Maine weddings are no longer strictly for Mainers. Maine weddings have gone outdoors and let’s face it—the average modern couple, whether from the State of Washington or from Washington D.C., would rather be married in a picture-perfect setting. That ‘picture perfect’ setting is no longer considered to be ‘in front of the stained glass window, please’. Photographers can perform miracles when the backdrop is blue waves and white sailboats. Ornamentation is out, simplicity is in, and this applies to everything from the scene setting to the bridal gown to the table settings. Simplicity is not to say that things can be common, in fact, it’s the opposite; everything has to be more beautiful than ever. Wedding dresses in Portland, Augusta and Bangor are reflecting these changes.

The Maine coastline (especially the resorts that offer not only an ocean backdrop, but full catering, full bar, parking lots, golf course, pool, etc. and service for all of these things, plus on-site accommodations for all of these out-of-towners) has seen a dramatic increase in wedding celebrations in which not only the bride and the groom, but all of their guests, are arriving from corners of New England and from across the United States. For these wedding tourists, as well as for the natives, upscale bridal shops in Portland and surrounding areas have entered the scene to cater to all your bridal needs.

Wedding planners at resorts from York to Bar Harbor have recognized the change in their clientele and have begun putting together cosmopolitan weddings complete from the cocktail hour to a fondant enrobed wedding cake. You can even find wedding dresses in Portland that complement such sophisticated weddings. The difference is that the same items will cost three times as much when incorporated by a planner in New York City. To some, the deciding factor on having a Maine wedding is the cost; for the rest of us, it’s all about style. A Maine wedding is simply elegant in its beauty, stunning in its backdrop, and refreshingly modest in style.

Wedding dresses in Portland are also changing. The hometown ‘where everybody knows your name’ bridal shop is being replaced by ‘couture’ designer bridal shops in Portland and surrounding areas. The beauty of it all is that at these designer shops in Maine, where we find custom-made gowns, the ‘everybody knows your name’ approach to customer service still applies. The wedding dresses in Portland, in addition to the bridal shops themselves, are changing; the Maine approach to customer service is not. We all want Parisian style, but hopefully without the cold shoulder ‘welcome’ that could not, in any culture, be considered welcoming.

If you’re planning a wedding in Maine, be sure to check out all that Maine has to offer. Don’t be limited to enjoying the local waterfront after having bought your dress in NYC and having ordered your cake from a pastry chef in California. Take a look around Southern and Downeast Maine, take a good look at the wedding dresses in Portland and in Bangor, and the communities surrounding each. Ask your resort coordinator where their recent clients have bought their dresses. Take a look online (think ‘Amy Curtis Couture’, not ‘David’s Bridal’) and see what Maine has to offer. Searching for wedding dresses, in Portland as in other small cities across America, may not be the obvious choice, but we all know that no American bride of the 21st century is looking for the obvious choice, not in the choice of her gown, of her music, or of her husband-to-be.