Sections

Randi Baird

1.1.11

Jasmine & Damien

Ceremony: Old Whaling Church 
Reception: Atria

You might think filmmakers Jasmine McGlade and Damien Chazelle would pick a movie motif for their Edgartown wedding. Damien’s black-and-white musical, Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench, wowed the critics at the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival, and inspired actor Stanley Tucci to help promote it by adding his name as a presenter above the title. Jasmine landed the Oscar-nominated actress Karen Black to star in her first feature-length film, Maria My Love, due out in 2011.

But instead of a movie-themed wedding, they chose to have – quite literally – a storybook one.

Both bride and groom are voracious readers, and books played a part on the first anniversary of their dating. The couple, recent Harvard grads now based in Los Angeles, were on a summer stroll through Harvard Square. Outside the Brattle Theatre, Damien said, “I have something for you,” and pulled a box full of paper out of a plastic shopping bag and handed it to Jasmine. It was the manuscript for Damien’s first novel, The Adventures of Dorian Cole. Jasmine read it in a matter of days. Looking back on that special moment, she says, “He never had any plans to send it to publishers. It was meant only for my eyes.” A few months later, under a bridge in Paris, Damien proposed.

Jasmine had summered with her parents, Arleen and David McGlade, at their Chilmark home since her teens, and she soon introduced the Vineyard to Damien. He had spent summers in France with his grandparents while he was growing up, but there was no question about where their June wedding would take place. “It [the Vineyard] was really where we both wanted to do it,” Jasmine says. They thought Edgartown was very special, so they chose the Dr. Daniel Fisher House for the rehearsal dinner, the Old Whaling Church as the wedding site, and the nearby restaurant Atria for the reception.

Jasmine hadn’t been to a wedding since she was five years old, so she asked her mom to take over the planning. Arleen came up with books as a theme and launched into a search for material. By the time she was done, Arleen and her friends had combed through more than forty bookstores.

It became a ritual for Arleen to look for tomes on love and marriage at thrift shops and tag sales everywhere she went. When she told booksellers what she was looking for, they took her into their back rooms, digging up books for a nickel or twenty-five cents. Then it really got to be fun. “One day in Denver, my husband and I went up and down the street just looking for books,” Arleen says. Some volumes were on writers or filmmaking. Others were about Paris or Harvard, but most had titles like The 7 Love Agreements, Life Lessons My Mother Taught Me, and Life Is for Loving. Christian bookstores turned out to be a good source for collections on love and marriage, and she even added a new book from Vineyard Haven’s Bunch of Grapes Bookstore for good luck.

Guests arrived at Atria to find two old-fashioned typewriters on a table by the door, alongside their names and table numbers hand-stamped in typewriter type on pieces of cloth. The Internet website Etsy, which specializes in handmade crafts, led Arleen to tags stamped with “I DO” in typewriter type, which she attached to sprigs of lavender and placed on the tables.

Clusters of books tied together with twine sat on each table. “I did get a lot of feedback,” Arleen says of the couple hundred books she gathered over six months. “The guests would pull out the advice books and leaf through them, having a chuckle.” Everyone was encouraged to take the books home with them at the end of the day, and many did.

When it came time for Jasmine’s first dance with her dad, movies finally found their way into the festivities. The bride chose Nino Rota’s “Love Theme” from The Godfather. “It’s always been my favorite movie,” she says. “My dad and I always watched it together, and that made it very special.”

One of the old Remington Rand typewriters from the wedding now resides in the McGlades’ Chilmark home, along with several of the love-inspired books. Though Jasmine and Damien have chosen filmmaking as their careers, Arleen notes, “It all starts with the story.”

Details

Photographer: Randi Baird
Rehearsal Dinner: Dr. Daniel Fisher House
Officiant: Rev. Arlene Bodge of Chilmark Community Church 
Caterer: Tea Lane Caterers + Kitchen Porch
Cake: Val Cakes 
Flowers: North Tabor Farm 
Musicians: Jim Joyce + The Parkington Sisters + Philip Dietterich + “DJ Nightshade” Sean Ogden
Rentals: Tilton Tents and Party Rentals
Transportation: Stagecoach Taxi 
Groomsmen Tuxedo Rental: Brickman’s of Martha’s Vineyard 
Groomsmen Gifts: Two Susans 
Bride’s Earrings: Moonstone Jewelers 
Hair + Makeup + Spa Services: Bouclé Salon & Spa
Favors: Arleen McGlade + Chilmark Chocolates