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!

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)

• Barn Door Cafe + Bakery, Topsham
• Dunkin Donuts, Topsham & Brunswick
• Fields of Cake & Other Good Stuff, Brunswick
• Simply Divine Brownies, Freeport
• Wild Oats Bakery, Brunswick

Beauty, Hair, Nails, Spa &/or Make-up

• Beau Bella Day Spa & Hair Salon, (Brunswick)  (onsite/travel) (services: nails, hair, make-up, massage, facials)
• Bubba’s Hairstyling, Topsham
• Starz Hair Studio, Brunswick
• Sweet Water Day Spa, Brunswick

Catering

• Brunswick Inn at Park Row, Brunswick
• Fields of Cake & Other Good Stuff, Brunswick
• Scarlet Begonia, Brunswick
• Simply Elegant Catering, Brunswick
• Simply Susies Catering, Harpswell
• The Big Top Deli, Brunswick
• The Robinhood Free Meetinghouse, Georgetown

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

• J&J Cleaners

Flowers

• Flowers, Etc, Brunswick
• Skillins Greenhouses, Brunswick

Jewelry, wedding rings

• Days Jewelry, Brunswick
• Springer Jewelry, Bath

Photographer

• Michele Stapleton, Brunswick (hey, I put together this list, didn’t I?)

Musicians, Entertainers, Bands, DJs

• Charles Cosby Entertainment, Topsham
• Midcoast Symphony Orchestra, Brunswick

Transportion & Travel Agencies

• AAA, Brunswick
• Bath Trolley Company, (Bath)
• Brunswick Tour & Travel, (Brunswick)
• Hewins Travel, Brunswick

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.

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.

I immediately started following her facebook business page, where she is good about keeping her followers abreast of her current work. She regularly posts updates about the wedding cakes and birthday cakes she is working on, along with yummy photos so her creative cake and cupcake projects can live on in photos long after the goodies themselves are eaten.

Then, I tasted my first cupcake! And, a second. Can you say “Chocolate stout cake filled with cinnamon ganache and cinnamon chipotle caramel, topped with cinnamon ganache and cinnamon sugar buttercream cupcakes”?  Yeh, it’s a mouthful. A very luscious mouthful. Oh my!

A navy wife and mother of three, Carrie moved with her family to the Naval Air Station Brunswick in 2006. She began baking cakes and cupcakes professionally after the move to Maine, and as the word got out, she picked up customers from Boston to Bar Harbor. Recently the word has spread way beyond Maine, and even beyond New England.

In April of this year Carrie traveled to Denver for the taping of a Food Network Food Challenge show which will air on September 26th at 7 p.m. On one of the four baker teams competing, Carrie helped bake and decorate a giant “Beauty & the Beast” themed cake. For the challenge the cake had to be at least three feet tall and feed at least 100. A non-discloure agreement keeps her from saying much about the show, so to learn more we’ll all have to tune in on September 26th.

I’ve not yet had the honor of photographing one of Carrie’s wedding cakes on the job–but I hope to soon. I wholeheartedly recommend her to anyone getting married, having a birthday, or celebrating any other special occasion in the greater Brunswick area.  (I recently had a very small dinner party for old friends and I ordered two dozen cupcakes for our desert. The cupcakes were the hit of the party.)

In the meantime, I learned that Carrie would be making a Toad Stool and Fairy Cake birthday cake for a party of five year olds, so I dropped by her kitchen to get a few shots. And, I got to accompany her on the delivery to get photos of birthday girl Maggie, who couldn’t be more pleased with her incredible birthday cake!

I took a short trip to New York City earlier this week; when I very unexpectedly fell into tickets to a taping of the Colbert Report, I quickly planned a midweek getaway to take advantage of my great luck.

Often when we (photographers) tell friends we are going on vacation, someone will respond “Oh, I can’t wait to see your photos.” It’s obviously a compliment, but the heightened expectations can make professionals wince because we might not plan on putting the same level of energy into our vacation photos that we put into our professional work.

While photography is my passion, carrying around a full complement (roughly twenty pounds) of professional photography gear  is no vacation at all, especially when I am doing most of my sightseeing on foot.

Nor is getting up before daylight in order to catch “magic light.” When you’re traveling with friends and family, try announcing that the alarm clock will be going off before sunrise!

So, many photographers opt to leave their big cameras at home–taking a point and shoot camera instead, and when we travel with others, we limit much of our picture-taking to found situations so as to minimize the inconvenience to our traveling companions.

