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Island Style Weddings is a premier luxury event-planning firm located on the gorgeous and quaint island of St. John, serving the US and the British Virgin Islands. Founded in 2002 by visionary leader Mary Castle Bartolucci, Island Style Weddings has been featured in major publications and blogs such as Destination Weddings and Honeymoon magazine, Martha Stewart Weddings, Style Me Pretty, Little Black Book, Jet Féte, Adrianna Weddings, Destination I DO Weddings, Aisle Society, and many more. Tara and Mary met in 2021 and Tara took over Island Style Weddings in 2022 after months of working alongside Mary. The experience and knowledge of the team at ISW continually produce stunning, intimate environments that capture the essences of the islands, and tailor the details to perfectly meet the needs and style of the happy couple. ISW goes above and beyond to ensure that the creative process, planning, budgeting, decision making, wedding day, and entire vacation goes as smooth as possible for the lovers and all their friends and family.
about us
Tara Hildabrand
From her first visit to the Virgin Islands in 2015, Tara has cherished describing the islands to her friends and family. Being able to help couples plan their weddings in this paradise has become a dream come true. Event planning is a passion of Tara’s and she enjoys the challenges and creativity involved in planning weddings. She loves getting to know her clients and looks forward to creating lasting relationships. Tara has over 20 years of experience in service industry and event planning. She has spent the past 12 years as a therapist helping children with special needs. Before that she helped organize corporate and nonprofit events and worked in catering.
Tara met Mary in 2021 and has worked alongside her to learn the ins and outs of planning weddings on an island. She has enjoyed learning Mary’s skills and seeing her vision, as well as being able to put her own creative spin on the planning process.
Tara met her husband, Dan, in 2009 and they got married in Texas. They have enjoyed traveling together and visiting new places. Hiking and camping are their favorite hobbies and they foster homeless animals in their free time. They have been coming to the Virgin Islands since 2015 when friends invited them to their wedding in Hawksnest. Since then, Tara and Dan have returned to the islands many times. In 2021, they bought a house on St Thomas and now live there with their two dogs and two cats.
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Island Style Weddings came from a vision and a passion
to create a business that would make my heart sing!
Do what you love and you will never have to work a day
in your life. I have never looked back.
Why wedding planning?
As planners by nature, wedding planning allows us to use our talents in business and design—two areas which give us great joy and allow us to share our extensive knowledge, connections, and love of the Caribbean with our clients to fulfill their wedding day dreams.
One of the first questions we ask each couple is: Can you describe your vision of your wedding day? Our mission is to interpret that vision and turn it into their dream wedding, and create a week filled with precious moments and adventure, curated exclusively for each client.
Being part of a wedding is an honor that forever stimulates me—to be entrusted into one’s family with such a milestone event. My couples become friends for life, return for vow renewals, refer me to their friends and families, and send me lots and lots of baby photos!
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