Loading ...A Fine Wine & Dine on Nantucket
World class wines from France. Fresh oysters from Duxbury. Black bass caught off the coast of Nantucket. Superb salmon flown straight from Scotland. Fine cuts of lamb from Colorado. Black truffles ordered from Paris. All prepared and served by highly regarded chefs and sommeliers in an elegant Nantucket home on a lovely summer evening.
These were just some of the attractions for a “Great Wines in A Grand House” dinner held last summer as a premiere 2011 Nantucket Wine Festival event. The evening was a star-studded extravaganza created by well-known chef, Robert Sisca of Boston’s award-winning Bistro du Midi, several French winemakers, and a Nantucket couple who shared their historic home with 18 lucky guests. Read more…
- Posted in Social LIFE, Summer, Traditions, Wine
On a beach with panoramic ocean views. In a field with vintage touches. At an inn, surrounded by gardens and village charm. The possibilities are endless, and armed with a vision, engaged couples can use wedding tents to build a venue with emotional resonance. A tented wedding is a creative, personalized approach to a memorable day.
Love In Bloom
From classic designs to seaside bouquets, Cape wedding floral ideas come alive on a visit with Verde Floral Designs in Mashpee Commons.
“Elegant, romantic, and traditional—or beachy, casual, and natural. Those are the words that I hear from Cape brides,” says Jeff Sawyer, owner of Verde Floral Designs. Jeff (in this case Jeff is a woman’s name!) has a passion for flowers—and Cape Cod. After 15 years of success in the corporate world, when she enjoyed the Cape as a getaway, Jeff opened a lovely Mashpee Commons shop where she is finally able to combine both her loves. She particularly enjoys working with Cape brides. “When I ask brides what atmosphere they want at their wedding they all have their own ideas—but almost every bride wants her flowers to reflect that special Cape Cod feeling,” says Jeff. Read more…
Ocean Wed
Cape Cod’s natural beauty and a historic mansion frame a perfect seaside wedding.
Most people who live on Cape Cod year-round already have a certain reverence for the physical beauty just minutes from their door. When it comes to weddings, no fancy trimmings or extraneous bells and whistles are necessary to celebrate the spirit of this place. All you really need to do is show up and let the timeless, intoxicating fusion of ocean and sky work its magic (a little prayer to the weather gods never hurts either). Read more…
- Posted in Nature, Style & Fashion, Summer, Weddings
On Cape Cod mornings in weather fair or foul, you might see 79-year-old Stan Snow rowing his boat on Orleans’ Town Cove. Just like his great grandfather, Aaron Snow, who often sailed up and down the East Coast in search of the best products for the family’s famous store, Stan knows the importance of sticking to things. Read more…
- Posted in History, People, Traditions
Chip Bishop
Scan the footnotes of Theodore Roosevelt’s life story and you’ll find the name Joseph Bucklin Bishop more than once. Bishop was a Roosevelt booster in the editorial pages of New York newspapers, a controversial appointee during the construction of the Panama Canal, the first of many biographers of the 26th president, and editor of the 1920 best-seller Theodore Roosevelt’s Letters to His Children. Read more…
- Posted in Books, History, Literature, People
Love on the Wing
We are planning a wedding.
In September, our son, Dan, will marry a Cape Cod girl, Erika, in West Barnstable Parish Church. The reception will be in a meadow that looks out towards Sandy Neck Beach.
Erika was born on Cape Cod—she is a sea sprite of a girl with hair the color of beach grass and blue eyes like the ocean on a bright September day. She grew up loving the water and life by the beach. She is the kind of person you would be lucky to have in a small sailboat during a sudden storm on Vineyard Sound.
Dan was not born on Cape Cod, but he has been here for some part of every summer from the first time when he happily dug his eight-month-old toes in the warm sand at Craigville Beach. After the wedding, they will live in West Barnstable where Dan runs an organic land care business. Erika hopes to teach art in a Cape school.
We are excited that our two families are joining together, strands knotting tight like a good bowline knot. On her Mom’s side, Erika is descended from the Hopkins family who has been on the Cape since the 1600s. Through my dad’s side, Dan is descended from the Higgins family, who were part of a pioneering group—which, incidentally, also included the Hopkins family—who settled the Orleans area.
In this, our special wedding edition, we share some happy memories from recent Cape weddings. Read about Kathleen and Dan Hodge whose wedding at Ocean Edge Resort last summer was classically romantic with special seaside flair. Find out why Cape wedding planners often choose Sperry Tents for their clients in a stunning photographic spread and story on page 60. And revel in the fantasia of seaside wedding floral designs by Mashpee Commons Verde Floral Design on page 54. Lastly, read Brian Shortsleeve’s Gunk’holing on page 96. We share the column Brian wrote in 1990 as he was preparing to marry his wife, Judy, in an island ceremony to remember.
It is May. The hydrangea are in full bud. The osprey have come back to reunite with their mates, wild calls waking us to sea and sun and plans for seaside days.
Love is in the air. Come celebrate the start of our splendid season!
Susan Dewey, Associate Publisher
& Editor, sdewey@capecodlife.com
- Posted in People, Susan Dewey's Blog
WHOI’s Dave Gallo: “It was a potentially career-ending moment for me.”
While out on the Titanic expedition in 2010, we had the cable to the robot wrapped around the wreckage, and we had a hurricane bearing down on us. It’s a mathematics problem for an SAT test: We had a hurricane coming at us at 30 miles per hour, and it was 1,000 miles away. We had a two-day run to get into port because we were going 10 miles an hour at best, it takes two and a half hours to get the robot from the bottom back onto the ship, and we had three hours before the captain said we absolutely had to leave the site. The question was, if we couldn’t get the robot unwrapped, do we stay there and join the Titanic because the hurricane sends us to the bottom? Do we pull on the cable and pull up a big chunk of the wreck itself and forever have to live that down? Or do we cut the cable and leave a $5 million system sitting on the bottom of the ocean? Read more…
- Posted in Jeff Harder's Blog, People
Accents – Spring ’12
Mariposa Serveware & Gifts
The Mariposa aesthetic thrives on unique, original design and superior craftsmanship that ages flawlessly. Our purpose at the Armchair Cottage is to help you enjoy the splendors of the table and of your home through our extensive collection of home furnishings and gifts. Read more…
In all seasons, a garden is one of the most life-affirming places on earth—so of course you want to get married there! Some choose a home landscape for their wedding site for this reason alone—others because it’s more personal or sentimental. Other brides decide on a garden wedding because of financial considerations. Those on Cape Cod often select a garden ceremony or rehearsal dinner because the outdoors are special here. Getting married where you can feel the sea breezes just seems appropriate for a Cape event. Read more…
- Posted in Gardens, Traditions, Weddings
