Falmouth Country Club – Falmouth, Maine Wedding: Mackenzie and Stewart
Falmouth Country Club – Falmouth, Maine Wedding: Mackenzie and Stewart

Mackenzie and Stewart were married at the Falmouth Country Club in Falmouth, Maine on September 10th, 2016. The morning of the wedding, I arrived at Marriott Sable Oaks in South Portland, Maine to photograph Mackenzie and the ladies getting ready. My second shooter, Tracey Mason was also on site with Stewart and the men in the wedding party. Mackenzie left for the first look in a limo with all of her bridesmaids and met up with Stewart and the guys at Falmouth Town Landing for their First Look and wedding party portraits. We then proceeded to Falmouth Country Club for a beautiful wedding ceremony outside and a lovely tented reception that lit up in blue and purple as the evening went on. The live band, Time Pilots was amazing and got everyone on the dance floor. It truly was an amazing wedding that I will certainly remember!

Click here to see Mackenzie and Stewart’s engagement session I photographed last winter!

Words from the bride and groom…

What did you envision your wedding being prior to planning?

We envisioned our wedding exactly how it turned out. It was a extremely special day, our family was comfortable and happy, our friends all had a great time, and as the bride and groom we couldn’t have pictured things going better.

What was your color palette and your style vision?

Our colors were blush, ivory, blue/navy. We had a classic and romantic style.

What is your favorite moment of your wedding day?

Our favorite moment was our first kiss! What a moment!! There are many great moments throughout the day, we had a perfect ceremony, great weather for photos, beautiful toasts, and our first dance was awesome!

What song did you do your first dance to? 

Our first dance was My Best Friend by Queen, preformed by Time Pilots Band.

Tell us about your flowers, your gown, your favors, your cake, etc.

Our cake was just as we had envisioned, it was classic and with the cascade of flowers down the side it was gorgeous.

Our favors were super fun, the grooms mother custom painted over 100 individual little terracotta pots where we then put a nice little succulent plant in each.

Our flowers were all made by the wedding party and other special people. Everything came together so nice.

The brides dress is hard to describe, but it was everything the bride was looking for and blew the grooms mind when we saw his bride! 

What advice would you give to couples who are currently planning their wedding?

Our advice to other planning a wedding is... You are going to be stressed, it is a lot of work, there is no way around this. Work hard on the big stuff now, and enjoy it later, we noticed that the more planning we did early on the easier later on was and we were able to focus on the little details not scrambling to get big ticket items done. 

One last little thing, planning takes way longer than you think. Allow yourself time.

 

Wedding Vendors:

Venue(s): Falmouth Country Club

Florist: Trader Joes

Cake: Cakes Extraordinaire

Band: Time Pilots

Dress: Andrea's Bridal

Wedding Rings: Springers Jewelers and Cross Jewelers

Jewelry/Hairpieces: Etsy

Bridesmaid's Dresses: Andrea's Bridal

Hair/Makeup: Head Games

Nails: Essence Beauty

Men's Attire: Soiree

Rentals: Rent My Wedding

Trina DinnarTrina Dinnar Photography
Samoset Resort Rockport Maine Wedding: Katie and Don
Samoset Resort Rockport Maine Wedding: Katie and Don

Katie and Don had a small, intimate wedding at the Samoset Resort in Rockport, Maine on August 21st, 2016. The Samoset Resort was a wedding venue I had been hoping to photograph, so I delighted when I found out that the couple would be married there. Even though the day was foggy, we made the best of the day. The Resort has a beautiful flower garden and a lovely green golf course. I’m so very honored to have been part of their special day.

From the bride…

When and where did your engagement take place? Please describe the proposal.

We got engaged at The Inn at Sunset Hill in New Hampshire on February 21, 2016. After coming back from Ice Castles, we went for a walk to the lookout over the White Mountains. After a few minutes, he got down on one knee and proposed!

What did you envision your wedding being prior to planning?

Both of us had envisioned a small outdoor wedding either on the ocean or at a country club.

What was your color palette and your style vision?

We wanted a simple, elegant wedding. Our colors were purple and white.

What is your favorite moment of your wedding day?

