Maine Weddings #177

Valerie Kyros:

When we write again, commit words to paper. They're there for a long time and being able to express our gratitude or our joy or the charm of celebration graciously in writing is really important.

Kate Seremeth:

You know, when people open the magazine, I hope that even before they read the article that there's depth there and that they they see that there's more of a story and kind of a bigger purpose behind every magazine and every issue, every story that we do.

Kelly Clinton:

For me, being engaged and seeing that you have so many different options when it comes to having your wedding, from venues to caterers, it was really great to see all these real weddings that we have because we have 26 real weddings in the magazine. And so then you can pull different ideas from that and it made the whole process less overwhelming.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

This is Dr. Lisa Belisle, and you are listening to Love Maine radio show number 177, Maine Weddings, airing for the first time on Sunday, February 1, 2015. Home to Valentine's Day, February has become known as a month for lovers. With that in mind, Maine Magazine offers its wedding issue this time each year featuring 26 real weddings and a wealth of inspiration for those who are planning

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

a special day in the Pine Tree State.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Today we speak with Valerie Kairos, stationer and owner of Papier Floriste in Portland, who has years of experience in the area of weddings. We also speak with Kate Saramuth, Maine Magazine art director, and Kelly Clinton, Maine Magazine managing editor, about the enjoyment that they have derived from bringing the wedding issue to life. Thank you for joining us.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Here on Love Maine Radio. We understand how important occasions can be and how important it is to celebrate life in whatever form that it takes.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Our guest today, Valerie Kairos, also understands

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

this, she is the owner of Papier en Florist, a stationery store and florist

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

in Portland, and an individual who helps

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

people celebrate special occasions in their lives, including weddings, which is one of the reasons we have her in today to talk to us. Thanks for coming in, Valerie.

Valerie Kyros:

Thank you for having me.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Valerie, you told me when I bought the store, I didn't just buy a store, I became a stationer.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I want to hear more about that.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I think this is something that in this day and age of digital and electronic and sort of non tangible things, to have a very tangible thing that you are offering to people is important.

Valerie Kyros:

It is very important. From an occasion invitation, whether it's your wedding invitation, to your personal stationery that you write a thank you note on to your business card. We actually are in the business of to some degree branding, whether it's the event, the person or the business. And we do it on fine paper with different print processes and the tone and the texture of that, as well as the proper etiquette. And there are still rules. We kind of live in a digital world where a lot of the old rules seem to have gone away, but we try very hard to keep social norms and a high expectation of social graciousness. And that's my job as an expert, as a stationer.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Tell me how you got to be where you are now. You're not originally from Maine, is that right?

Valerie Kyros:

Grew up in the Washington, D.C. area, married a Mainer who had a busy business and traveled. And when our oldest child was about 18 months old, we said, you know, if you have to travel, we can live anywhere. And decided to move home to Maine for him. And then it became my home too. So we ended up here about 18 years ago. And the way we kind of got involved in the store is we were a customer. The store is one of the oldest retail stores. It's one of the only stores that's changed hands multiple times. And each owner feels a real protectiveness to protect the integrity of the store. So my husband and I, it was actually our dream to buy it as a retirement business when we first started shopping in the store. So that's kind of how I ended up there many years later through twists and turns.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

It used to be called Papier Gourmet. Yes, not so long ago. Why the change?

Valerie Kyros:

When I bought the store, we really wanted to update it to make it a little bit more relevant. We also, during the holidays would get calls for Stilton cheese and food. And it was just a little complicated. So we decided to become a little bit more concise. We also sell things other than paper, but they have a relevance to paper. So if it's a gift, we make sure that it's packaged in a beautiful paper or box. But it was a time to just put my mark on it and rebrand it with a new vision for where we are now in society.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

There is something about paper that I think many people find very appealing. I know those of us who write journals or send cards or send, or hopefully most of us send thank you notes. There's something about touching a thick cardstock piece of paper or something about taking a fine pen and writing on a page that's so different than just typing out an email. As great as that technology is.

