Here come the brides | Maine is a hot destination for summer weddings, and for those in the industry, there's plenty of money to be made before and after "I do."

As a wedding photojournalist, I've seen an increase in the number of destination weddings held in Maine. Like many wedding vendors here, my season starts this month and more than half of the couples I'll be working with are "from away." Most make the drive from Massachusetts, but I'm also working with clients from Maryland, Pennsylvania, Colorado and Connecticut. The first wedding I'm shooting is in early May with a New Jersey couple at the Samoset Resort in Rockland. The last? I'll photograph a bride from Texas in a rustic Buckfield barn in late October.

Whenever I tell someone outside of our industry that many of the weddings I photograph are destination weddings, I'm met with a stunned stare. After all, doesn't a destination wedding require a tropical beach and a barefoot bride?

Not exactly.

Instead, a destination wedding is one that brings in a bride and groom ˆ— and lots of guests ˆ— from out-of-state for niche nuptials that are location-specific and require an overnight stay. In Maine, think ceremonies on coastal cliffs instead of inside churches, more blueberries than buttercream on the cake and, at one wedding I photographed in York, when the day was done, the couple departed in a lobster boat instead of a limo.
Most importantly, destination weddings demand beautiful backdrops, and Maine's got those in spades.

Diane York, a wedding planner from Portland, says most of the 25 couples she's working with this wedding season aren't Mainers, which should be music to the ears of those who have a stake in the state's service industry.

"When you consider a 120-guest wedding and that maybe a minimum of 80 or 90 of them are coming from away, that's 45 hotel rooms and all the extra things," she says, like dining out and shopping for souvenirs. "That's a lot of money coming into the state, and a lot of these people aren't just going to come for one night ˆ— they'll make a weekend of it."

But what's so attractive about Maine? Julie Draper, an Eliot-based wedding officiant, says it's the coast that initially charms couples who are willing to pay their price for a piece of it. An April report from The Knot, a New York-based firm that produces guidebooks, magazines and a website for brides-to-be, found the average wedding budget is $27,882, with 45% of that spent on the reception. There are no hard numbers as to how much Maine marrieds spend, but York says the average range is between $15,000 and $25,000, with destination brides often spending more.

And that doesn't account for what the wedding guests who will inevitably gather here will also spend during their stay. Draper always tells her couples planning coastal Maine weddings to not be surprised when the affirmative attendance cards start pouring in. "In Maine, you will have a much smaller 'regret' list," she says.

Nationwide, weddings are a $72 billion business. And though no Maine-specific numbers are available, the state last year issued 9,867 licenses for weddings happening in the state. Even at just $10,000 per wedding, that totals nearly $100 million in wedding spending in Maine.

Booking the spot
What's most encouraging for Maine's lakeside lodges and seaside resorts are the features couples look for when choosing where their wedding guests will dine and dance. The top five, according to The Knot's report, include "a great space for dancing, a picturesque backdrop for photos, an outdoor area for cocktails, a breathtaking view and a waterside location."

Those were among the considerations that led Lisa Mark to Maine ˆ— and eventually to the Breakwater Inn & Spa in Kennebunkport.

Mark is a 33-year-old doctor who grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. She's currently completing a year-long surgery fellowship in Connecticut and then she'll return to Montreal, where she'll make a permanent residence with her Canadian fiancé, Alex Dostie.

Mark had never been to Maine before meeting Dostie during their residency in Indiana four years ago, but he'd been vacationing at Pine Point in Scarborough every summer since he was a kid.

"I knew I wanted to get married in the States. Some of our guests didn't have passports, so it would be hard for them to come to Canada for a wedding," Mark explained. "Maine was sentimental for us, and the water here is beautiful. I thought my guests would really feel like they were getting away somewhere."

The couple settled on Kennebunkport because they saw it as a quintessential, quaint coastal town. Best of all, it's accessible by car to their Montreal friends and family, yet still close enough to the Portland Jetport for guests who would be flying in from as far away as California.

It's also close to Connecticut, which makes Mark's planning more manageable.
"It would a ton harder if I couldn't drive up here," she says. "I can't imagine doing a destination wedding in a place like Mexico. I am a control freak ˆ— I care what the napkins feel like and what the flowers look like. I couldn't have that control if I was planning from thousands of miles away."

Mark will be hosting 60 guests at her mid-September wedding, and initially planned to budget $30,000 for the affair. Now, she says the wedding will cost upwards of $45,000. And like 43% of couples now do, according to The Knot, it's Mark and Dostie ˆ— and not their parents ˆ— who will be signing the checks.