My favorite moment was standing at the beginning of the aisle, waiting to walk down to my soon-to-be husband with my father escorting me, and all of my family and friends smiling.

What song did you do your first dance to? 

From the Ground Up by Dan + Shay

Tell us about your flowers, your gown, your favors, your cake, etc.

Our flowers were beautiful purple and white calla lilies and white and lavender spray roses. My wedding dress was an elegant, strapless ivory Casablanca gown. Our favors were small champagne shaped bottles with candies and a sandal keychain. Our cake was a delicious lemon-blueberry, chocolate truffle, and mudslide flavored 3 tiered masterpiece from SugarTree Bakery. It was decorated with beautiful fresh flowers.

What is one piece of advice that you could give brides-to-be?

With all the stress of planning, always remember that everything will come together and no matter what happens, it will be a perfect day because you get to marry the love of your life!

Vendors:

Photography: Trina Dinnar Photography

Wedding Planner: Linde Schwartz of Samoset Resort

DJ or Band: Erik Klausmeyer from Double Platinum Celebrations

Catering: Samoset Resort

Florist: Hoboken Gardens

Hair/Make-up: Level 10 Salon

Videographer: None

Dress /Shoes: Andrea’s Bridal

Cake: Darci Lynn Chickering-Morris from Sugar Tree Cakes

Officiant: Reverend Seth Jones

Trina DinnarTrina Dinnar Photography
Vanessa and Jones Bald Mountain Camps Resort Wedding
Vanessa and Jones Bald Mountain Camps Resort Wedding

Vanessa and Jones were married at the Bald Mountain Camps Resort in Oquossoc, Maine. Rather than my usual write up about the wedding itself, I would rather share the couple’s unique love story, as told by both of them.

It began in the Bahamas...

Vanessa and Jones separately left on their senior year spring break trip to the Bahamas where they planned to make some final college memories with 300+ other Cornell students. They were two months shy of graduating, had already accepted jobs on the opposite side of the country, and happy to enjoy the last moments with their friends before starting "real" life. Prior to that trip, Vanessa knew Jones as the good looking rower who always looked too serious. Jones had talked to his friends about Vanessa

Fast forward to the third night of the trip, where Jones finally had an excuse to talk to Vanessa (thanks Oliver!) and tell her how he felt. It could be the 25% Greek connection, but there was immediately something special. They spent their first night dancing and being completely lost to the outside world, even though they were in a crowded bar. So lost that they even missed Charlie Walters dancing on stage during a booty shaking contest.

They knew they were moving to opposite ends of the country in just a few short months, but spent the next two months of school enjoying everything that Ithaca had to offer. They went to formals, injured themselves gorge jumping, stayed up until sunrise on the hammock on Jones's deck, went wine tasting, hiked Buttermilk Falls, survived finals, and completely fell in love somewhere in-between. 

Vanessa's job temporarily brought her to San Francisco post-graduation, so they were lucky enough to spend five more wonderful weeks exploring San Francisco together. After that summer, Vanessa moved back to Boston. Jones made Vanessa the happiest girl during their year apart by sending her flowers when it was rainy, fuzzy socks when it got cold, delicious snack subscriptions, many hand written love letters, and more. They traveled back and forth as frequently as possible and squeezed in frequent Skype dates, despite the three hour time difference.

Their long distance journey finally came to an end when Jones was recruited for a new role in Mountain View, CA. He was super happy with his current job, so he responded to the recruiter with Vanessa's resume and the rest is history. Vanessa moved out for that specific job in March of 2015 and has been so happy to receive all the love and support possible from Jones's family. Jones and Vanessa are happy to be #751Haighters in a beautiful Victorian and have the best housemates ever (all of which will be at the wedding!). 

Now that you've heard a piece of their story, we hope you see why they can't wait to spend the rest of their lives together.

 

When and where did your engagement take place? Please describe the proposal.