Valerie Kyros:

That's true. And there's actually research that we're using a different part of our brain. So when we're connected digitally and we're using our fingers to digitally put things in our phone, it doesn't commit to memory the same way that the graphomotor skills of actually writing. So in fact, people come in all the time who say, I know I'm the last person who is using a paper calendar, but I literally can't remember my life. And the reason they can't remember their life is that by digitally entering things, you have to use your visual memory to remember your life versus the graph of motor skills that it takes that goes into your memory in a different place. So not only for your organizing your personal life, but you also put your energy into what you're writing by hand, whether it's that thank you note. I also often say we get young gentlemen who come in who say I need a piece of paper because I want to write a love letter because a love text isn't going to stick around. And when they want to declare themselves, they need help and they, they want a piece of paper and a nice pen and they want to write a letter. And so there's something to the hand to the paper from the brain that allows us to unplug from our digital world.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

There's also something nice about being able to actually keep the things that we receive that are written. I've had invitations to my brothers and sisters weddings. I've had notes from patients, I've had notes from my children. I mean, these are things that you can have as opposed to something digital which you can find it on your hard drive. But it's not the same kind of spirit that's infused it, I think.

Valerie Kyros:

No, it is. And I worry that we are no longer going to have scrapbooks that it's fun to look back to grandmothers or great grandmother's scrapbooks, and that if we don't write and keep ticket stubs and do things like that, as well as a stationer going back to that. I'm involved in every milestone in people's lives. I do birth announcements, we do christening invitations, bar and bat mitzvah weddings. But also my job is to sit with a widow when she's lost her husband or a widower and do the proper acknowledgments and things like that. So it's a way these are historical documents for your life, for your family, and that the tactile ability to keep and put them away in that box and have generations go back and try to have an insight into our life. I don't think that's going to happen with texts and emails. So I feel it's just very important and it's part of the mission of the story to be there and be available to provide the materials to keep that. I call it a gracious life.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

It's interesting that you're talking about being with people at the time of their milestones. And I would imagine that that's also a time of heightened emotions on people's part and something that as it's not for you, simply just a sales situation, a sales position, you're really acting. I don't know, someone who helps them communicate things in a way that perhaps they wouldn't have been able to access otherwise.

Valerie Kyros:

Yes. And I sit with them as a confidant, as a friend, and they trust me to give them the right advice of how's the best way to communicate what we're trying to communicate and help them be the rational piece when they're in that emotional state and we work as partners and I help them make the decisions by working through that. If it's particular, I mean, the joy of a new baby or the frenzy of a wedding and making sure I keep them grounded in decisions that are authentically them. We are putting either the person, the event, the couple on a piece of paper and the font, the color of it, the color of the paper is an embodiment of either the person or the event. In weddings, I often ask brides. I try to ask brides what color their dress is and if their dress is a sparkly, bright, crisp white. Nine times out of 10, they're going to pick a bright white paper. And if they're in a creamy, ivory soft color, I know they're going to be in an ivory Paper, because that's them. We're trying to make a picture with the words, the colors, the texture of the paper that's authentically them. That's my job.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I think recently somebody wrote an article, and I can't recall where this was, but discussing sort of the fact that all of the pictures of our children are now going to be flawless. So the pictures that I take of my 14 year old, they could all be altered, whereas the pictures that I took of my now 21 year old, those were the hard copy. And what you got was what you got. The interesting thing about paper is that even though there is usually a consistency to it, there is that possibility of flaw. And there's something about that that makes it more precious. I think it is.

Valerie Kyros:

We actually go through a rigorous proofing process. One of the things that people, when they come in brides or couples is, and particularly young people sorely underestimate is the amount of time because we are creating a historical document and we want it to be perfect. It takes time to choose to pick the right paper, to pick the right font, and then to take the wording and do it, present it. And when they see it, it may not be what they had in their mind. I have to try to figure out what they're imagining in their mind. And the proofing process can five or six rounds, and each of those can take a week. So if they're coming in saying, I'm getting, I want to send my invitations out in three weeks, it's really hard for me to provide that as perfect because if there's a mistake, it's wrong. So that's a huge responsibility for us and it's a partnership with them. But yes, you're right, there may be flaws in the paper or the textures of the paper, but what we're always trying to do is get the words for there to be no mistakes. And that, that is a process and it's part of the creative process. And then the proofing process, it's like a magazine or a book. If it's printed and that mistake's there, that mistake's there.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, and it sounds like you're very careful about making sure that whatever can be controlled can be controlled. And then if it just happens to be, I don't know, a card stock with, and I don't know enough about anything paper to be able to say anything. But I'm thinking about the little ridges that sometimes come up or a little nubbin that kind of pokes its way to the surface, but it's just part of the beauty of the card itself. It doesn't come out as a flaw so much.

