After a yearlong battle with pancreatic cancer, Grace Ormonde passed away on August 12, 2025. But her story is worth remembering.
Photography courtesy of Yanni Tzoumas.
Grace was born and raised on the island of Terceira in the Azores, Portugal, until the age of eight. In 1968, Grace moved to East Providence, where she attended East Providence High School. By the age of seventeen, she worked at a local gift shop and trained as an engraver. Her boss took her on frequent trips to New York where she exposed her to theatre and the arts until she developed a sense of style. Years later, she received an offer to help a customer plan their wedding — an opportunity that would later spark a passion within her.
After sensing a need in the wedding market, Grace tapped into the realm of creativity and entrepreneurship to create “The New England Bridal Extravaganza,” a bridal exhibition that offered couples everything they look for during the process of planning their wedding. With little to no experience as a promoter or trade show organizer, she built a team of experts that transformed the venue into a wedding wonderland for future nearlyweds to meet over a hundred local vendors and venues. She even welcomed masters-of-ceremony like Robin Leach from “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” and soap opera stars Kristen Alfonso and Rick Edwards.
From left to right: Donald Lopes, local business man; Yonlanda, owner of bridal salon Yolanda’s; Robin Leach; Grace Ormonde; Geoffrey Osborne, show performer.
The event’s success drew the attention of big publications such as The Providence Journal, which dedicated a feature highlighting Grace’s effort and the pre-event cocktail party in one of the Newport Mansions.
Eventually, the event was renamed to “The Grand Bridal Show” and moved to the historical building of Rhodes on the Pawtuxet in Cranston. For more than a decade, the two-day event, hosted primarily on Super Bowl Sunday, drew couples from across New England to plan their weddings with local businesses.
In the summer of 1989, while attending the Newport Greek Festival at Spyridon Church, Grace met someone who would become a special part of both her personal and professional life, Yanni Tzoumas. Their connection was instant, and as their intimate relationship grew, so did their dreams and ambitions. “Our set of different skills and strengths made us a good team,” says Yanni. What began as a personal bond soon blossomed into a life and business partnership lasting 36 years.
Building on the success of “The Grand Bridal Show” in 1998, Grace and Yanni launched Grace Ormonde Wedding Style magazine. Grace envisioned a type of magazine that offered readers a high level of esthetic value with non-conventional, innovative ideas for wedding planning while curating the talent to make it happen. Despite facing numerous challenges in the publishing space, their lack of experience proved to be more beneficial because it allowed them to make decisions based on logic.
What began as a regional publication for Southern New England couples went national in 2002 and international by 2004. The magazine raised the bar in the wedding industry as it was coined as “the Bible for luxury weddings,” and received international acclaim along with numerous awards for its high esthetic, graphic design and quality of printing. “Despite the challenges of working together as a couple, which at times is admittedly difficult, the scale tips overwhelmingly on the positive side and the overall experience of working with Grace was nothing short of amazing,” says Yanni.
For the next twenty-seven years, with thirty-five published issues, Grace shaped and redefined the luxury wedding industry. She became a trendsetter, influencing the industry with her esthetic and style. Most importantly, she turned brides’ dream weddings into reality. She also had an impeccable eye for talent, discovering and supporting numerous wedding and event professionals around the world. “Many professionals and collaborators across a multitude of fields, such as photographers, floral designers or fashion designers, have acknowledged how Grace propelled their careers,” says Yanni. Her partnerships with important wedding experts took her across the world, producing content for the magazine and online platforms.
In 2010, she published her first book, Grace Ormonde Weddings – Being in Love Never Goes Out of Style, featuring some of her best magazine features and some never-before-seen editorial content.
Despite her global success, Grace never forgot to place the spotlight on Rhode Island. In 1998, she introduced “The Newport Bridal Tour” to showcase Newport’s eight iconic venues at the time, each staged as if a real wedding were taking place. Couples from across the country met with vendors from New England and New York to see their work. “Grace always believed that Newport was the ultimate wedding destination and therefore always advocated and promoted it throughout her career,” says Yanni.
Her professionalism mirrored her caregiving persona. Anyone who met her in person — professionally and personally — can attest that her optimism and enthusiasm were infectious. There was a purity and child-like innocence in the way she perceived, analyzed and synthesized things. She was also incredibly humble, never forgetting where she came from. Just as she could have a fancy business lunch, she could enjoy a Greek salad at some seaside family-owned tavern. “She was a genuinely caring, giving and inspirational person,” says Yanni. Through her philosophy of “celebrate love,” Grace reminded the world what it truly means to love and hope.
Grace Ormonde has left behind a legacy of unique esthetic, creativity and identity. Her work is a reflection of her timeless individuality and personal style. Though she may no longer be with us, the essence of what she created continues. Grace Ormonde Wedding Style magazine remains her legacy, and with a thriving digital presence, the team looks forward to reviving it in print to keep Grace’s memory alive through breathtaking visuals and storytelling. As Grace wrote in her book: “I have been passionate about what I do, and I find fulfillment contributing to the realization of dreams, especially when those dreams manifest love between two people. Ultimately, our ability to dream is what motivates us, and our ability to love is what sustains us — and that’s how I came up with my signature phrase “Celebrate Love!””
