April 2018<\/p>\n
By Olivia Gunn Kotsishevskaya<\/p>\n
![\"Acadia-National-Park-Wedding-6\"](\"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Acadia-National-Park-Wedding-6-300x200.jpg\")
When most brides are undergoing primp and care with three or four bridesmaids and an anxious mother pulling, plucking, and combing, Tera Holtz slips into her wedding dress inside a Baxter State Park outhouse. Luckily, \u201cit\u2019s pretty clean and doesn\u2019t smell too bad.\u201d Clearly, this is no blushing bride. She and her groom, Andy, have just hiked the three miles to Chimney Pond with a minister they\u2019ve just met and two photographers to offer proof to friends and family.<\/p>\n
Tera and Andy personify the newlyweds who are out to collect experiences, not just wedding gifts. The Wisconsin couple started their adventure with a cross-country trip with Maine and marriage as the destination. They\u2019d visited here a year before with friends and \u201calways dreamed of making it back,\u201d Tera says. \u201cNeither of us wanted to do the standard wedding. Who needs the frustrations?\u201d Instead, it was time for some fresh air. \u201cWe decided that an elopement was best for us.\u201d For a couple who defines themselves with the outdoors, this ceremony was only natural. Andy did the research, eventually choosing Chimney Pond with the hopes of getting some fishing in during the trip. But there were other logistics to consider. Because the two are from out of state, their officiant had to be either a minister or a judge. \u201cWe\u00a0knew it would have to be someone who\u2019d be willing and able to hike with us, and, well, some priests are a little out of shape!\u201d Tera says. Luckily, one of the wedding planners bumped into a minister at the gym and connected the three. Ben Greene, the fearless pastor at United Baptist in Island Falls, has accompanied the couple on the biggest hike of their lives.<\/p>\n
Cradled by Mt. Katahdin, Maine\u2019s highest mountain, Tera and Andy read their vows in the warm, high winds. Reflections of the mountain range and greenery provide the backdrop a wedding photographer dreams of. The moment is captured by Keith Tharp and Kate Harris, an adventure photography team from Kittery. \u201cThese adventurous couples are often very aware of why they\u2019re getting married and having a wedding\u201d in a geographically astonishing setting, says Keith. \u201cIt\u2019s about coming together with friends and family to celebrate their love very specifically, rather than the idea of a giant party to broadcast their status. They\u2019re in line with the very principle reasons for getting married.\u201d Imagine your reception conducted at the edge of the Universe.<\/p>\n
Such Great Heights<\/strong><\/p>\n Maybe granola on your wedding day isn\u2019t your idea of an adventure and you\u2019ve got your sights set higher. Damn Yankee Balloons in Lewiston hosts hot-air balloon rides for ceremonies, wedding receptions, and engagements. In the 40 years Derald and Joy Young have been in business, they\u2019ve dealt with a fair share of \u201cvery nervous young men.\u201d\u00a0 Though couples have chosen to conduct ceremonies at 3,000 feet, Joy says engagements are more popular. \u201cThere\u2019s so much pressure to come up with a unique proposal,\u201d she says. \u201cWe offer private romantic flights, but shared flights are usually better. You\u2019re with other people\u2013witnesses\u2013and they celebrate with you.\u201d Because hot-air balloon rides schedule around the gusts and caprices of the weather, another option is to have tethered flights. Often couples will take a private flight after the ceremony, then make the balloon available to guests. Now that\u2019s a party favor.<\/p>\n Rivers of Love<\/strong><\/p>\n Marvin Gaye said it best: \u201cAin\u2019t no mountain high enough, ain\u2019t no valley low enough, ain\u2019t no river wide enough\u2026\u201d And Maine\u2019s natural terrain certainly offers endless options for couples willing to hike, fly, or row\u00a0the extra mile. At Three Rivers Whitewater Rafting, April Glidden says couples love to feel the rush of whitewater. \u201cA lot of groups will plan for an entire weekend, arriving Friday for an evening at the restaurant and some karaoke, then waking up on Saturday morning for rafting.\u201d After a full day on the river, Saturday hits a peak with live music around a bonfire.<\/p>\n Plan B<\/strong><\/p>\n Miguel and Erin Reyes-Zaragoza will never forget the beauty and risk of their nuptials. As an experiential prelude to their ceremony on Schoodic Point, they climbed Otter Cliffs at Acadia National Park, the same place they met years before on a spring-break trip. \u201cClimbing was how we got close as a couple,\u201d says Miguel. \u201cI even proposed on top of a mountain in Colorado.\u201d Erin had her dress \u201cspecifically tailored for a climbing harness.\u201d But, when a mountain biking accident left Miguel with a dislocated elbow, plans changed. Even though the groom was willing to go through with the climb, as a med student he thought it best to practice what he preached. The two settled on a 45-minute hike along Beehive Trail, which offers gorgeous views of the Atlantic. For the ceremony, they stood still amid the majesty of a natural amphitheater at Schoodic Point, surrounded by their friends and family.<\/p>\n Though Miguel and Erin\u2019s original itinerary didn\u2019t pan out exactly as they\u2019d wanted, the two were able to maintain a version of the dream. It\u2019s a risk any couple wanting to go off the beaten path for their wedding has to be willing to take. \u201cWhat is any adventure with certainty?\u201d Miguel says. So long as you\u2019re willing to go hand in hand, from storm to storm and world to world, you\u2019ll find that one of the greatest adventures of all starts with \u201cI do.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" April 2018
\nSpirited couples, kick off your wedding with a jolt of adrenaline. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14723,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[220],"class_list":["post-14722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","tag-april-2018"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14722"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14722\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14726,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14722\/revisions\/14726"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}