Valerie Kyros:

No, it's the beauty of the texture and the tone and the texture of paper and it being something real. In letterpress printing, particularly because of the way that the ink soaks into the paper, you can look at three different pieces and the tone of the color will be different because of the print process. In engraving or thermography, you can have a little extra piece of ink that could be on there that might be out of place, but it's still part of the piece. So as though we're trying to get to perfect in wording and there's still character that each piece isn't necessarily perfect. We make a lot of things in house where we do layered papers and we do all that work by hand and we try as hard as we can to make all, to center them and do all that, but they're not all perfect, but they've been handmade for the people that we care about and our clients. And most people accept that as part of the. Part of the beauty of it is that not every border is exactly perfect, but it's within. But it shows that it's been handcrafted.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

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Dr. Lisa Belisle:

it must be interesting in particular to work with wedding announcements, because you're taking two people who have very different or may have very different views of life or of their wedding and trying to come up with some kind of design that works for both of them. Maybe one person doesn't really care as much about the invitation, or maybe both people care a lot about the invitation. And to try to kind of bring that all together, because it is, in a way, almost the opening salvo. It's the here's the wedding, here's the thing that the.

Valerie Kyros:

The guests see. It's very interesting. Oftentimes a couple will come in and she may have done Pinterest and looked at a ton of things, and he hasn't looked at all. It could be the opposite, too, but it's more likely to be that. And my process is I make them look at a lot of things to educate their eye together without me there, so that they have the opportunity to say freely, I like this, I don't like this. And it can be a discovery process. They might not realize how far apart they are stylistically. And then that's my job to try to find a middle ground. In wedding invitations particularly, my goal are three things. One is when their family and their friends open the invitation, that from the moment they look at it, I've captured them as a couple. And the people say, oh, that's so them. Two, that it also then captures the bride and groom's or the couple's vision of their wedding and the party afterwards, so that the guests know what to expect. And that includes social cues to what to wear. All of those things are in the language as well as in the tone and the texture. How formal, how informal is going to give people a vision of what they. They're going to. And then my third thing is I always say to them, you know, once they settle on a couple of choices, this is a historical document. I want you to look at it in 20 years and be as happy and let it trigger your mind to recall all those great memories. So if they're looking at something that's extremely trendy, but I don't perceive them as being really trendy, I'm going to question that in them because I want to make sure that they're not unhappy. It would be like the bride in the 80s, you know, Super Diana dress who, you know, and had to have it because it was in. And 20 years later goes, oh, my God, I can't believe I look like that. So we try to. Those are my three goals with any couple, is that it's authentically them, it previews the event, and that it stays that historical document that in 20 years they feel is still that important piece, again saying, this is our commitment. My last thing is brides and grooms and couples and men and women come in and they can be often very, very focused on the party. But the invitation is actually to the ceremony. And most of the times it's a religious event. And I try to ground them back into that. They're getting married and then they're having a big party afterward, because it really is the marriage and then the big party.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, that's interesting because people could look

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

at the invitation as just kind of more of a superficial thing that goes along with more of a superficial party. But what you're saying is it's a very solid, tangible indication of sort of the gravity.

Valerie Kyros:

If it's a religious service, it's a sacrament we're representing. And the invitation is to a very sacred event. And sometimes they haven't really thought of it like that, so it gives them a new perspective.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I like the word that you use, graciousness. This idea that. I mean, life does seem to move very quickly. We're going from one thing to the next. And maybe, I mean, the word mindful is used a lot these days, but this sense of, I don't know, graciousness, gentility. I don't want to use the word formality, but just that there is some heft to just being alive and doing things like having a baby or getting married. And there is some celebration of that. Of that heft, I guess.

Valerie Kyros:

Yes. And there's. When you say graciousness, it's also, I think, included in that is gratitude that when we write again, commit words to paper, they're there for a long time. And being able to express our gratitude or our joy or the tone of celebration graciously in writing is really important. I get, you know, Evites all the time. And what I know about myself with email is if it drops below my screen, I don't remember it. But if I can put it up on board in front of my desk, the event to me takes on more importance. It's part of my consciousness or the note or whatever it is. It is again, that tangible Digital can feel very intangible, and we need more tangible in our lives.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I think you also have become a florist, and that's relatively new.

