Perfect Summer Wedding: The Edgartown Inn, Old Edgartown, MA

The loveliest wedding I ever attended was at the Edgartown Inn in on Martha's Vineyard in the late nineties. I remember being told there were 72 weddings on the island that weekend and thinking wow what a setting. How competitive it must be to get a great spot. The ceremony took place on a long porch. And the best word I can use to describe the morning scene is pristine.

There was a view in the distance of a lighthouse, warm sand and blue water. The motion and distant sound of the water were a living backdrop to the romantic and solemn ceremony. The guests were comfortably shaded from the late June sun by the porch's eves. The sight lines were great even if you seated further back from the place where the bride and groom were wed; the rows of chairs were narrow enough that you could easily see. The posts were decorated with inverted pink rose bouquets tied with large white bows. The groom and his groomsmen wore navy jackets and white pants and bright yellow and navy striped ties. The whole day struck just the right balance of elegance and informality.

The mood was set the night before at a reception on one of the inn's fenced in lawns. It felt like a fun garden party with out of town guests having a chance to meet and compare notes about our lives back in the city or meet relatives of the bride and groom whom we had heard about but never met. The bride wore a plaid shift dress with a robin's egg blue background. And she seemed happy and relaxed, ready to let the weekend unfold before her peacefully , after months of long distance planning. I stayed with another high school friend of ours at a close by hotel with a pool. Lots of other wedding guests were there so it was easy for us to make plans to fill in the gaps when we weren't attending official wedding activities. There were some people among us who had spent more time on the island than others but I don't think it was anyone's first trip. So it was easy to navigate with or without a car.

We collectively remembered good restaurants and bars that we wanted to re-visit. The island has a great bus system as well. Inside, during the reception, we had lunch in a room with super shiny wood floors that was sunny and cool. The key here is to remember to overload your guests with information about your destination before they leave home. Give recommendations in each price range for places to stay. Your friends and your parents friends will have a pretty wide range of what they can comfortably afford. Try to help people make roommate connections. Furnish them with maps of restaurants and local attraction, car rental agencies every conceivable thing you don't want to be bothered answering on The Day. If you have a wedding website this is easy to accomplish but do it on paper if you must. If you have chosen a destination hopefully it's a place you have also lived during family vacations so that you can easily choose venues and vendors you are familiar with. If you have a vacation home there don't offer to let anyone but closest family stay with you. It's just too hectic a time to play host and hostess for real.