecture, the neighbors waving from their rocking chairs, and the quintessential piece of Americana that is Ocean Park.”

Union Chapel

Having the ceremony at Union Chapel was particularly special for Sarah, who had interned during college with the historic chapel’s caretakers, Martha’s Vineyard Preservation Trust. She helped to fundraise for restoration and maintenance of the octagon-shaped church, built in 1870. After the ceremony, the party went on a New Orleans–style march through the streets and back to Ocean Park.