Valerie Kyros:

It's relatively new. We started it in April. We were lucky to hire a known floral designer who had owned a successful business actually across the street from us for four years, had sold the business and then the business closed and he had been around and I actually hired him to work in the store, thinking he'd worked with brides and I could teach him paper. And then I realized how talented he was and went, you know, there's a real intersection here. And again, flowers are something we give for milestone events. If someone has a baby, has been in the hospital, it's for funerals, for what? You know, and in weddings. So it's. It's another expression. It's a very alive expression of graciousness. So it's been a great addition to the store and it's been a great way, I think, to add beauty and thoughtfulness to people's lives and that the people who come in and buy flowers or something for someone else, or sending them or bringing them home, it's a bit of, again, slowing down, enjoying something visible, enjoying something tangible. So it's been. It's added so much dimension to the store.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I love the idea of flowers having some deeper meaning. I think, going back to Victorian times, if you sent a certain color rose, it meant one thing, or if you sent violet, since, it meant another. And there's something about that that just really appeals to me, the same way that picking up a journal and having the right paper to write on appeals to me. I can't really explain why, but I think there is something that touches me and probably many people, emotionally and probably in other ways. Is this something that when people come in to talk about their flowers, is this something that you ever get into or you ever.

Valerie Kyros:

I think James has a good sense of some of that historical meaning, particularly in weddings. I mean, there are current social connotations to different flowers and different colors of flowers and yellow roses versus red roses. A red rose is a very romantic, sexy thing. A yellow rose is a softer, more friendly. It has a different connotation. So, yes, when we're taking orders or we're talking, we are talking about who's at for what's the context. We do a lot of corporate flowers. We do flowers weekly in people's offices. And something that a husband's going to send to his wife for his birthday may be a very different feeling arrangement than something we put in someone's office every week. So yeah, there's again tone and texture and the connotation of the colors and the different flowers is very still prevalent in the way we view flowers today.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, I'm very excited to go visit your store again, having been there a few times already and to see now the floriste part of Papier and Floriste, and I encourage other people to come find your store. How can our listeners learn more about the work that you're doing?

Valerie Kyros:

We're located on Free Street. You can see us at our website, which is papiermain.com It's a great vision into what you can find in the store. We have kept away from E commerce and all of that because our goal is to bring you in and interact with you and have a relationship with you. So we would love you to come and stop in.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, I will be there. I'll be stopping in. I'm sure that many people, after hearing our conversation, will also stop in. It's been a pleasure to speak with you Today. We've been talking with Valerie Kairos, who

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

is the owner of Papier and Floriste, a stationery store and florist in Portland.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Thanks so much.

Valerie Kyros:

Thank you.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

As a physician and small business owner,

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I rely on Marcy Booth from Booth,

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Maine to help me with my own business and to help me live my own life fully. Here are a few thoughts from Marcy.

[Unidentified voice]:

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Kate Seremeth:

Booth.

[Unidentified voice]:

Let's talk about the changes you need. Boothmaine.com

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Here on lovemaine Radio, we have the opportunity to work closely with the individuals who make Maine Magazine possible. Today. We have in the studio two individuals who work very hard on Maine Magazine every month. And I work very closely with each of them, and I count them both as friends and very fortunate to have them as co workers. We have with us Kate Sarameth, who is the art director of Maine Magazine, and Kelly Clinton, who is the managing

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

editor of Maine Magazine.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And we're going to talk today about

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

the February wedding issue. So thanks so much for coming in and talking with me.

Kelly Clinton:

Thanks for having us.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

The wedding issue every year is so beautiful. I mean, it just, it makes you, it makes you want to get married if you're not already married or even if you're already married, you want to go back and do it again.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I mean, the visuals are stunning and

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

the examples of how people have chosen to begin their lives together.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

This must be kind of, it must

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

be an interesting experience for the two of you because you both are at different stages of this.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Kate, you just got married last summer,

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

and Kelly, you just got engaged. So how has this been for you to work on this as individuals?

Kate Seremeth:

For me, it's been really good because I've been designing the issue for two or three years. So before I even got engaged, I had just kind of a plethora of ideas in my head from doing this issue. So before being engaged, I guess for me, it was a good way to collect information. And then, of course, being, you know, planning a wedding, I got to utilize all of it.

