Mrs. Tiramisu, Annapolis, MD/Maine
Age and Occupation: 26, Eye Doctor
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Project Manager/Real Estate Management grad student
Engagement Date: May 15, 2007
Wedding Date: July, 2008
Blogging Since: March 4, 2008
Venue: Oceanfront lawn and tent
About Me: I was born and raised in Maine, now living in Annapolis, Maryland and planning a hometown wedding from afar. I’m nothing short of obsessed with wedding planning, and am loving the do-it-yourself madness that has now taken over my life! As for me, I’m a craft-loving, martini-drinking, girly-girl who loves traveling, photography, my schnauzer, and above all, spending time with Mr. Tiramisu.
Where Will The Tiramisus Tie The Knot?
March 5th, 2008 @ 4:05 pm by Mrs. Tiramisu
To get started on the venue search, I turned first to the good old knot.com. Mostly I just get annoyed by the knot’s unhelpful and totally generic advice and outdated “new trends! candy buffets and sparkler sendoff!” tips, but one area that I do think is useful is the local vendors and community sections. Even though I spent my whole life in Maine, there were many beautiful spots that I had never heard of or visited.
Mr. Tiramisu and I had a few requirements when it came to our site:
#1. Must be on/near the ocean or have an ocean view. This was by far the most important to us. So many of our guests are from out of town, and I really wanted to be able to show off the famous rocky Maine coast to them. I was pretty stubborn about this one, and actually refused to visit a few great lakeside recommendations that we were given. I just had to have crashing waves!
#2. Generic hotel ballrooms need not apply. Again, after making people travel so far to our wedding, I really didn’t want to hole them up in a room where they couldn’t tell whether they were in Maine or in the middle of New Jersey (man, why does New Jersey always get such a bad rap? Sorry that was the first non-exciting place to come to mind!).
#3. Must have a wow factor. You know, the je ne sais quoi. Whether it be picture windows, a wrap around porch for the cocktail hour, or grand high ceilings, the things that stuck out to me about the places we visited were the little parts of the venue that I couldn’t wait for my guests to enjoy. It is ridiculous when you start comparing places based on these: “Venue A ceilings vs Venue 2 windows, which do I love more?” Oh the things that come out of your mouth while wedding planning. Insane, I know.
Armed with our trusty GPS and a list of potential wedding hot spots, we hit the road….
The first place that Mr. BP and I visited was in Boothbay Harbor. This town is quintessential Maine. I have great memories of visiting this little seaside town as a child - especially of visiting all the little shops and eating saltwater taffy or homemade ice cream. The first stop was the Spruce Point Inn- oceanside? check! no generic ballroom? check! I was armed with my brand new planning book which had pro/con lists to fill in for all decisions- love this. Here’s what we had to say about our first stop:
Pro: very beautiful and “Maine” town
Con: very long drive to said town (1.5 hours North of my hometown)
Pro: just LOOK at that outdoor ceremony site
Con: very “eh” room for indoor option
Pro: unique all-wood high ceiling ballroom for reception
Con: reception hall about 200 yards from the water = no crashing waves to be heard (I know I’m picky)
The biggest con about the Spruce Point Inn wasn’t discovered until we did our huge and time-consuming spreadsheet a few days later to compare costs of all of the venues we visited (details to come)…. this turned out to be the *most* expensive option that we seriously considered. One of the first things Mr. Tiramisu and I found to be frustrating about the whole budget planning process is how differently places set up their fees. It made it very hard to compare places without a lot of list-making and calculating. Sure $30 a head for dinner sounds great, until you want to charge me $10,000 to rent the room you’re serving us in. We were tricked by this a few times in the early planning stages. Good thing Mr. Tiramisu is so handy with excel- he was able to set us straight right away 
While in Boothbay we also checked out the Linekin Bay Resort, which I’m sure is beautiful, but was closed and all boarded up when we visited in May. We weren’t impressed, but judging by the pictures on the website, it does look great once it’s all uncovered!
to be continued…
10 Responses to “Where Will The Tiramisus Tie The Knot?”
Best of luck with your search!
I grow weary about TheKnot, too. Poorly originized. They just try to be really showy and fancy, but they fail with the real nuts and bolts of the operation.
Also BOO! to the way they over charge you and confuse you about prices at venues.
Just keep it clear, peeps!
I feel you on venue fee setups and how theyre all so different! …thank goodness for trusty old excel spreadsheets! Cant wait to see where youre getting married!
i must admit that i am sick of spreadsheets. i deal with them all day at work and then to have to deal with them at home too (oh who am i kidding….i do wedding spreadsheets at work too) kills me.
Don’t feel bad about knockin’ New Jersey…I swear it must be the Mecca of Cookie-Cutter BigBox Wedding Venues (you know, those big catering halls that seem to crank out dozens of weddings in a weekend). Every NJ Bridal Magazine has pages of ads and lists of them (thankfully I only actually set foot in a few when looking for my own venue!)
Good luck with the venue selection/search!
Maine is the last state I have to visit, and your pictures make me want to check it out. We are actually considering it for a mini-moon…I can’t wait to see the site you have chosen!
Miss Tiramisu! I’m new to this site (of a few days) and was so excited to read your profile when you came on board because I also grew up in Maine and am recently engaged, but presently live in California. I wanted to find a reason to write — and now I have one: I was born in Boothbay Harbor and am planning my wedding there in the summer of 2009! And as an aside — I made the ice cream at that ice cream shop! Haha. Probably when you went there! (We’re the same age). Where in Maine did you grow up? I LOVE my hometown and can’t wait to share it with my fiance and all my guests, so I understand! Did you check out Newagen Inn (http://www.newagenseasideinn.com/) on Southport Island? Also a great option. Except they have you rent out all of the rooms at the inn…but it may be a more affordable option, I haven’t looked in quite some time. I think we’re going to rent a house on the water as our ceremony/reception will be fairly small…but that’s also a good way to go. Okay, I was just so excited to see that you checked out my hometown. Yay! (I think us Mainers just seem to have an affinity for the state we grew up in…I couldn’t imagine my wedding anywhere else!) I look forward to more of your posts!
Hi Courtney!
So exciting to have another Mainer here- thanks for writing! I agree that in general we all have a big obsession with our state- we may be only second to Texans with the home-state love! I just can’t wait to show it off to all of my friends who have never visited. I think that Mr. T and I may have driven up to Newagen Inn to check it out- we did a “drive by” on quite a few so my memory is a little fuzzy, but that does sound familiar. The whole Boothbay area is so beautiful- I had never taken Mr. T there before and he just loved it. Good luck with the planning process and definitely keep me updated!
Great posting. I would invite you to check out our blog at http://www.boothbayharborblog.com for great tips and advice on wedding planning and vacationing in Maine. I used to work at Spruce Point for 10 years but am now at Newagen Seaside Inn. The great thing about Newagen (besides the location) is that you are the only wedding. At Spruce, there could be 2 - 4 over a weekend.
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