Love and Lobster Coastal New England Weddings

Stepping back in time is all the rage for weddings these days, with couples adding vintage details straight out of the 1940s and 50s to their styles and surroundings. But one couple we know reached back even further into history — try 150 years — for unique portraits to capture their special day.

Audra Bayette, a wedding photographer based in Scarborough, Maine, was convinced by her now-husband Matt to have a tintype artist join the couple’s traditional photographer at their December reception, held at Portland’s retro bowling alley Bayside Bowl. At first unsure about the art form — popularized during the Civil War for images of stiff, sullen soldiers — Audra was won over by her sweetie’s enthusiasm. What is marriage if not a compromise, right?

The couple hired the team behind Wearex, a fashion and design team based on Peaks Island, for the shoot. As photographer Cole Caswell explains, the process involves creating an image on a sheet of dark, coated metal (no tin is actually used), which becomes much like a piece of film through a collodion process. Then, following a bath in silver nitrate, the sheet is quickly exposed before it dries. Basically, the negative image of you and your honey appears as a positive image when viewed against the dark surface of the metal. Cole totes along a portable darkroom to location shoots to further process the images after exposure.

He often asks subjects to steady themselves against a wall or other object while posing, since getting a shot can take several minutes. “You’re typically having to stand still for a fair amount of time,” he says, hence those stilted, stone-faced Civil War soldiers. Smiling, however, is allowed, provided you can hold a grin. The grim-looking men and women pictured in tintypes from the 1800s were more worried about giving off the wrong impression, as it turns out. “It was timing and a funny misconception that if you smiled, you potentially looked like a crazy person,” Cole says. Shouldn’t be a problem for some family members, no?

After subjects strike a pose, each image takes another 10 minutes or so to process, so “you don’t want your whole wedding party standing around,” Cole says. Then, the images are ready for viewing — sort of the Civil War era version of a Polaroid — but Cole typically takes another day to wash and prepare the plates. He’s seen the tintypes presented in a variety of ways, from framed and hung to stored in traditional cases to simply leaning against a mantle.

The plates come in three sizes: 2×3 inches, 4×5 inches and 8×10 inches, and digital versions are available for printing and emailing. One caveat (besides the distinctive look of the images, which isn’t for everyone): The process requires daylight, so evening receptions are out.

But, as Cole says, “These are really one-of-a-kind objects.” Perfect for one-of-a-kind weddings.