Vanessa and Jones were engaged on February 14th, 2015 (Valentine's Day!). Jones booked a weekend escape at XV Beacon Hotel in Boston. They had a cute room with a fireplace, jacuzzi tub, and a view of Boston's North End. On Valentine's Day, they explored downtown and went out to dinner at a small, romantic Italian restaurant. They returned to the hotel to enjoy pastries from Boston's famous pastry shops, Mike's Pastry and Modern Pastry. When they arrived at the room, Jones handed Vanessa the room key. She opened the door to find white rose petals all over the room with a bottle of champagne, cookies, and chocolates. The fire was lit and there was music playing in the background. Jones got down on one knee to purpose! As he was asking, their current favorite song Thinking Out Loud by Ed Sheeran came on the radio, totally unexpected. (Later, when they would buy their wedding bands, the song would come on the radio again as they were checking out with their perfect bands!)

What did you envision your wedding being prior to planning?

We envisioned exactly what it turned out to be! Our closest family and friends enjoying a long weekend on a lake that meant so much to Vanessa. Vanessa's family frequently visited their lake-house at Mooselookmeguntic Lake. It was a special place where both families could truly join together, while all having a wonderful time!

What was your color palette and your style vision?

Our color palette was burgundy and navy with champagne accents. The style vision was clean and rustic.

What is your favorite moment of your wedding day?

We had many favorite memories from the day! It was truly an incredible weekend. Our favorite memory (if we had to choose just one) was exchanging our own written vows. It was great to share our commitment and love in front of all of our family and friends.

What song did you do your first dance to? 

Thinking Out Loud by Ed Sheeran (see above for context!)

Tell us about your flowers, your gown, your favors, your cake, etc.

Flowers: We used baby's breath as the main accent, to create the rustic look. The bridesmaid bouquets were touched up with hydrangeas to add more body and color. Vanessa's bouquet was white roses surrounded by baby's breath. Vanessa's dad did grow zinnias in his home garden and Vanessa had a second bouquet of these beautiful, colorful flowers!

Gown: Vanessa’s gown was the Cassandra dress from Maggie Sottero designs.

Favors: We created welcome baskets for each of the guest's cabins so that they would have a treat upon arrival. We put a red raspberry jam and blue blueberry jam to symbolize the R(Rodanas) and B(Bazalgette) that were joining. We included a welcome note and pamphlets of fun things to do in the area. Vanessa's mom also baked homemade biscuits to go along with the jams.

Cake: Our cutting cake was a "naked" style cake, with frosting in layers rather than on the entire outside. The cake was chocolate with raspberry frosting and raspberry preserve in the middle. There were raspberries and flowers sprinkled for display. Our guest cake was a lemon cake with lemon frosting and lemon curd filling. We cut that cake in the back and sprinkled each piece with blueberries. 

Trina DinnarTrina Dinnar Photography
Lindsey and Owen's Southern Maine Engagement Session
Lindsey and Owen's Southern Maine Engagement Session

When I met these two this summer, I knew right away that they were going to be fun to photograph. It is clear that these two are so much in love and I'm very excited to be photographing their wedding in September of 2017.

Prior to the session, Lindsey and Owen discussed several locations in Southern Maine with me. Camp Ellis in Saco, Maine was a location that I had recently discovered and was on my list of places to photograph a session. We decided it was the perfect place for their engagement session!

A little more about the couple:

How did you two meet?

We both attended Keene State College in the fall of 2007. We were friendly but Owen had decided to move to Utah during our junior year and we stayed in touch. He came back to the east coast for my graduation in May of 2011 where sparks flew but then again, he still had arrangements to go back out West. Finally he moved back to Portland, Maine where I had moved back home to Nashua, NH. We had seen each at a Christmas Party and the rest is history.

What was your first date?

We had been out on a couple double dates but the first date, I had met Owen half way in between New Hampshire and Maine for dinner in a local tavern. I had chicken tenders (go figure!) Owen had chicken potpie. We tried to grab drinks at a local bar after but because we were in such a small town, we couldn’t locate it! We reminisce about going back there just for fun and to find that local spot!

When and where did your engagement take place?

We got engaged in Owen’s hometown of Londonderry, Vermont on Christmas day last year. Owen and I had split Christmas at each of our families. We had started our trip on Christmas Eve at my parents house and woke up to do gifts there. We headed to Vermont while Owen had told me he had one more gift to give me but it had to be in Vermont. Vermont always had special to us because that is where he asked me to be his girlfriend four years prior. He had held off until the very end of the night when it was just us two and asked me to marry him right before we went to bed. It was a sweet moment just for us two to share!

