Monhegan is an island about twelve miles off the coast of Maine, and it’s home to a plethora of artists.  There are no streetlights, and at night if feels like you can touch the stars.  There are no gas stations, so most people walk or ride bicycles to get around.  It’s an amazing place to get away.

When Jenna talked to us about her wedding on the island, we assumed it would be a lot like any other wedding, just in a different location.  I was thrilled to be wrong.  At most weddings, people come and go.  On a nearby island, people can’t leave unless there’s a ferry, and the ferry schedule dictated that anyone coming to the wedding would be staying for the weekend.  A lot like a destination wedding in Aruba or Fiji, but much closer, so everyone came.  Since no one can leave, timing is a lot more casual, and things happen when they happen.

Take a look at this shot:

That’s what the skies looked like at 2:00, when the ceremony was scheduled to begin.  Jenna & Jason decided to push all of their day’s events back by three hours, betting that the weather would clear for them, and when 5:00 rolled around, there was a very different day.

Here’s the sky at 5:

This is an ultrawide shot taken with a 12mm lens on the full frame Canon 1DS II.  There is just no other way to capture an entire scene like this than with that hardware combination, and that’s the only reason I point it out.  Pixel peepers will point out that the videographer is distorted on the left of the image, and indeed that’s true.  Wide angle shots distort at the perimeters, and while that could be pushed back into perspective in photoshop, I think it provides a lot of the visual interest of the image.

The ceremony was held on the lawn of a house on Sea Lane – I’m afraid I never did learn whose house it was.  On the far right, you can see the boat landing and harbor of Monhegan, and the island Manana in back.  In front of the wedding attendees are the officiant on the right, the bride and groom standing in front of the right group of chairs, and singers rejoicing in the front.

Here are a few more images:

Thanks for looking – Will