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A Breathtaking Waterside Same Sex Jewish Wedding at a Private Residence, Kittery, Maine, USA

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Destination Jewish wedding Private Residence, Kittery, Maine USA
Today we have a real treat for you because we have not one, but TWO wonderful brides whose boho-beautiful style you’re totally going to want to steal.

Samantha and Elise had their tented waterside Jewish destination wedding at a private family residence and it was absolutely rub-your-eyes-and-look-again beautiful. The natural scenery provided a spectacular backdrop for the couple’s moving, family-oriented Jewish ceremony – oh, and just how cute are those flower girls?? There’s an awesome story about them which we won’t ruin, but read on, because it will just melt your heart.

Let’s talk about the brides’ breathtaking dresses, from Willowby by Watters and Lillian West respectively – they could not have looked more perfect together, with a relaxed but oh-so-chic feel and lush lace embellishments. Serious bridal style goals!

We’re also head over heels for the foliage-covered birch wood chuppah overlooking the water – what a perfect place to say ‘I do’. Oh, and the rustic-look but clean and contemporary reception dà©cor? Sublime. 

The stunning spread of photographs was provided by Alex and Bett, who captured all the love, joy and big-day details with aplomb. We seriously can’t stop staring!

We’ll hand you over to Samantha and Elise for the full story of their perfect day. Get ready to fall in love with these two! 

Destination Jewish wedding Private Residence, Kittery, Maine USA Destination Jewish wedding Private Residence, Kittery, Maine USA Destination Jewish wedding Private Residence, Kittery, Maine USA Destination Jewish wedding Private Residence, Kittery, Maine USA Destination Jewish wedding Private Residence, Kittery, Maine USA
How we met

Samantha and Elise, the brides: We met online, on OkCupid, before the days of dating apps.
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An Amsale Bride for a Summer Camp-Themed Jewish Wedding at Kamp Kohut, Oxford, Maine, US

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Jewish Wedding Kamp Kohut Oxford Maine USA
Gather round the campfire and get those s’mores on the go, because we have Julie and Greg’s summer camp-themed Jewish wedding to tell you about this sunny Monday morning!

It is fitting that this gorgeous wedding was submitted by videographer Daniel at Latimer Studios, because we’re big enough to admit that the wedding video (below) genuinely made us ugly cry. 

We’ll get to the aesthetics of this very beautiful big day in a moment, but first, what struck us so profoundly about Julie and Greg as a couple was their charm, their intelligence, their sparkling sense of humour and their deep and sincere love for one another. Watching their cinematic wedding film, it’s abundantly evident that they are the real deal and then some. With such articulate loved ones speaking so eloquently about the happy couple, we’re treated to a real insight into their unique and wonderful connection to one another, and we feel privileged to watch.

Julie and Greg planned a fun summer camp theme at Kamp Kohut in Oxford, Maine, which is run by the bride’s parents. The theme juxtaposed the venue’s natural leafy greens, with a pretty pastel color scheme and stunning metallic accents (that CAKE!) and fabulous florals (that CHUPPAH!!). 

The couple described their meaningful Jewish ceremony as a ‘dream ceremony’, which is just a delight to hear. The day was bursting with personal meaning – a prime example of how to do things your way, and make a wedding all about who you are as a couple.

We’ll hand over to beautiful bride, Julie, for her full writeup on the day, along with the fabulous spread of images by photographer, Lara Kimmerer. Enjoy!

Jewish Wedding Kamp Kohut Oxford Maine USA

Jewish Wedding Kamp Kohut Oxford Maine USA_0037

  Jewish Wedding Kamp Kohut Oxford Maine USA_0037
How we met

Julie, the bride: We met on the dating app, Hinge. We both swiped right on each other, and began our conversation. We had three friends in common, so that helped us feel more comfortable.

Our first date was over coffee and sweets at a coffee shop in Los Angeles, and from there we were off to the races. We very quickly knew that we had found our person.

