Andree Kehn Blog

Jen and Sam had a glorious summer wedding day on the coast of Maine at The Black Point Inn last month. I had gotten to know the entire family in the months since they booked; we all met for the first time after Jen and Sam’s engagement session in Portland. All seven of us, myself, Jen and Sam and all four of the parents, sat down for a couple of meetings before the wedding day and by the time I walked in on the wedding day, I felt like an established part of the wedding. Turns out I wasn’t the only one.

This family creates bonds with everyone they come in contact with, and the closeness between the couples moms and dads was obvious from the first moment I met them. A Jewish ceremony has many opportunities for visualizing these bonds, from the signing of the ketubah the night before the ceremony to the hora and the many heartfelt and hilarious toasts.

I am so happy to have met every single person in this family and wedding, and can not wait to see where their lives as a new extended family take them!

Merrill House Wedding – Andover Maine

Maureen and Mike held their wedding at The beautiful Merrill House in Andover, Maine. This mansion is an amazing location for a wedding. It is filled with all sorts of antiques and oddities.

Here’s Maureen figuring out where to place the flags, she and the brides maids were cracking up all day.

Mike got ready elsewhere in the house. This is the living room which has three completely sperate sitting areas and all sorts of large game.

The wedding ceremony itself was held outside on the lawn of the Merrill House, with everyone in attendance circling the group.

A Maine wedding pig roast is always great fun. Mike and Maureen’s wedding was no exception.

And to continure the Made in Maine theme, there was no “cake” but instead several different flavors of Whoopee Pies!

An incredibly vivacious dancing crowd raised the roof! Such a GREAT time! Thank you all for keeping it CRAZY!!

Hog Island Wedding -off of BoothBay Harbor, Maine

Jesse and Charlie got married at the Audubon‘s Todd Wildlife Sanctuary on Hog Island. The island is only available for weddings or special occasions for friends of the organization, but it sounds like there may be more opportunities for weddings in coming years. I couldn’t think of a better place for a wedding. It has a real camp vibe (since it is one) and there are rustic bunks and cabins spread around the small island.

The ladies took over “The Helm” cottage for getting ready preparations, you can tell that they are a very serious group. Jesse and Charlie are both ski patrollers out at Deer Valley, which won them huge points in my book. But when a substantial portion of the guest list hailed from “the canyon”, I was seriously impressed.

Not only did their guests make the trek, but so did their three dogs. Listening to the stories about Jesse, Charlie and their dogs, made it clear that this crew was family and everyone was going to be part of the wedding celebration.

“Our ceremony was pretty special, we knew we were going to have to speak openly to answer a few questions and we wanted to make sure it did not sound rehearsed and that it came from the heart. Looking back we feel really good about what we said and the overall feeling of our vows and ceremony.

“As we finished stating our intentions for coming together our smallest dog made sure to bark her affirmation of the things we said. It was pretty cute and very funny.”

When we took a few minutes after the wedding ceremony to shoot the portraits, we took advantage of the oceanside and the forest. It’s not possible to get too far away from the water no matter where you go on the island; it’s a half-hour stroll to walk the circumference, through a variety of ecosystems.

All of the speeches had everyone in tears.

From the couple: “We both loooove to dance and Jessie had said in the ceremony how she fell in love with Charlie on the dance floor. We slow danced for about two minutes to Tupelo Honey and then had it all planned out with the band to transition into a fun upbeat dance to Sign Sealed Delivered. It went over very well and was so much fun, it definitely got everyone out on the dance floor.” They really danced their brains out, Wavelength Band was bringing the house down!

The scene was slightly different over in the guys condo. My dear friend and fellow Maine photographer Carol Savage was with the guys getting ready and got this great action shot!

We took a drive in a classic antique car over the the artist’s covered bridge in Newry Maine for a first look and portraits of the couple before heading back to the Inn for the ceremony.

They held their ceremony right in the gazebo on the Bethel Common, the officiant, the wonderful Ellie Andrews, talked them through a wine box ceremony, where the couple nails up a bottle of wine in a box to be enjoyed at a future anniversary.