Kelly Clinton:

So that was great for me, being engaged and seeing that you have so many different options when it comes to having your wedding, from venues to caterers. It was really great to see all these real weddings that we have because we have 26 real weddings in the magazine. And so then you can pull different ideas from that. And it made the whole process less overwhelming. And I especially in terms of a list, we collected a bunch of different venues that are all around the state. So we had venues from the Barnett Flanagan's Table, which is in the woods, a little set off, but just right outside of Portland, and then Spruce Point Inn, which is in Booth Bay and it's on the coast. And so just different variety of venues that you can look at. And so when I was looking at different venues, it was really helpful to do that research.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So we have the a list that

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

you've talked about and what else can

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

people who are going to read the

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

magazine expect to find our managing editor

Kate Seremeth:

for Old Port magazine, which is a sister magazine, put together gender Rose is her name, put together a really great lineup called the New Nautical. And nautical is a theme, especially in Maine, that you see a lot. But she put kind of a new chic twist on it. So it features, I think there's about 14 or so products that she goes through and lists where to find them locally. So that's really cool.

Kelly Clinton:

And then we also have, as I mentioned, 26 real weddings. And every wedding is from different places all around the state. So you have a coastal wedding, you have a woodsy wedding, you have just everyone who decided to have their wedding in one location. And then they really made it their own. And so it goes into details about what they use, what made their wedding unique, and, you know, what was their main focus. We had one couple who the bride, she really wanted to have her tent feel warm and it was on the water and it was kind of like a cooler day. And so she talked about her use of lighting within the tent and how she used event light pros. And then we had another couple who it was really important to them that their ceremony was private. And so they just had immediate family at the ceremony. And actually even during the ceremony they stopped and took a moment and they took pictures of each other and they took pictures of people at the wedding. So just it was, you know, that was really nice to kind of get everyone sort of looked at their day and looked at their wedding and made what made it personal to them. And everyone was completely different from another.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You must have had the opportunity to

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

speak with people who had just gotten married to talk to them about their special day. What were some of the things that stood out? What types of things did people tell you that maybe surprised you or interested you or those types of things?

Kelly Clinton:

One wedding in particular that was really interesting to all of us when we saw it, because what happens is the photographers submit the weddings and then we all sort of sit down and we choose which weddings are unique and different that we think will provide the reader with the most inspiration for that year. And one wedding we came across, it was a couple who they got married up in the mid coast. And the bride, she was Indian and her parents were Indian and the groom was from Maine. And I'm not sure where his family was from, but so they ended up having two different weddings in one day. And so in the morning, I don't know if you want to chime in too, because I know you know them, but in the Morning they had the Indian wedding where the groom rides on a horse through the streets of.

Kate Seremeth:

Through downtown Camden. Camden or Rockport?

Kelly Clinton:

Yeah, Camden. And they went to Union hall and they had this sit down ceremony. And then later in the day they went to Cellar Door Winery and they had a traditional American wedding, I guess you could call it. And so it was just kind of really neat that they were able to blend both of their cultures and backgrounds into this one special day for them. And what an experience for the guests who are there because a lot of people wore two different outfits.

Kate Seremeth:

I think another thing that stands out is all these couples, not all of them live in Maine. They have some tie to Maine. Like they either vacationed here as a couple or maybe they summered here when they were kids, or they live here. But there's always something drawing them back to Maine. I mean, Maine is just such a great venue for a wedding. You know, whether it's the woods or the sea or just a small farmhouse or in a barn, there's so many different options. So that was interesting to me to just, you know, people, almost all of them said, it's our special place. So that was really cool.

Kelly Clinton:

Some who, maybe they went to school here or, you know, they used to come here as a kid. That's exactly what it was. They all had something nice to say about Maine. There was one couple who maintained they came, they're from Texas, and Maine wasn't really a special place to them. They had been there once, visited quickly, but their family is from all over the world. And so when they looked at a map, Maine was in the center and they thought Maine. And so they ended up choosing Chebeak Island Inn as their venue. And everyone came together in Maine. And she just said it was really amazing to have everybody on the island and sort of together in this. Everyone was experiencing this new place together.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So we've talked about the importance of the venue, the place where the wedding is actually held, the ceremony and the reception, and we've talked about why people

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

would choose Maine in general. What are some of the other important elements?

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I'm thinking flowers, I'm thinking food. What are some of the other things that come up as themes?

