Black Tie & Tales

+ Wedding bells
She is the founder of Sarasota Ballet and Designing Women boutique; he is one of Sarasota’s most generous and beloved philanthropists. They have been good friends for more than 20 years, and come the second week of August, they will be husband and wife. Congratulations and best wishes to Jean Weidner and Al Goldstein. And … yippee!

+ Catching up with Cornelia
Always beautiful, poised and perfectly put together. You’re picturing Cornelia Matson, right? BT caught up with her Monday, April 30, at the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens Chairman’s Circle, when she happened to mention “her wine” was stocked in a particular corner at Michael’s Wine Cellar. She’s owned a vineyard, located in France, for the past 14 years and happily told several entertaining tales about how, still to this day, she and her friends can be found pulling the stems from grapes by hand to ensure everything is tip-top quality. She’s also the vineyard’s official (and self-proclaimed) “pool girl,” who will go to any length to make sure the vines are trimmed to perfection and the area around the pool is spotless — even if it means accidentally falling in. The best part — she invited BT out sometime to stomp grapes.

+ A man and his dancin’ shoes
Phil King says the shoes he wore to the YMCA Cirque du Gold bash Saturday, May 5, have been dancing from city to city and country to country since the ‘70s. He bets he’s danced more than 1,000 times in them. Ronelle Ashby says she helped Phil celebrate his 40th birthday at her apartment in Paris, and, yes, the shoes were there to celebrate Phil’s birthday, too.

+ Tidbits
Making mischief? … A dozen or so of Margaret Wise’s BFFs convened last week to conceptualize an event in her honor this coming December. The grand ball will be the debut of Katherine Harris and Anders Ebbeson’s new home on the bayfront. The BFFs included Alex Quarles, Bev Bartner, Kim Githler, Deb Knowles, Carolyn Michel, Molly Schechter, BJ Creighton, Nikki Sedacca, Veronica Brady, Susan Buck, Diane MeNeil and Raul Molina. The party will benefit two of Wise’s favorite charities: Asolo Rep, of which she is past president, and the Sarasota Memorial Healthcare Foundation, a board she presently heads. It is hard to imagine a more deserving honoree ... Beautiful is as beautiful does … There was a precious energy wherever Paulette Blair was present. She took enormous delight in her family, her community and her life, even when it was difficult. The list of events that this beautiful lady started, supported and showed up for is as long as your arm and Sarasota is diminished by her death April 28 ... The circle of life … This will take some getting used to! Lady-about-town Renee Sheade became a great-grandmother Saturday, May 5, when her granddaughter, Rene Mavashez, of Beverly Hills, Calif., gave birth to a 6-pound, 6-ounce baby girl. Mazel ton!

+ Cheese, please
BT is getting a little obsessed with men and their fancy jackets. Therefore, it was hard to resist showing off this photo of Gulf Coast Cheese Fest co-founder Tommy Klauber in his brown-and-white jacket, which he wore to the first official Cheese Ball April 21, at Fête Ballroom. What did Tommy have to say about his jacket, you ask? It's the cheesiest thing he owns. (BT begs to differ, actually.)