Our latest project: building a video presence on Vimeo.
Please come peek at our ambitious start with four wedding videos, a stop-action photo booth and one engagement session set to music.
 The videos were all put together by assistant Matthea Daughtry, who came to me this past April looking for work and expressing a passion for video and stop-action movies. I, too, had been bit by the stop-action bug, so I was anxious to see what we might do with the technique.
Mattie created the entire Rebecca & Jason video on her own, plus found the catchy tune it’s synchronized with. She also shot most of the the Cheyanne and Shane video. She made the remaining videos using stills that Angie Devenney and I had already shot. Mattie, a Final Cut Pro afficionado, picked out the frames, sequenced them, and found most of the songs. (I take credit for finding the wonderful Jonny Blu.)
Speaking of songs, we’re especially proud of the music on the videos, not just that they are fun tunes, but also the fact that we’ve supported other artists by only using properly-licensed music. There is rampant disregard of copyright today, all you have to do is go to YouTube to see folks using popular music (from DVDs or iTunes) that they purchased inexpensively for personal use only. Using that music on a video is in conflict with the personal use license and a copyright violation. Professional photographers or videographers creating (and selling and posting online) wedding videos using popular music that was purchased for personal use only is especially egregious, and we didn’t want to go that route, though we’ve seen many in our industry do so. (And it certainly would have been easier and much less expensive.)
We decided from Day One that we were going to take the high road even though it meant more work (we spent hours digging through so-so songs to find the gems) and more costly (we paid at least $49 for each song used.) After all, how can we expect others to respect our copyrights to our photography if we violate other artists’ rights? In the process we found some really fun songs and did our part to support up-and-coming artists who, like us, can continue to create if rewarded financially for their efforts.
Okay, rant over.
Please visit our vimeo site and enjoy!
Posted in Getting Married in Maine
Tags: copyright, Maine, Maine Wedding, ME, photo booth, photobooth, photographer, photography tips, stop action, time lapse, video, videography, Wedding
Requirements for getting married in Maine are fairly straightforward; licenses are available at any town office.
As a resident of Brunswick and member of the Southern Midcoast Maine Chamber of Commerce, which represents businesses in sixteen Midcoast towns (Arrowsic, Bath, Bowdoin, Bowdoinham, Brunswick, Dresden, Edgecomb, Georgetown, Harpswell, Phippsburg, Richmond, Topsham, West Bath, Westport Island, Wiscasset and Woolwich) I prepared this list for the Chamber. Therefore, all the merchants and service providers on this list are Chamber members. Links were correct as of January 15, 2011. If you come to a link that no longer works, please let me know.
This list is meant to gather in one place all the services and products which might be needed by a couple planning to get married in this area.
I’ve listed wedding and reception venues first because that’s usually the first service the couple secures. However, the remaining service and product providers are listed alphabetically. I hope these prove to be helpful.
Wedding, Reception & Rehearsal Dinner Venues
- Bath Country Club, Bath
- Boothbay Country Club, Boothbay
- Bounty Restaurant & Tavern, Bath
- Bowdoin College Chapel, Brunswick (available to alumni only)
- Brunswick Inn on Park Row, Brunswick
- Brunswick Golf Club, Brunswick
- Captain Daniel Stone Inn, Brunswick
- Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, Boothbay
- Casco Bay Lines, Harpswell & Portland
- China Rose, Brunswick
- Common Table, Harpswell
- Cooks Lobster House, Harpswell (Bailey Island)
- Driftwood Inn, Harpswell (Bailey Island)
- Frontier Cafe, Brunswick
- Harpswell Inn, Harpswell
- Holiday Inn, Bath
- Kennebec Tavern & Marina, Bath
- Knights of Columbus, Brunswick
- Midcoast Pizza & More, Bath
- Maine Maritime Museum, Bath
- Sadlleback, Rangeley
- Sebasco Harbor Resort, Phippsburg
- Sheepscot River Inn, Edgecomb
- The Moorings, Georgetown
- The Robinhood Free Meetinghouse, Georgetown
- The Taste of Maine Restaurant, Woolwich
- Additionally, there are many restaurants listed in the directory of the Chamber website. Please contact member restaurants directly to see if they might be able to host a private party.