Kate Seremeth:

Jewelry is a big one. There's so many local artists around here. That is great. I think also, you know, the different. The experience of the wedding, you know, it's not. You're not finding a lot of like classic. You just show up at a, you know, venue, have the wedding and you're done. There's like multiple destinations. Sometimes which is really cool. Or they would arrive by boat. Or you know how it's like this expression of their love and showing their favorite people in the world a really great main experience. So that's, that's pretty cool. And to that point, Inspiration Weddings is another thing that we feature that we should probably mention, where three different designers and photographers group together to really showcase kind of more wild ideas that, that brides can kind of pull from to formulate ideas. And that's a really cool part of the magazine. It's just really blue sky. Thinking of how you, you can make your day different in Maine.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, tell me about those. Tell me about the inspiration weddings.

Kate Seremeth:

Yeah. So there were the three photographers that we worked with. We got a bunch of submissions, but we usually only pick three every year so that we can kind of blow them out a bit in the magazine, make them a little larger. But we worked on one with Audra Photography and Amber Small was the designer of Sweetest Things Weddings. Do you want to talk about that one?

Kelly Clinton:

Sure. And they, what they do is they set up their own wedding and what they think it should look like. And it really allows you to get so much inspiration from it and makes you feel like you can do it yourself kind of a thing. And the designers really lay it out for you. And they do such a great job. And for this one in particular, they set up a wedding with long farm tables on a piece of land in Cape Elizabeth, a private land trust. So it could really be anywhere in the woods or someone's backyard. And it really felt like a backyard wedding. And they had, they had simple table settings and what they did for food is they had food trucks pull up Fire and co was one. And they do like gourmet style pizza and giant salads. And so what guests would do is it would be buffet style and you would go up and sort of pick up, pick what you want on your plate. And so that was really interesting. And then also their tablescapes or how they set up their tables was very simple. They picked flowers from sort of around the area and put them into different jars and things along the table. So everything was really simple.

Kate Seremeth:

Yeah. And a fun just point in general about the inspiration shoots. There's three separate ones. And what's really neat is that each photographer kind of pulls on their own resources. So they maybe go to a caterer that they had seen used in a wedding they had worked on, that they really identified with and then go to a designer that really resonates with them and flowers. So they're pulling from their pool of resources that are close to them. So that always makes for a really beautiful photo shoot.

Kelly Clinton:

And that's something that as I'm planning a wedding and as people who are planning a wedding in Maine might look at this magazine, the resources that we pull together, there are so many different companies and just great people that you can pull from to either be your caterer or your cake. And so that's always in the back of the book. And just going through that is just so useful and helpful.

Kate Seremeth:

Yeah, it really is a resource guide for anyone planning a wedding.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Now, Kate, you've worked on this for four years. What are some of the trends that you've noticed?

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I'm knowing that barns for a while have been big and summer camps were big for a while. I don't know. Tell me.

Kate Seremeth:

Yeah, a couple years ago, I mean, it was a lot about barns. Barns were just sprouting up as a venue all over the place. And, you know, nautical always has a presence in the issues. But I feel like there are a little less barn weddings, which there still were some, but more focus kind of on this new take of nautical, which is interesting because we did that story with Jen DeRose on, you know, the more chic kind of nautical style. But I would say it's kind of going back that way and a lot more private residences that are bringing in a lot of different vendors to their own home. And then venues like their Cellar Door Winery, which was a great one. There's still camps that I see. So it's pretty spread out really, but people are getting really creative with where they have their wedding.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

That's an interesting thing because, you know, in the past we've thought about church people, wedding reception hall, but it does seem as though people are more willing to go outside the standard locations to do things.

Kate Seremeth:

And there are still church weddings for sure. But I definitely agree there's. There's less of them or you know, it's maybe just the beginning portion of the wedding. But definitely a lot of outdoor weddings. A lot of these venues have, you know, beautiful like barn on Walnut Hill has a really gorgeous sort of spiritual setting off in the woods a little bit. That looks gorgeous. So they're setting up sort of church like, you know, outdoor environments, which is really nice.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So there's still a spiritual element to

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

many of these places that people are choosing to get married.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

What about the types of couples that you're featuring?

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

It's not just 26 year old male females, it's older people. It's lots of different, you know, people who are in second marriages. Is this a conscious decision on your part, or are you just choosing the best. The best wedding?

