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| Flower girls watch closely during the wedding ceremony of Isabella Gardner Dana and Andrew Ridall. |
A warm sunny day in New York. Thunderstorms promised, a brief rain fell; no thunder, no storms.
This is Phoebe Eaton and Dana Vachon, the celebrated young novelist. I ran into them last Friday afternoon on Park Avenue. I was going to the Mac Cube to buy a new computer. They were pulling several thousand dollars worth of beautiful T. Anthony luggage and heading to meet a friend to go out to East Hampton for the weekend.
We stopped and chatted for a few minutes. Mr. Vachon, a former investment banker -- albeit briefly, considering his age (very young) wrote a novel “Mergers & Acquisitions” which propelled him into the limelight last year. Ms. Eaton is the beautiful and intrepid journalist noted for her trenchant profiles of prominent New Yorkers. I think this is a romance, although I didn’t ask.
Yesterday lunch at Michael’s the big table in the bay was occupied by several high profile women and one man. The man was Felix Rohatyn and the women were his wife and (some) of his friends. They were celebrating Ambassador Rohatyn’s 80th birthday.
As you can see, the ambassador is looking rather fit and chipper for a neophyte octogenarian. Among the party were Sarah (Mrs. Mitch) Rosenthal on the ambassador’s right; Kathy Lacey Hoge on his left; his wife Elizabeth, (mother of Nina Griscom), friends Patsy Preston, Joan Ganz Cooney, Lynn Nesbit, Casey Ribicoff, Binky Urban, Brucie Boalt, Linda Janklow. After the main course, the Michael’s staff brought out a birthday cake with candles lit for the birthday boy to make a wish. |
| Ambassador Felix Rohatyn with Sarah Rosenthal. |
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| Patsy Preston, Joan Ganz Cooney, and Elizabeth Rohatyn. |
More celebrations: The wedding took place on May 10th at St. Christopher’s Church in Lyford Cay.
The bride was Isabella Gardner Dana, daughter of Posy and Charlie Dana of Newport and Nassau.
The groom was Andrew (Andy) Ridall, son of Mr. and Mrs. John Ridall of Atlanta. |
| Clockwise from top left: Mother of the Bride, Rose Dana; Laddie Merck and Whitney Tower; Sean Connery and Isabella Ryan; Hillie Mahoney and Bill Paley. |
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| Paleys and Mortimers. |
The couple met and both graduated from Middlebury College in Vermont. They will make their home in Nassau where he works for Templeton Global Advisors and she works for the Lyford Cay Foundation.
Mrs. Ridall has also started a sailing school (on the side) for school age kids. |
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| The bridesmaids prepare. |
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| The bride and her dad, Charlie Dana. |
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| Just Married: Andrew Ridall and Isabella Gardner Dana. |
| Carved watermelon. |
Norma Dana. |
The wedding was a festive and jolly affair. Some were declaring it the best party they’d ever gone to.
Some attributed it to the fact that it was far enough away that the guests were all “close” in some way and the two generations (parents and wedding couple) mixed very well. |
| L. to r.: Bahamian Junkanoo; Lighting Burmese sky lanterns. |
| Clockwise from top left: Bahamian Junkanoo performs; Nick Dana on the dance floor; The bride and groom; The dinner scene. |
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| The Wedding party. |
The reception was held at the Lyford Cay Yacht Club where both the groom and the bride’s parents kept their boats (and slept on them).
There was very little formality.
It was very hot and the wedding party dressed as lightly as possible. Music played until 1:30 am and then the party moved on to the beach until about 4.
The bride is a descendant of Isabella Stewart Gardner on her mother’s side.
Her great-uncle George Peabody Gardner, aged 90, still lives in Isabella Stewart Gardner's house in Brookline where she lived before she built and moved into Fenway Court -- the Gardner Museum – in Boston. |
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| And memoriams: A lot of New Yorkers lost a good friend in Mallory Crosby Kean who was killed in a tragic automobile accident in January 2006. This year the Fund For Park Avenue planted a tree in Mallory’s honor on an island on the avenue, between 64th and 65th Street. Three weeks ago, it looks like this: all abloom, in all its glory, as beautiful as the lady it memorializes.
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