After two months, we were both thinking to ourselves that we would marry this person. After six months, we decided to move in together. We got engaged at a year, and then married a year later. Our officiant was one of our mutual friends from Hinge, Benji Samit.
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A Nicole Miller Bride for a rustic, outdoor Jewish wedding at Shady Lane​ Farm, Maine, USA

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Jewish Wedding Shady Lane​ Farm New Gloucester Maine USA_1871
Wellies on – it’s time for a good, old-fashioned farm wedding. Sophie and Henry’s rustic big day was everything you’d want and more – rustic, natural and simply gorgeous.

New York couple Sophia, a social worker, and Henry, a non-profit professional at a human rights NGO, met at college, on Sophia’s birthday, ten years ago. As it turned out that a boyfriend is for life, not just for birthdays, and, a decade on, the pair made it official!

The couple tied the knot at Shady Lane Farm, a childhood haunt of bride, Sophia. The wedding was adorned with beautiful, laid-back wildflower bouquets, the most woven stunning birch sapling chuppah, with a lovely story behind it and bridesmaids in blush. In fact, the entire wedding was handmade, with friends and family pitching in, in an all-hands-on-deck effort to make everything as beautiful as it turned out to be.

The love and personal details were perfectly reflected in the pictures by A.Fogarty Photography

Stunning Sophia wore a divine lace Nicole Miller dress, with beautifully braided hair – a vision of boho chic. 

Over to Sophia for the full story behind her and Henry’s perfect Jewish farm wedding!

Jewish Wedding Shady Lane​ Farm New Gloucester Maine USA_1790 Jewish Wedding Shady Lane​ Farm New Gloucester Maine USA_1148 Jewish Wedding Shady Lane​ Farm New Gloucester Maine USA_2577
How we met

Sophia, the bride: We met in college, when we were introduced by two of our closest friends, on Sophia’s birthday! This was ten years ago in March.

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A Modern Trousseau Bride for an intimate ‘dinner party-style’ Jewish wedding at Kettle Cove and Five Fifty-Five Bistro, Maine, USA

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Farmhouse-Jewish-wedding-Southern-Maine
Lauren and Aaron met online (they’re actually one of several online dating success stories featured on STG!), and Lauren says she knew by the second date that she wanted to meet Aaron under the chuppah… 😉

…And when it came to deciding how they would celebrate that eventual meeting under the chuppah, they knew they didn’t want a traditional wedding with bridal parties or first dance formalities. All they truly wanted was simply to marry one another with the people they love close by their sides.

I love it when couples make their weddings a representation of who they are and feel free to remove anything that just doesn’t fit them, and Lauren & Aaron’s Big Day is exactly that — a wedding that reflects who they are and what they wanted, which was a truly intimate outdoor ceremony on the water, followed by a small ‘dinner party style’ reception at a local restaurant.

From the farmhouse they rented in Southern Maine that housed their closest friends for a week,to the intimate ceremony on a peninsula jutting out into the foggy Atlantic, and the cosy dinner in downtown Portland, Maine where they could turn in their chairs to talk to anyone in attendance, their entire wedding was an intimate, homely, warm affair.

And since their wedding was held in a public park (Kettle Cove), they knew that they needed a simple chuppah that they could transport, put up, and take down easily. They ended up purchasing four tall birch branches and using Aaron’s tallit for the top of the chuppah. Aaron is great at engineering solutions and mechanical design, so he created a tension-free system using twine, the tallit, and four small hooks in each of the birch branches to create the chuppah of their dreams. Who said Jewish boys are no good at DIY?! (Oh, and if you want to build your own chuppah for your wedding, there’s a lovely tutorial on the blog, right over here).

Lauren and Aaron joke that their wedding theme was a “wedding-themed dinner party.” They knew that they wanted to be able to spend quality time with their families and closest friends, and wanted their ceremony to incorporate the beauty and experience of the outdoors, with a cosy reception with great food where they could spend time appreciating their family and guests.

All the pretty and emotion has been captured perfectly by Sarah V. Martinez. Enjoy!

Farmhouse-Jewish-wedding-Southern-Maine_1
How we met

Lauren, the Bride: Aaron and I met via a dating website and exchanged a few witty emails before meeting in person at a coffee shop called ‘The Thinking Cup’, right off of the Boston Common. After coffee and tea, I asked Aaron if he was hungry, to which he replied “of course,” and we walked through the Common to a pizza shop on Charles St. The rest is history…

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