Accommodations (motels, hotels, inns, bed & breakfast facilities)
- 1774 Inn, Phippsburg
- America’s Best Value Inn, Brunswick
- Bailey Island Motel, Harpswell (Bailey Island)
- Benjamin Packard House, Bath
- Black Lantern Bed & Breakfast, Topsham
- Brewster House Inn Bed & Breakfast, Freeport
- Brunswick Inn on Park Row, Brunswick
- Captain Daniel Stone Inn, Brunswick
- Captain’s Watch Bed & Breakfast, Harpswell (Cundy’s Harbor)
- Comfort Inn, Brunswick
- Common Table, Harpswell
- Cook’s Island View Motel, Harpswell (Bailey Island)
- Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott, Brunswick
- Fairhaven Inn, Bath
- Galen Moses House, Bath
- Hampton Inn, Bath
- Hampton Inn, Freeport
- Harpswell Inn, Harpswell
- Harraseeket Inn, Freeport
- Hilton Garden Inn, Freeport
- Holiday Inn, Bath (141 rooms) (special rates for blocks of ten+ rooms)
- James Place Inn Freeport, Freeport
- Kennebec Inn, Bath
- Kismet Inn, Bath
- Knights Inn, Brunswick
- Little Island Motel, Harpswell (Orr’s Island)
- Log Cabin, an Island Inn, Harpswell (Bailey Island)
- New Meadows Motel, Brunswick
- Popham Beach Bed & Breakfast, Phippsburg
- Pryor House Bed & Breakfast, Bath
- Quahog Bay Inn, Harpswell (Great Island)
- Seagate Motel, Boothbay Harbor
- Sebasco Harbor Resort, Phippsburg
- Sheepscot River Inn, Edgecomb
- Spinney’s Guest House, Phippsburg (Popham Beach)
- The High Tides Inn on the Ocean, Belfast
- The Inn at Bath, Bath
- The Inn at Maine Street Station, Brunswick (open June 2011)
- The Moorings, Georgetown
- The Royalsborough Inn at the Bagley House, Durham
- Topside Inn, Boothbay Harbor
- White Cedar Inn, Freeport
- Wiscasset Motor Lodge, Wiscasset
Accommodations (cottages for rent)
- Look on the Chamber directory under “cottage rentals.” There you can find links to individual cottages and also to agencies that represent multiple cottages
Bakeries (Wedding cakes, cupcakes & other sweets)
Beauty, Hair, Nails, Spa &/or Make-up
Catering
Diversions
- Acker’s Acres Disc Golf, Bowdoinham
- Bath Country Club, Bath
- Boothbay Country Club, Boothbay
- Boothbay Whale Watch, Boothbay
- Brunswick Golf Club, Brunswick
- Capn Fishs Whale Watch, Boothbay
- Casco Bay Ferries, Harpswell & Portland
- Maine Eastern Railroad, scenic train service between Brunswick & Rockland
- Ocean Point Aviation, scenic plane rides from Wiscasset
- Portland Sea Dogs, Double-A minor league affiliate of the Boston Red Sox
Dry cleaning
Flowers
Jewelry, wedding rings
Photographer
Musicians, Entertainers, Bands, DJs
Transportion & Travel Agencies
 Congrats to the Bar Harbor Inn on their new wedding web site, and thank-you to my clients who allowed me to share their weddings photos for the new site.
Most of the photos on the new site (except a few food photos) were taken from real weddings that my assistants and I shot at the Bar Harbor Inn.
A classic Maine seaside inn, the Bar Harbor Inn is a beautiful spot for a wedding and reception, right on the doorstep on Acadia National Park, one of the prettiest spots in all of Maine. If you’re planning a wedding in Bar Harbor or even looking at locations all over the coast of Maine, consider the Bar Harbor Inn! In addition to their great location, they offer wonderful service for a stress-free wedding experience. They are wonderful people to work with.
 I am very excited about a Halloween Photobooth planned for Halloween Day (October 31) in downtown Brunswick. I’m co-sponsoring the event with Little Dog Coffee Shop, event organizer Amanda Similien of Maine Street Events, and cake and cupcake baker extraordinaire Carrie Fields of Fields of Cake and Other Good Stuff.
From noon to 6 p.m. we’ll have a portable photo studio set up in the front area of the Little Dog Coffee Shop to take professional photos of in-costume trick-or-treaters. All we ask is a $5 donation to the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Bath/Brunswick. (They will get all of the proceeds, we aren’t taking any of the money to cover our own costs.) Also, at the end of the evening one name will be drawn to win a gift certificate for a custom cake by Fields of Cake & other Good Stuff. (It’s worth dressing up and paying $5 just to get a shot at that!)
Living in small town, Maine, I always get oodles of trick-or-treaters. And, I’m always impressed by how varied and creative the costumes are on Halloween night. It’s obvious that a lot of thought, time and work goes into Halloween.
As a professional photographer I’ve thought how much fun it would be to set up professional lights and a backdrop on Halloween to create professional quality photos of the trick-or-treaters for their parents. And, it wouldn’t require a big investment in new equipment as I regularly set up photobooths for my wedding clients; so I already own most of what is needed.
Last year I finally decided to act on that idea. Using a black backdrop from Halloween fabric I picked up at Joanne’s Fabrics, I set up a mini-photography-studio on my front porch. My second shooter Angie gave up her Halloween to help me, and we sat out on the porch with digital cameras and small instant printers, ready to offer trick-or-treaters candy and an instant portrait. (Thank goodness it wasn’t too cold because we were out there several hours.)
Before long, we were very busy taking photos and making instant prints. We got an overwhelmingly positive response, and it turned out to be a whole lot of fun; I think the parents got a big kick out of having the costumes recorded in professional photos.
So, this year I approached Paul Harrison of the Little Dog Coffee Shop to see about doing the same thing but on a larger scale and as a benefit a local charity. Since the LIttle Dog is right on the route of the Halloween Parade, it seemed like the perfect place to stage the event. And we picked BBBSB/B as our charity as they offer wonderful programs for area kids. Plus, they are a neighbor of the Little Dog.
We won’t offer instant photos this year–”instant” turned out to be a misnomer as we got backed up last year with the pictures that were very slow to print. Instead, I’ll send off digital images the next day to get them printed on a very nice satin card stock offered by my one of my favorite printing shops. We’ll ask parents (or kids) to come back in ten days to pick up their prints at the Little Dog.
Amanda Similen (of Maine Street Events) and Carrie Fields (of Fields of Cake) got involved when we were meeting for coffee (at the Little Dog) and chatting about Carrie’s recent appearance on the Food Network. The photobooth plans were just in the infancy then, and when I shared my ideas with Amanda and Carrie they very enthusiastically offered to join in. Amanda brings years of event planning expertise and Carrie, who is a fantastic baker, offered to donate a gift certificate for a custom birthday cake or cupcakes at a later date. So that’s how they ended up getting involved.
Posters were finalized and printed today, they should start going up tomorrow, and we’ve got a Facebook Event set up. It’s an open event, anyone can invite anyone else, so if you want to help us spread the word, please do so.
And, hopefully we’ll see you on Halloween at the Little Dog!
Here is a link to a larger copy of the poster if you can help us publicize the event by printing a poster and putting up at your workplace.
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