Alice & Sam’s Wedding in Maine & Big Dinner Party in the Woods

Alice and Sam married in August at Oceanwood Event Center barn in Birch Harbor, Downeast Maine, in the USA. Both of their families have long ties to this part of the coast, and they wanted to bring everyone together somewhere that already meant a great deal to them.

The couple planned the day around a single idea, which they called their ‘big dinner party in the woods’. Nearly everything was borrowed, thrifted or made by someone who loves them, from the plates that came out of family cabinets to the tablecloths cut from canvas drop cloths.

The couple chose photographer, Alyssa Soucy to document their special day in a beautiful mix of 35mm film and digital imagery – we also happen to be very delighted and proud to recommend Alyssa through our supplier directory. Alyssa is based in Maine and works largely on film.

Alice wore a micro-pleated gown by Nadia Manjarrez, a Mexican designer whose atelier employs female heads of households. She discovered her dress at Wander Atelier in New Jersey.

Salt Farm Flowers designed the beautiful ceremony arbour and the bouquets alongside providing the couple with buckets of freshly cut flowers, so that their families could arrange the rest themselves.

Other sweet touches included a chorus of family and friends singing Alice down the aisle, a marriage contract signed by every guest in the room and a dessert table brought by the guests in place of a traditional wedding cake. This is such a charming wedding full of human connection and authentic moments – enjoy!

We were married at Oceanwood Event Center in Birch Harbor, Maine. We both have strong family ties to and love spending time in Downeast Maine. When we met, we learned that only a body of water, Frenchman’s Bay, had separated us for most of our lives. Because of this, we knew that this part of Maine was where we wanted to get married.

Mallory Morehouse of Downeast Pours was our wedding coordinator. She also provided partial planning services leading up to the wedding.

We felt strongly about not having a colour scheme or a stringent aesthetic and let design decisions unfold pretty naturally. I read a piece of advice somewhere that said to find inspiration in non-wedding things like restaurants, museums, and nature, and really took that to heart. For us, some of those things included love birds, blueberries, and mismatched table settings.

My mom is an incredible thrifter, as is her lifelong best friend and next-door neighbour in Maine, so their collections of furniture, art, and home goods were also a big source of inspiration and widely incorporated into our day. I remember thinking, I really hope all of this comes together to form a cohesive vision and I think, for the most part, it did!

That all being said, more important to us than specific aesthetic choices was involving members of our community. Our decisions were guided by the goal of having a wedding where our guests felt deeply included, comfortable, and celebrated.

Both of my parents walked me to the top of the aisle, and I walked the rest of the way to the altar by myself. Being “given away” didn’t feel like the right choice for me. At the same time, it was important to me to honour my parents, whom I love dearly and who play a big role in my life. To me, having them walk me partway was symbolic of both their support and my own independence. Sam’s parents also walked him down the aisle.

I walked down the aisle to “Harvest Moon” by Neil Young, sung by a chorus of our loved ones, with two of my uncles on drums and guitar and a dear family friend conducting the group.

The idea for this came up over dinner at my sister’s house. We were all talking about song choices for the wedding. I don’t remember who said it, but someone suggested that the song be sung by a chorus. The more we talked about it, the dreamier it sounded, and the more we wanted to know if it was possible.

Fortunately, one of our family friends is a talented pianist. He met with my dad, who plays the guitar, and my aunt and uncle, who were part of a capella groups in college and are known among the family for their musical talent. Together, they discussed what an arrangement would look like, and our friend put it together.c

We then began reaching out to other family and friends who we knew loved to sing and play music to ask if they wanted to participate. All of them said yes (we’ve got amazing families and amazing friends). They were from all different parts of our lives, and ranged in age from 16 to 80 years old.

They had two rehearsals on the day before the wedding, which my dad was kind enough to coordinate. Our family friend who arranged the song also conducted the chorus on the big day. This was on top of playing the piano when our families and Sam walked down the aisle and during our cocktail hour!

The result of all of this hard work and talent was everything we imagined that night at dinner and more. It’s difficult to describe how it felt to have all of those voices coming together during that moment, but it’s safe to say that the chorus was probably one of the most magical things that has ever happened to us.

Now, when we hear the song, it reminds us of how special it was to have that group of people connect and for their voices to fill the woods.

When it came to choosing who would officiate our wedding, having people who we both knew well and whose views on love and partnership we admire was so, so important. This is in large part why we selected our two officiants – one of our close friends and one of Sam’s grandmothers, Esther, who is ninety years old.

Our friend presided over the ceremony, giving a speech that grounded us, as well as our guests, and emceeing the proceedings. Sam’s grandmother then took over for another speech and performed the actual ceremony. Both of them were incredibly thoughtful and took time to meet with us ahead of the wedding to discuss what we envisioned and what they wanted to bring to the ceremony. The words they shared were beautifully delivered and felt true to them and us. Their roles in the ceremony are part of what made it all so special.

