I haven't measured the exact figures since they just installed things - but we are roughly between 34 and 36 inches between the two. Edlakin - if I recall, you may be getting a Bluestar range. If so, you will find the door height is not that large. my spouse was pleasantly surprised how much room there is even with the oven door completely open

Not an island, but a peninsula with the DR table on one side. We have approx 48" from table-edge to counter-edge if we move the table as far into the DR as possible w/o "exposing" the chandelier to heads! It's OK if no one is seated at either and we can scoot by if someone is sitting at one...but if there's someone sitting at both, there's no room to get by and someone has to move out of the way. I wish we had another 10" to 12" or so. (Our problem is our chandelier...when we took down the wall b/w the DR & Kitchen and added a peninsula w/seats on the DR side & "inside" the DR, we forgot to take into account the fact that the center of the DR was moved by a foot or so away from the kitchen. Our chandelier is in the center of the DR so it limits how far into the DR & away from the peninsula our table can be moved.)

It depends on your layout. 48" is the NKBA standard recommendation. I had planned aisles that wide, but in the end had to shrink them for various reasons. Mine are about 44-45", and they work great. My old kitchen had about a 5.5' aisle between the only sink and my range. That was much too far for me to be carting wet cutting boards, dripping knives, prep ingredients, etc across. For me, 5' would also have been too wide as it would still take several steps to cross. With my smaller aisles, taking food from prep sink/island prep zone to my rangetop across the aisles is a quick pivot making working in the kitchen much easier, faster, and less frustrating.

I also drooled over that wood when we did our last kitchen but I couldn't convince DH. I'll just have to drool over yours bbtrix. As for aisle width and holidays, if someone gets in your way, soho them away! It won't kill you or them :-). Our largest gathering so far has been 17, and it was no problem even with people on the kitchen side of the island (admittedly, I was just serving at that point, not cooking, but still...