The reception was a riot, lots of crazy crazy dancing as well as some very tender moments.

The band, School Street Band lit the place on fire. Such great music and incredible boogie-ing!

Nothing quite says “good time” like a Mexican wrestler doing the limbo. Am I right?

Thank you so much for such a rocking great time!!

Charlene and Randy had a planned elopment up in Skinner, Maine. Don’t look for it on a map, it is an old timber town that has virtually been reclaimed by Mother Nature, including an old post office and other original town-buildings.

When we spoke on the phone about their wedding I thought they were exaggerating about their plans, or that they would scale back, but after following them a hour down the Gold Brook road (a twin to the Golden Road) for close to an hour and then climbing on one of their fleet of four-wheelers for what ended up being a 45 minute four-wheeling adventure through the forest, I was a believer.

Charlene told me that the funniest part of the wedding day was that I, the photographer, helped her into her dress. I have to admit, I found myself tickled throughout the day.

This amazing quiet waterfall was worth the trek. During the ceremony, I felt like we the only people on earth.

The four wheeler adventure was not a peaceful romp through the woods, there was muddin’ to do and rivers to cross.

This was not actually the smallest wedding I have been to, but it was the most intimate. By the end of the day, I was asking to move in.

Children’s Chapel wedding – Rockport Maine Elopement

Ross and Lauren snuck up to Maine on Ross’s 1966 airplane for a quiet elopement at the Vesper Hill Children’s Chapel. Lauren said”Saying our vows to one another was so special to both of us, and the intimacy of those moments made us so thankful we’d decided to do it our way. We were truly able to live in and enjoy the moment, and focus on one another and the new journey on which we were embarking together. “

Since it was just the three of us (after our officiant, Chris, and our passer-by witnesses left us) we decided to do a multi-stop portrait shoot. Lauren and Ross had been planning a big wedding and then just couldn’t take it anymore. In Lauren’s words “There seemed to be a direct correlation between time spent on wedding blogs and the escalation of my blood pressure, so I tried to avoid that for the most part – we quickly decided to focus on planning a really fun day with just the two of us. ” I can’t tell you how much I love that.

Lauren had a rocking pair of heels, but I just couldn’t resist how adorable she became when she put on a pair of mud boots, perfect for the adventures we had tromping around in the Maine countryside.

We stopped in at Camden’s waterfront to get some shots of the two of them in front of a bank of beautiful boats. In an effort to get them laughing, and not thinking about the camera too much, I started asking them a bunch of off the wall questions about each other. I asked Lauren what the funniest part of the day was, and she reminded me of this moment:

“Andree: ‘If Ross were a food, what kind of food would he be?’ we had a good laugh about that line of questioning later that evening! “

We ended up the shoot at the Owl’s Head Airport, which invariably gets compared to the WINGS airport. We walked right out on the tarmac to Ross’s plane and posed on and around the plane. It was so fun, and the plane really lent itself to amazing images.

Fantabulous Sunday River wedding – Slider’s wedding

Lindsay and Joe held their wedding at Slider’s restaurant at The Jordan Grand, Sunday River in Bethel Maine.

They both got ready right in the hotel, making things very stress-free and relaxed.

The rain held off until the ceremony and then opened up and rained buckets. A little rain on the wedding day is a lucky thing, a lot is really fortuitous. Lindsay says that the rain just made the day more memorable. Here she and her dad are trying to decide if they should go for it or wait a few minutes. I love the wedding coordinator’s facial expression. Pure sympathy!

Once under the tent, Joe’s childhood friend took over the proceedings. Joe and Lindsay are both kind of goofballs (forgive me, L&J, but you know it’s true!) and so when Ryan, the officiant tried to get Joe to say “I Lindsay, take you Joe” Joe deadpanned and Lindsay went into hysterics.

The rain cleared up, as it always seems to in time for some fun portraits around the grounds of the hotel.

