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Erin and Michael met on match.com and became pen pals, writing to each other while living miles apart in two different worlds—Michael in Manhattan and Erin in an old Airstream on her parents’ property on a dirt road in Freedom. “We had both been married before and broken by divorce,” says Erin. A month after falling in love over the phone and through letters, they met for the first time over dinner in Portland. “We never looked back,” says Michael. They bought an old farmhouse in Freedom and began building a life together. Four years later as they sat in front of their stone fireplace on a quiet Sunday evening after dinner, Michael asked Erin to marry him.

“We just wanted to binge on oysters and ice cream with our boys and dance barefoot in the barn with our best friends.”

ERIN

Their wedding on August 24, 2018 was relaxed and freeform, a simple, backyard ceremony followed by a casual, colorful, late-summer feast self-catered by Erin—the chef and owner of the Lost Kitchen in Freedom—and friends. “We wanted to get married at home on a Friday afternoon with our chickens running wild and free around the yard while we sipped champagne and binged on oysters followed by hot fudge sundaes,” says Erin. Her 16-year-old son, Jaim, walked her down the aisle to the ceremony in their barn, where she and Michael said the vows they wrote themselves in front of Michael’s closest friend, Rev. Shawn Amos. Afterwards, guests gathered around picnic tables in the yard for the wedding feast.

“For us, happiness is breathing new life into old things so there was really no other place to get married than at home…in the barn at our 200-year-old, simple, work-in-progress, Maine farmhouse surrounded by family, friends, and fried clam deliciousness.”

MICHAEL

Second Chances

The Menu
Wooden tables set out on the lawn held John’s River oysters on the half shell, cheeses, charcuterie, bread, and pickles, served on vintage china. Guests also dined on fried Maine clams with frites and coleslaw, served in wooden berry baskets; heirloom tomato salads with mozzarella, basil, and marigolds; and tiny lettuce head salads. Uproot Pie Company’s mobile pizza oven offered a variety of wood-fired pies. In lieu of a cake, there were peach galettes from Tinder Hearth Bakery in Brooksville, and Erin’s Airstream was turned into a dairy bar serving hot fudge sundaes. Drinks included gin and tonics with cucumber and blackberries, nectarine and basil lemonade with Cold River Vodka, Lanson Champagne, and wine from the Corbières region in southern France.

Friends & Family
Erin and Michael enlisted friends and family to create a deeply personal celebration. Michael’s dad painted the postcard wedding invitations, which were calligraphed by the couple’s friend, Nancy Buckley. “We had friends help us build out our barn and perennial gardens, and friends helped us build the tables and benches from wood that came from our friend’s land,” says Erin. “Friends grew our flowers, made our rings, sewed our napkins, shucked the oysters, fried the clams, and foraged for ferns and moss in the woods.”

Drinks: Cold River Vodka; Lanson Champagne

Flowers: Belladonna Floral

Gown: Laure de Sagazan

Music: Soulbenders

Officiant: The Reverend Shawn Amos (Michael’s closest friend)

Peach Galettes: Tinder Hearth

Pizza: Uproot Pie Company

Stationery: Hand-painted postcard by Michael’s dad, calligraphy by friend Nancy Buckley

Photographer: Wylde Photography

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