What are some activities and hobbies that you love doing together?

We love hockey in our household. I am a big Bruins fan and Owen the Toronto Maple Leafs. (Quite the rivalry when October hits!) In the winter, we love to go ice skating and snowshoeing back in Vermont. In the summer, we love to go to the beach and hunt for sea glass. We love to travel the coast of Maine for lighthouses and stop in local towns to shop for local goods! Boston is another spot we love to go because we love to visit our close friends down there!

Tell us about your wedding plans. When and where will it take place?

We are getting married September 9th, 2017 at Stage Neck Inn in York, Maine. We had searched for six months prior and couldn’t quite find “the one”- a few close calls. As soon as I walked in, I knew it was the one for us. It sits on the harbor and it is quite breathtaking. One of the things we love about Maine is the coast and to get married on it makes sense for us. We are just starting to get into the full blown details. We are excited for this process and can't wait for our day next year!

Trina DinnarTrina Dinnar Photography
Chantal and Brett's Brunswick, Maine Wedding
Chantal and Brett's Brunswick, Maine Wedding

In the summer of 2015, Chantal reached out to me from Saskatchewan, Canada looking for a wedding photographer for her and Brett's wedding. I was delighted to hear that they would be getting married in Brunswick, Maine at the bride's family's residence, which was a beautiful property surrounded by flowers with a private bridge, pond and views of Maquoit Bay.

On August 6th, 2016, I arrived at the Comfort Inn in Brunswick to photograph the bride and ladies getting ready for the wedding. Chantal told me that a piece of her grandmother's wedding dress, in the shape of a heart, was sewn onto the inside of her wedding dress. The silhouette could be seen when I hung the dress up in the window. It was such a beautiful and unique way to honor her grandmother. 

Chantal and Brett's wedding ceremony was beautiful -- the location, the decor, just everything was perfect. There was a reception tent in the back yard that was elegantly decorated in their wedding colors of blue and purple with teal accents. Chantal's parents prepared some of the most amazing food I'd ever had! I am truly honored to have been part of their special day.

FROM THE BRIDE:

How did you meet?

We met in Jamaica in March of 2011. We met at the pool bar, I was there on spring break with my friends and Brett was there on vacation with his friends. We hit it off from the moment we started talking and it felt like we had known each other for years. We did long distance for two years until I moved to Canada in 2013.

Please tell us about the proposal:

Our engagement took place in Boothbay Harbor, Maine on July 28th, 2014. We had a great night out to dinner and then we walked down the pier to where there was lighting and benches. It was just us two and very romantic. Brett got down on one knee and proposed; I didn't hesitate one bit and said yes!

Please describe your "perfect wedding" vision:

My perfect wedding vision was for it to be outside, with a perfect mix of the ocean and flowers. I knew right away that I wanted purple to be one of my main colors and the color that the bridesmaids would be wearing. I wanted my dress to have the focus point be on the back and be something different and unique. My ultimate goal for the wedding was for everyone to have a great time with lots of dancing and obviously, for me to finally marry my best friend. :)

What is the most memorable moment from your wedding day?

My most memorable moment from the wedding was getting to see Brett at the end of the aisle waiting for me. As soon as I saw him, my nerves were calmed and I couldn't wait to marry him.

What was your "first dance" song?

We danced our first dance to Adore You by Miley Cyrus.

What — if anything — did you DIY?

I DIYed the flower centerpieces and the notebook table numbers.

What's in your future? Do you have anything fun or special planned?

In our future, we are hoping to save up for our actual honeymoon to Italy. We love to travel and that's on our agenda for right now! Children will definitely be in the talks within the next two years.

 

WEDDING VENDORS:

Photography: Trina Dinnar Photography

Second Photographer: Angela DiPhilippo

DJ: Brian Poulin - Dionne Entertainment

Catering: Pop Shoppe Catering

Florist: Shaws Floral in Auburn, Maine

Hair/Make-up: Ollo Salon

Dress: Maggie Sottero

Shoes: I. Miller

Cake: Bear Brook Bakery

Officiant: Christopher Hopper

 

 

Trina DinnarTrina Dinnar Photography