Kate Seremeth:

I feel like we're choosing. It's interesting when we choose the weddings because we're not just picking one wedding, we're picking 26. So they really have to kind of visually tell a larger story. It's kind of like the biggest jigsaw puzzle ever in our magazine world here. But I'd say there's a bit of a conscious effort just because where we live and we're lucky to have all the freedom to do for all of those weddings to happen. And, yeah, they run the gamut, but I wouldn't say no. We don't really narrow it down in that way. It's just. It's really visually how it kind of lays out. And naturally, the vibe of those different weddings comes together as a more beautiful whole than just picking ones that are all really similar.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So now both of you made a conscious decision to live and work in Maine yourselves.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Kelly, you actually are from Massachusetts. Kate, you're from Maine. So you left. Went to Savannah College of Art and Design.

Kate Seremeth:

Yeah. And then, yeah, it was all over for, I guess, 12 years before I moved back.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So why.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Why. Why did you choose to come back? And, Kelly, why did you choose to come here in the first place?

Kate Seremeth:

I'd been trying to get back here, actually, for a long time, and just different jobs took me kind of all over the country, so I was enjoying that part of travel. And I knew growing up in Maine, when I was in high school, I kind of knew that I wanted to get away, to experience more. So I lived in New York City and Austin, Texas, and all over the place. But I guess my mission was really always to get back. And so I found myself in a position where I was able to do that. And I feel really lucky for me,

Kelly Clinton:

what brought me here is definitely Maine magazine. What I came up here for was the job. But before that, I was living with my boyfriend in Massachusetts, and we were sort of thinking we wanted to live somewhere else, and we were kind of looking. We love New England, so we were looking at just different places in New England. And Portland was on our radar just because it was. It seemed like this growing city that, like, you could go into and be a part of, you know, this place that's developing and growing. And we kind of wanted. We were new, both kind of young in our careers, and so we wanted to be a part of a place that would have companies and place in a scene that was sort of thriving.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So do you think that people who are choosing to be married in Maine

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

are also almost buying into the way that quote unquote, life should be, that there is some vibe about Maine that

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

even if they only come here to

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

get married and then they leave again, that really resonates with them?

Kate Seremeth:

Yeah, definitely. I mean, a huge part of why I moved here is from that kind of. It's like the ideal lifestyle. It's kind of living a dream, you know, getting to be at work and then run down and get to go on a boat and be out in Casco Bay. And there's this feeling that comes along with Maine that I think people really want to attach to their wedding day because it's sort of this dreamlike, idyllic lifestyle that we're lucky enough to live every day. But for some people, I think, you know, they want that really special day to be in a really special place that resonates with them. So, yeah, for sure.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

so in creating the magazine, Kate, you've been doing this now for four years and Kelly, you've been the managing editor for three months. Three months.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

What is the general feeling that you

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

would like to evoke? What's your intention and not just of the wedding issue, but of Maine magazine in general?

Kate Seremeth:

Yeah, Maine magazine in general. For me, it's very visual. A lot of visual things transfer to me emotionally and, and come with a lot of intention. And for me, when I design the issue, I always try to make sure it's very real. And we work with a huge, talented, you know, actually A limited pool we don't really pull from. We have a very special group of photographers that we work with that are just amazing at telling this story. And their photography just speaks volumes. So, you know, when people open the magazine, I hope that even before they read the article, that there's depth there and that they see that there's more of a story and kind of a bigger purpose behind every magazine and every issue, Every story that we do. And the wedding issue wasn't an exception at all. I mean, there's a reason that we choose to kind of blow out some of the photography to be larger, to really get in there and showcase some of this beautiful work and hopefully show them the energy of that day and that special wedding.

Kelly Clinton:

And then on the storytelling side, in terms of the writing, we also have amazing writers who we work with who go in and really get the whole story behind something. So in one issue, we might have. We have a profile which tells the story of a person and maybe an entrepreneur and how they got to where they are. And on that same issue, we also explore the food scene in Maine and really talk about restaurant owners and their background and how they choose to run their place. And so. And then we also like to tell a story about a location. We have a Peter Frank Edwards is the photographer and Sandy Lang is the writer, and they are such a great team that they. They go out to these, Whether remote or just popular destinations, and they really capture the beauty of the place, both in the photos and in the writing. So I guess we try to just tell different stories from all around the state.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

In Ishishu, what types of things are

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

you noticing out in the communities? What types of things are people excited about and are sharing with you as you're out meeting people?