It’s difficult to describe how it felt to have all of those voices coming together during that moment, but it’s safe to say that the chorus was probably one of the most magical things that has ever happened to us.

Sam is Jewish, and we were inspired by the tradition of seven blessings, so we chose seven groups of/individual family members and friends to give blessings at the ceremony.

We focused each blessing on a value that was important to us: joy and celebration, family, hope, nature, partnership, community, and love. We then assigned each blessing to loved ones who we felt embodied or could speak to that value.

We gave them all the option of having us write the blessing for them or writing it themselves, and they all chose to write their own. Each blessing was unique, wise, and moving. For us, it was a really meaningful way to incorporate our loved ones into the ceremony.

We wrote our own vows and honestly didn’t set too many parameters. One thing we did and would recommend to others is to check each other’s word count beforehand to make sure they’re roughly the same length.

In addition to the remarks and blessings shared above, my father, who plays the guitar, and my cousin, who has a beautiful voice, performed “I’ve Just Seen a Face” by the Beatles. This is something I had long envisioned being part of our day, and it was just as beautiful as I imagined it would be. Practically, I also think that having a musical element in the middle of the ceremony helped break up the speaking elements and made things more dynamic.

Our rings were made and engraved by our friend and talented jeweler Claire Rogers. Claire is incredibly knowledgeable and helped us bring what we wanted – a low-profile, but wider band that was flush to our fingers – to life. Something we love about our rings is that they are exactly the same.

Inspired by Sam’s parents and their wedding, we had a marriage contract that incorporated Quaker and Jewish traditions. In Quaker tradition, the community is the authority that serves as witness to the wedding, not the state. In the Jewish tradition, couples sign a wedding contract called a Ketubah.

Our family friend, Lupe Najar, is a talented artist and created our contract as a gift to us. We drafted the language, and Sam’s mom wrote it onto the contract. There is a section at the top detailing our commitment to one another, where we signed, and then another section detailing our loved ones’ commitment to support us. Every guest was asked to sign it and serve as a witness. Now it hangs on our wall and reminds us of what we promised each other and our community’s support of our partnership.

We met in college and have been together for a decade. Sam proposed to me over Labor Day Weekend in 2023 on Block Island in Rhode Island. It happened on the beach around sunset, and we spent the rest of the weekend celebrating with family and friends!

Looking back, I’m very grateful that we took time shortly after our engagement to talk through what we wanted our wedding to look like and why.

Those conversations helped ground us throughout the planning process. One of the things that we agreed on right away was that we wanted a long engagement. We wanted the time and space to enjoy that phase of our lives and to plan the wedding thoughtfully.

Sam wore a black linen ‘Alta’ suit from Alex Crane and black leather slippers from Sabah. We also worked with Alex Crane to get suits for the best man, our fathers, Alice’s brother-in-law, and some of Sam’s closest friends. He loved working with Aaron Smith there, who was really helpful. He also wore a small gold bolo tie/lariat necklace purchased from an Etsy seller.

Our marquee and tent lighting came from Wallace Events and with a tremendous amount of help from our loved ones, we borrowed, thrifted, or made most of our decor. Much of what was used in our wedding came from the homes and collections of my mom and her lifelong friend and neighbour in Maine.

This included the rugs that lined the aisle, the chairs and benches for the ceremony, the vintage tablecloths for cocktail hour, and more.

My mom had the great idea to make tablecloths out of canvas drop cloths, which were the perfect colour and texture for the rustic look we were after. We loved that some guests took them home to be repurposed in future DIY projects. We even ate Thanksgiving dinner on one of the tablecloths this year. Every dinner plate we used was vintage, most of which came from our family’s cabinets, but some of which we thrifted specifically for the event. We served dinner family-style on silver-plate dishes that our family friend found at an estate sale.

We got access to the site two days before the wedding, and we had an incredible group of family members and friends who came to help us place and set the tables. Meanwhile, another group worked to clear and arrange the ceremony site. It took a village, but we made so many fun memories getting ready for the big day.

Our family friend, Lupe Najar, is a talented artist and indulged me by creating two lovebirds that we suspended from the ceiling of the tent over the dance floor. These were probably the most fun, impactful pieces of decor at the wedding!

I love to make art and to craft, so DIY-ing decor was really fun for me. I sewed two large, gingham signs and painted the words “Wedding” and “Party” on them for the ceremony and reception. I used the same gingham fabric and paint to make table numbers and for our seating chart, which my mom and our family friend helped me make. I also sewed (again, with help from family, because there were a lot of them) pennant banners that we hung in the barn.

There were two bathrooms at the venue, which we supplemented with porta-potties. My sister decorated them with vintage hand towels, throw rugs, and other accessories so that they felt a bit more elevated.

