Love and Lobster Coastal New England Weddings

8.20.11 Allison and Matt

How We Met
Allison and Matt met in 1994, but remained just friends for ten of those seventeen years. Their paths continued to cross in Colorado, Cape Cod and Boston. However one night, brimming with confidence, Matt saw an opportunity to take this friendship to another level. Apparently he had misread the situation.

It was bad.

Witnesses claimed it was the worst public humiliation they had ever seen. Crash and burn. Denied. Summarily rejected.

Over the next several months, based on unsubstantiated optimism, Matt continued to pursue Allison. Some may call it stalking, while others would classify it as persistence, but eventually Allison acquiesced and agreed to a first date.

Which brings us to the first date. By all accounts, the cliched Halloween night in Salem was going well. After taking ghost tours, visiting pumpkin patches and haunted houses the young couple decided to have a romantic dinner on the waterfront. The conversation had a nice flow. There weren’t any awkward pauses. She was laughing at the right moments. He was listening intently and asking appropriate questions. Even the waitstaff and fellow patrons seated in close proximity seemed to be rooting for the underdog. And that’s when Allison informed Matt of her plans to go on “8 Minute Dating” the following Wednesday. She would meet several men in eight minute intervals, she informed him, and could choose the man with whom she had the best chemistry at the end of the evening.

Being a man, Matt didn’t want to tip his hand so soon in the relationship, or relinquish his final shred of dignity. So he calmly put down his napkin, cleared his throat and looked Allison directly in the eye—and begged her not to go.

She didn’t.

Long Island, Maine

Allison’s first memories of Long Island are from her early childhood, growing up with her brother, Aaron, and older sister, Meredith, in Portland, Maine. Allison’s grandmother, Polly Cushing Clough, spent many summers on the island, one of six islands in Portland Harbor served by the Casco Bay Lines ferries. The entire island was once owned by one of Polly’s ancestors, Ezekiel Cushing, who purchased it in 1732, willing the island to his children when he died in 1765.

Polly, her parents, and her four sisters and four brothers, spent many summers on the island, staying in a one room schoolhouse with blankets hung from the rafters to make bedrooms. As children, Polly remembers going to the back door of her grandfather’s hotel, the Casco Bay House, to get a freshly baked muffin. The Casco Bay House was one of several huge hotels built on the island during the late 1800s, when thousands of summer visitors came by boat to get away from the summer heat in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia.

Allison, Aaron and Meredith spent many summer days on the island with their mom and grandmother, swimming in the cold surf, building sand castles and playing with their cousins. Every July, they join lots of Cushing descendants in a family reunion, which brings more than 100 relatives from across the country.

In 1998, Allison’s mom, Paula, was visiting cousins on the island when she learned that a small summer cottage at the East End was for sale. She jumped at the chance to own a small piece of this special place, and the rest, as they say, is history. In what is certainly a “meant to be” scenario, Paula learned the day she bought the cottage, that the person who first bought the building was Hannah Cushing, who, she later learned, was her sixth cousin.

The little cottage, at 1106 Island Avenue, was built around the year 1905 to serve as the Mariner Post Office. Paula has a photocopy of an old post card of the building hanging in her cottage. The 22 by 22 foot building was originally located at one of the island’s notable sites, a sharp curve at the bottom of a hill, appropriately named “The Wicked Corner.” When the post office closed, probably in the 1920s, it was moved by two oxen to its present location, about a mile away. A kitchen and bathroom was added, and the cottage has remained essentially the same since that time.  When Paula bought the cottage, the original mail slot was still in place on the porch.

Now Meredith, Allison and Matt, Aaron and his wife Rachel, and their two year old son, Ronan, have their own place to gather on the island every summer. Aaron and Rachel were married on the island, in front of Paula’s cottage, in 2008.

Allison’s wish to be married on this very special island, came true this summer when family and friends gathered at the Drake’s, also located at the East End, just a short distance from Paula’s cottage, to celebrate Matt and Allison’s wedding.

Photography:  Erin Kate Photography
Ceremony/Reception:  Drake’s Cottage, Long Island, ME
Bride’s Gown:  Filene’s Running of the Brides
Hair/Makeup:  Julie Donovan, Beauty on the Beach, Portland, ME
Groom’s Attire:  Tommy Hilfiger
Caterer:  Sam’s Great Northern Lobster Bakes
Invitations:  Handmade by Bride & Groom
Flowers:  Sawyer & Company Flowers
Cake:  Barbara Johnson
DJ:  Mike Falco, Camco Productions