Who Are We?
We are a team of people who love the East End of Long Island and want to share its bounty and beauty while preserving the community and the environment of the North Fork and The Hamptons.
Judy Baker McCleery is the owner and president of North Fork Weddings, Ltd., the company that operates the northforkweddings.com and southforkweddings.com website. She is a lifelong East Ender, like founder Marguerite Schondebare, and now lives in Southold with her husband Arthur and their beloved pets-black labs Boris and Hogan and shelter rescued kitty-Casey. She is available by phone, skype or email - just scroll to the bottom of this page for contact information.
Judy's path to North Fork Weddings was a long and winding road, but gave her the foundation to keep North Fork Weddings strong as a resource for wedding and event planning on the North Fork and the Hamptons. She has been involved in local media and local government since 1984, first as a radio announcer and news reporter and later as a public information and media relations specialist. And don't be fooled by the North Fork address. After 15 years working for Southampton Town, Judy's personal and business network is full of contacts in the Hamptons.
In 2005, the hopelessly romantic Judy turned her passion for photography and weddings into a photography studio serving bridal couples on the East End. She listed her business through North Fork Weddings, and came to know Marguerite and the great work she was doing to promote locally-based businesses. Judy shares Marguerites philosophy about living and working on the East End and was delighted when the opportunity arose to take the reins of this maturing company.
The new chapter in the history of North Fork Weddings will include a more active presence in social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, blogging and e-newsletters to enhance the experience for its viewers and widen the exposure for its advertisers.
Marguerite Schondebare is the founder of North Fork Weddings. A life long resident of the East End, she resides in Southold with Jay, her husband of more than 39 years.
A secondary English teacher in her early years of marriage, Marguerite worked in advertising for local papers while her daughters were young and also wrote for an equine magazine. In 2000, she opened her home as a B&B and it was then she recognized that there was no real resource for events and weddings in North Fork Wine Country.
The great popularity and success of North Fork Weddings soon led to the creation of South Fork Weddings for The Hamptons. And in 2006, she added a third web property, East End Experience, the only comprehensive on line directory and "blue pages" for all businesses for The Hamptons, North Fork, and Riverhead.
In June 2010, Marguerite passed the torch to new owner Judy McCleery in order to focus on other pursuits. Very near and dear to her heart now is an effort to raise funds and support for medical surgical teams from eastern Long Island who volunteer their time, skills and money to bring surgical treatments to those in need around the world. It sounds like Doctors without Borders, but it's called Help Healing Happen. Marguerite would appreciate your support, and you can learn more here.
Dyanne Kruger - Webmaster/Chief Pixelpusher is a virtual East Ender. She is the owner of
BlissBytes, a web design company based in Seattle, Washington. When North Fork Weddings was searching for someone to take over management of the sites, Dyanne just leaped out as a person who "got it" as she has a keen interest in helping small entrepreneurs develop their businesses. Six years later, she knows the East End as well or better than many locals. She has earned the friendship and respect of local businesses for which she has designed and maintains websites.
Dyanne loves to travel and has a particular soft spot for Costa Rica where she conducted tours for many years. A most adventuresome grandmother, Dyanne's most recent travels include backpacking solo across South Africa and Mozambique, as well as Bali, in Indonesia and her next destination is Morocco. Closer to home, she enjoys geocaching, kite flying and bicycling in the Pacific Northwest. In addition to pushing pixels for our own four websites, Dyanne has designed a number of East End sites and has developed many East End friendships.
Linda Pasca, Pen & Paper Calligraphy - Linda acts as our "staff artist" and has designed all the logos for all our sites and our print publications. She has been written up not only in Brides magazines, but also House and Gardens as her work is unique, magnificent, and personalized. Linda was with Marguerite at the start of the company, and we are so happy that she is still a key element in our success. Linda lives in Mattituck with her daughter and maintains a studio on her property. She quickly gains not only respect for her quality of work, but also affection for her charming personality and genuine caring nature.
Contact Information
Mailing Address:
P.O. Box 432
Peconic, New York, 11958
Phone:
Email:
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