But Marks thinks that every penny is worth it, and she hopes her guests will agree. "Since everyone is coming from out of town, we wanted to do something special for them ˆ— really make it a weekend instead of just one night," she says.
That meant adding a beachfront lobster bake the night before the wedding that Mark says has been like planning "a second wedding." "I want my guests to say it was worth the trip," she says.

Wedding planner Amber Small, who runs The Sweetest Thing Weddings out of her Bangor home and is organizing Mark and Dostie's event, says the couple is not alone in being so conscious of the time and financial commitment required of their guests. Of the 10 weddings Small has scheduled this summer, nine are for couples coming from out of state, though many have ties to Maine through childhood or college. Once here, her couples will spend between $20,000 and $40,000 per wedding.

"Weddings are becoming more and more guest-focused. Couples really want to treat their guests," Small says. "And that's great for our economy because these guests are seeing Maine and, if it's a good experience, they'll want to come back."

No longer is planning a wedding as simple as selecting a date and securing the church. From the moment the save-the-date is sent, couples are establishing what the experience of the wedding will be for all who attend.

"There is a move from focusing on how the wedding day will look to how the wedding day will feel," says Draper.

Lobster bakes like the one Mark and Dostie are planning; L.L.Bean tote bags brimming with Maine delicacies like Stonewall Kitchen jams, Poland Spring water, Tom's of Maine toiletries and local maps; and post-wedding brunches are all treats brides and grooms are offering their out-of-town guests to make their trip to Maine more memorable, Small says.

For richer or poorer
Of course, the cost of canvas totes and fancy jams adds up fast. But Small says even with the recent economic downturn, couples aren't cutting back. In fact, she says they may even be going further out of their way to spoil their guests as thanks for making the trip. "People are putting their money into the details ˆ— they want it to be an experience," she says. "Even though the economy is bad, there is still such a demand for high-end weddings here."

What's more, Small notes that soon-to-be-wedded couples find an economic allure to go along with the beautiful ocean views and bucolic lakeside settings in Maine: The dollar stretches farther in Maine than it does in locales like Boston. "You can have a wedding at a five-star inn here for a two-star rate in Boston," she says.

In fact, nearly everyone interviewed for this story said weddings are largely recession proof. "Fathers still want to do this for their daughters. Girls still have that vision of walking down the aisle," York said.

Many photographers, including myself, are adopting a wait-and-see approach rather than assuming that the current economic malaise won't impact the wedding industry. Given how far in advance weddings are planned, it makes sense that the economic ebb we are now seeing won't have much of an impact on my business this summer. After all, most of the clients that have booked me for their 2008 nuptials did so in mid 2007, when gas was 50 cents cheaper a gallon and few expected the economy to be teetering on the brink of recession.

"I think couples are still spending the money ˆ— they are just being smarter about it," says Beth Fitzgerald, a Portland photographer who shoots weddings in Maine and New England through her company, Blush Imagery.

One of the brides Fitzgerald worked with last summer had talked then about upgrading from the basic album included in her package. But now that her expendable income is down, Fitzgerald says the client has decided to stick with what she has already paid for. Fitzgerald also notes that more clients charge her services to credit cards rather than writing checks.

Many couples also are looking beyond Saturdays when it comes to choosing a wedding day. In past years, I would likely only shoot one or two non-Saturday weddings during a full wedding season. This summer, I'm booked for seven. And while some choose an off day because that fantastic seaside location is booked every Saturday during the summer, others are landing on Fridays or Sundays to save on costs. The Lucerne Inn in Dedham, for example, takes 25% off the room rental fee for a Friday or Sunday wedding during the summer season (it's 50% off January through April). Meanwhile, the Asticou Inn in Northeast Harbor charges $500 to rent its main reception room on a Friday in June, compared to $2,500 on a June Saturday.

Maine's wedding season is short relative to many other places, and the move to Friday and Sunday weddings has been a boon to wedding-related companies. It's helped people like Fitzgerald, who has four of her 18 weddings booked on Sundays this summer.
But Fitzgerald is happy with the clientele she's been able to book in Maine. In 2007, she moved her business across the country to Maine from Washington, where she was largely reliant on commercial clients because there wasn't enough wedding work. She expected more of the same in Maine, but ended up shooting 18 weddings last year, and has booked the same number again this year.

"I got an instant season. I couldn't believe it," says Fitzgerald, whose primary package is $3,000, though clients often spend more to add pages to their album, prints or digital negatives, making the average cost between $4,000 and $5,000. "I didn't honestly expect I could just do weddings here, and in the long run actually do better than I ever thought I would."

Fitzgerald was floored when she found out where her clients were coming from. This summer, only two of her 18 brides are Maine-based. "It blew me away. I didn't realize to what extent Maine was a wedding destination," she says. "I had no idea how rich the market was here."