That’s what I decided to do, cramming a lightweight point and shoot and extra batteries into my purse. No flash, no tripod, nothing else.

My friend Penny joined me on the trip, and in addition to the Colbert Report, we did lots of touristy things; we hit a Broadway Show, two museums, ate bagels for breakfast and Italian for dinner, visited a couple of great delis, cut across Central Park, ducked into St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and peeked into Tiffany’s. We tried to hit the Empire State Building at sunset, but the lines moved so slow that we didn’t get to the top until dark.

However, as a huge accommodation to me, Penny, who is a hobby photographer and a “morning” person, agreed to get up early for a stroll across the Brooklyn Bridge our last morning. I had been wanting to walk the bridge at sunrise for years, but on my last two New York trips I traveled with “night” people, so getting up ridiculously early was simply not an option.

So, we set the alarm and were on the bridge by 7:15. (We might have tried to hit sunrise had the forecast been better, but it was overcast with a chance of rain. Not a good idea to alienate friends if the picture possibilities are iffy at best.)

Above are a handful of photos from my trip. The first is a billboard on Fifth Avenue. After that are views from the Brooklyn Bridge, a bike decorated with subway cards, a handrail (crafted to look like a spine) at the Museum of Natural History, a dinosaur from the same museum, Lady Liberty, and the last shot is a packed shoe shine station in Rockefeller Center. Mostly a collection of interesing items that caught my eye as we crisscrossed New York City.

For anyone who is interested, my point and shoot is a six megapixel Fuji S7000 purchased years ago for a climb up Katahdin. It’s been a great pocket camera for me, but I’m pretty sure it’s no longer being made.

If you’re looking for a high-end point and shoot (no, that’s not an oxymoron), check out Canon’s PowerShot G series, a favorite of professional photographers. If I were buying a point and shoot today, the G11 (or its current iteration) would be on my short list of candidates.

Also, consult the ratings at DP Review, which is a must-stop resource for anyone shopping for cameras.

Several years ago I photographed a lovely wedding reception at a lovely old farmhouse near Bangor. When the band started warming up, a circuit breaker in the house blew and it couldn’t be replaced until hardware stores opened the next day. Fortunately, there was a generator nearby, and after a short break, the music started again. That same year at a waterside wedding Down East, the DJ couldn’t understand why his CDs were skipping and stopping mid-song; the problem cleared up as soon the caterers finished cooking and turned off their huge ovens.

With a little planning you can insure that your day is not marred by flickering lights or sagging voltage.

Experts at Central Maine Power and Bangor Hydro Electric suggest that you call an electrician who can check the amperage available at your site. If your home has up-to-date wiring sufficient for a clothes dryer, chances are you have enough amps for a band or DJ, tent lighting and a caterer’s appliances. But, it pays to be sure, especially if your party is large because all the appliances used by your vendors will put unusual demands on your electric service.

You will want to check with your vendors (your caterer, musicians, lighting supplier, etc.) for the wattage of the equipment they will be bringing.

Even if your house has sufficient service, it still pays to plan your power use wisely. If at all possible, you want to pull from different circuits (zones) in the home. If your caterer is drawing lots of power with stove, oven, hot plates, etc. in your kitchen, you’ll want to put your band on another circuit, perhaps running the extension cord for amplifiers from a bedroom on the opposite end of the house. And, your lighting might be connected to an outside outlet which is on yet another circuit.

Chances are you’ll be using extension cords, and if so, you’ll want to pay attention to extension cord safety tips from Underwriters Laboratories. You’ll want to pick the correct cords for the job, most likely commercial grade extension cords rated for outdoor use. You’ll want to avoid using cords that are longer than necessary, as electricity is less steady over longer distances and cords can “leak” power where multiple cords are joined together.

If you don’t have enough power to meet demands, both CMP and Bangor Hydro can add temporary service to your site–a second line and a second meter, but you need to call at least a month ahead of time to schedule installation. If you’re considering a site that is more than 150 feet from existing power poles, be aware that it might be necessary to install an new power pole to carry the line.

Questions? Bangor Hydro has service planners on staff who can help you prepare for your power needs.

Immediately after the ceremony’s conclusion, workers began upgrading the existing line. Work is expected to be completely in the fall of 2012.

New rail, in 1650-foot sections, arrived by train.

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