We tackled all of the stationary ourselves, with the help of our families. For our save-the-dates, we bought vintage Maine postcards from eBay and stamped them with a custom stamp we ordered from Casey’s Rubber Stamps in New York City. We had a really great time picking which postcard went to each guest.

Our invitations and menus were inspired by Andy Warhol’s satirical cookbook, Wild Raspberries. Warhol published the book in 1959, and when we came across it, we were instantly drawn to its fanciful, colorful aesthetic. We especially loved the calligraphy, which Warhol’s mother, Julia Warhola, did.

Fortunately for us, like Warhol, Sam has a talented mother who created our invitations in the style of Wild Raspberries. She was even able to imitate Warhol’s mother’s font! We carried the Wild Raspberries theme and imagery throughout the day in programs, signs, and menus, which Sam’s mom also did the calligraphy for and illustrated.

Our caterer is no longer in business. However, we had wonderful food the night before at our welcome party from “Lunch on the Wharf” in Corea, Maine. Everything they made was delicious, and they were a dream to work with.

Instead of a cake, we opted for a potluck-style dessert table. Neither of us is the biggest cake fan, and this option felt consistent with the dinner party, community-oriented feel we were going for. We didn’t know it at the time, but this approach (a cookie table) is actually a tradition common in Pennsylvania, which is where most of Sam’s family is from.

We asked guests that we knew would have fun contributing to bring desserts, and our immediate families also made several pies. We are very fortunate to have such enthusiastic and culinarily-talented family and friends!

We chose Salt Farm Flowers as our florist. In addition to their beautiful portfolio, we selected them because they offered both full-service and DIY florals. They designed and created the arbor we got married under, the bouquets, the boutonnieres and corsages, and several large arrangements for the tables. Our family friend found vintage, silverplate vessels at an estate sale, and Salt Farm enthusiastically agreed to use them, which we really appreciated.

We also purchased buckets of flowers from Salt Farm to make additional arrangements ourselves, which we added to with dahlias from my grandmother’s garden. My mom and her friend both have robust vintage bottle collections that we borrowed from for this, in addition to thrifting a few ourselves!. The process of arranging flowers with our loved ones before the wedding was creative, collective, and brought people together from different parts of our lives who had never met before, which made us so happy!

We had a live, 11-piece band called The Right Track They were incredible, and the dance floor was packed the entire wedding! We were really grateful that they learned a bunch of new songs for us and that they let my dad sit in and play a song on the guitar with them. Their team also did our ceremony sound. This was no small feat, as we were right by the ocean and there were a number of speakers and musical elements, but it all sounded crystal clear. We especially loved that they hung a small microphone from the arbor, so nobody had to wear or hold a microphone at the altar.

Our first dance was to “Sweet Thing” by Van Morrison, performed in the style of Hozier, who released a cover of the song. The band graciously learned this version. We listened to “Sweet Thing” quite a bit when we first started dating and have consistently returned to it, so it was a no-brainer for us.

From Alice: My favourite part of the day was walking down the aisle towards Sam. I remember being really, unexpectedly nervous when I began walking towards the aisle with my parents. When I reached the top of the aisle and saw Sam standing at the altar, my energy shifted. I was so calm and so, so happy. For me, that set the tone for the whole ceremony and the rest of the night. I was more present that day than I think I’ve ever been.

From Sam: My favorite part was being with Alice right before we walked down the aisle, and peeking out and seeing everyone gathered in our favorite (tiny and hard to get to) place in Maine. It was a clarifying moment when I could step back and remember why we chose each other, how lucky I was to have found this person I get to be with for the rest of my life, and why we spent all the time, money, and effort to have a big wedding.

At a certain point in your wedding weekend, you’re going to have to let go. Trust that you have planned all that you need to, that your loved ones are there to support you, and feel the joy as it comes.

There is a lot of noise out there about what weddings should be (and a lot of highly edited wedding content that people planning weddings are exposed to). It can be overwhelming. Ask yourselves what you really want the day to feel like, what feels true to you, and go from there.

Everyone says the morning of the wedding goes by fast, and they’re right. I would have built in more time, particularly between having everyone’s hair and makeup done and putting the dress on, and also between putting the dress on and having to depart to meet Sam before the ceremony.

This sounds like a no-brainer, but remember that you will need to have breakfast and lunch throughout your wedding weekend. We ended up handling this last-minute, which wasn’t a big deal (shout out to our friends for bringing us lunch), but in retrospect, I would have planned that out ahead of time.

It is important to us to share how much support we received from our loved ones in creating and executing the vision for our wedding.

We are so lucky to have such a multi-talented, generous support system that was not only willing to travel all the way to Downeast Maine but to roll up their sleeves and help. There’s definitely a pervasive narrative out there that weddings should look effortless. In our experience, the effort, which reflected love and community and hard work, is what made our wedding so magical.

We used Zola for our registry because it was included with building our wedding website. Our registry was eclectic and largely made up of links to other, smaller stores.

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