And, of course, the guys in the wedding party could not resist taking the happy couple on a joyride on one of the hotel’s luggage carts. It was a quick four second ride, and it left me in giggles for the rest of the day.

You can see the theme of the day was big yuks. It gives me such a chuckle looking through their images!

Wonderful Outdoor wedding – Tenant’s Harbor wedding

Emily and Jose have spent the last year planning their wedding on Emily’s family property, The Villa Fiori, from Australia. Emily is a Maine gal and Jose is from Chile. Emily got ready with a few of her close gal friends. They did not have a traditional bridal party, but the gals all gathered around for the hair and make-up all the same.

Once on the property, the ceremony was held in an amazing structure, it felt like being at the Acropolis all day. A very romantic setting, designed by Emily’s father.

I loved their “guest book”, a puzzle that everyone could sign, even the littlest of guests.

An awesome fireworks display set off for the couple.

It was a wonderful evening and a perfect wedding. When asked if she had any advice for couples getting married, Emily had this to say: “Just enjoy your party! This is probably the only time in your life you will be surrounded by this group of people you love and they are all celebrating you. It is amazing.”

Bar Harbor wedding – outdoor ceremony in Maine

More photos of Michelle and Franks wedding on Facebook click here!

Michelle and Frank had an incredible wedding with perfect weather at The Bar Harbor Inn. Michelle got ready right in the Inn with her sister, her new nieces and her sisters-in law.

Franks sisters were quite the pair, dancing like pterodactyls.

The day started out drizzly, but moments before the ceremony, the rain stopped completely and the good people at The Bar Harbor Inn, coordinated and made sure the ceremony went on as dreamed about; outside.

From Michelle:

“Frank picked me up for part of the final song because my feet hurt (they blistered) – we made sure we danced to every single song at our wedding. We didn’t even sit down to eat our cake; we ate it in our room afterwards.

More photos of Michelle and Franks wedding on Facebook!

Rainy wedding day – Goose Rocks wedding

Meg and Nate had the most outrageous wedding on the beach. What had been planned as a normal beautiful wedding-on-the-beach ceremony took a slight turn with the weather.

Everyone got ready in the same house, Nate was upstairs giving bow-tie lessons while Meg and the ladies got ready downstairs.

The bridal party made use of a farm/rental property near the beach. This pig wandering loose was the perfect touch for these two. Right after their first look, they chatted to each other and to the swine.

A half an hour before the ceremony started, the skies opened up and poured rain. Not to be deterred, we all headed down to the beach to scope out the situation. I later heard back from some of my wedding photographer friends, and their weddings all ran for cover. Wimps! Not this crowd a beach wedding was to be enjoyed, rain or shine!

Exactly on cue, the rains lifted the moment Meg walked down the aisle, the timing was exact. Her bridesmaids and groomsmen walked in a slight drizzle and then it stopped for the entire ceremony.

In a tradition designed to guarantee good weather on the wedding day, Meg and Nate had buried a bottle of bourbon upside down in the sand the week before. The tradition also follows that the newlyweds dig up the bottle and toast to their happy marriage.

In a telling twist of fate, the bottle was dug and dug for but was nowhere to be found. Nate’s cell phone was fetched and the the photos of the bottle going into the ground was compared for micro-landmarks. To no avail.

The party was held at The Kennebunkport Conservation Trust, a gorgeous property near the coast, right in the middle of the woods. Ben, Meg’s brother was on hand for laughs and guffaws. I photographed his wedding to Steph (also with Goose Rocks elements) a couple of years ago.

I asked them if they had anything to say to future couples and they had this to say: “Our advice is don’t do anything you don’t want to do. We weren’t announced, didn’t do a cake-cutting (or even have cake), and skipped certain parts of wedding traditions that seemed superfluous to us. Create a big picture with details that matter, and get a damn good band. Lastly, and most importantly, involve loved ones in every possible step. Sharing this weekend made it the most special for us, and hopefully for our friends and families.”

I couldn’t agree more.