Kelly Clinton:

For me, being in Portland and in Maine in general, the food scene is definitely something that is always growing. And there are new restaurants popping up, and it's. People are always. Everyone wants to get into the new place right when it opens, or if there's a new company that started, what are they doing and what are they doing differently? And why did they start in Maine and how is it. How is it working in Maine, especially as a. Maybe as a startup? And so that is definitely related to the food issue, which we cover a lot of different restaurants and a lot of people who work in the food industry in general. And the food issue is the March issue, which is the one we're working on right now. And so in that issue, we profile Kate McAleer from Bixby Co. And she created. She started her company in New York, but decided to move it to Maine when her parents decided to retire here. And they started this organic chocolate bar. I guess a lot of chocolate bars are made with the actual, not real cocoa. And so she started this company where, you know, they make actual real chocolate bars. And she sells them in Whole Foods and different health food stores. So that's one profile. We talked to her about how she got started and where that passion kind of came from. And then we also go to Lolita, which is in Portland. It's a newish restaurant this year, and it's up on Munjoy Hill. And we talked to Guy and Stella Hernandez, who, while running their restaurant and also a coffee shop, they're raising their son Antonio, and what's that like? And what has he learned? And sitting at a table, maybe coloring in the corner, but he's also watching what his parents are doing. And so that story is really kind of interesting, too. And then we also touch on different distilleries in the area.

Kate Seremeth:

Yeah, I just, I think going back to your, you know, kind of what's going on in the scene of Maine here, and. And we always, of course, touch on everything that comes into our view that's going on in Maine, but something that's been evident for several years, and I think it's sort of summed up in a nutshell of the food scene that might even be why you segued to that, but is that there's so much inspiration here. It's almost like, you know, a trend that we've seen is a lot of people moving from New York City up to Maine. And New York City, we always think of as, you know, they have the newest of the new and the best food and the greatest shows and all of this, the music scene. And to me, it seems like Maine and Portland specifically, but Maine in general is sort of this, like, just as concentrated but smaller kind of version of that, except that we're surrounded by the ocean and we're surrounded by hiking, and we kind of have it all. And so I think people are intrigued by it in the same kind of way that they want to come here to have their wedding. It's that same sort of energy that's attracting people and hopefully attracting readers because we're, you know, we're covering all of that information as it comes in, in an artistic way. So,

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Kate, you talked about the ecosystem

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

of the Maine media collective, Maine Magazine, Old Port Maine Home Design. Describe that for me.

Kate Seremeth:

Yeah, well, our company is special in that it's not just one magazine. We have and chime in here because we have a lot of things that we do. But you know, we have three magazines. We have Art Collector Main, which is a new venue for artists. We have, of course, this radio show, Kenny Brainport Festival, the Brand Company Portland Food and Wine Festival. So we're always growing. And I think again, it just goes back to that energy which we like to call an ecosystem, which is really kind of created on all of these connections that we have, you know, by relationships that we've formed here in Maine or from people that have come from away to Maine. Maine really attracts talented person and someone that has a lot of passion for life and no matter what they do. And a lot of our relationships are connected by those people. So that ecosystem that we've developed allows us to be kind of, you know, get the newest story or know about the newest food thing cropping up or so that's kind of how that ecosystem.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Kelly, I would be remiss if I did not mention that you've been a producer for the radio show for the past year plus and you've had the opportunity to work on just news in a very different way. And I guess it's not even.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

It's lifestyle wellness in a very different way. How do these two roles complement each

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

other and how do they contrast? What is it like being the managing editor of Maine Magazine and also the producer for Love Maine Radio?

Kelly Clinton:

It's really great actually to be able to talk to somebody before they come in to either the radio show or before a writer goes and interviews them for a story for the magazine, because I get to sort of pre interview them almost and see what things that they might want to share, what they might not want to share. And so when we go and we interview them for the magazine, we. You can only really tell so much of a person's life. And whatever the article is, we're only touching on a portion of who they are. And so with the radio show, if we can also have them come in and then they can be interviewed, you can hear what they sound like, you can hear how they describe things and they become even more real than they are in the story. And then they get to even add on additional pieces of their story and who they are, they really work together really well because you can expand on a topic and really kind of get to know a person.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, I appreciate you both coming in and talking to me today. I know that you're generally more behind the scenes, so to come on and be interviewed is a very different thing. And you both did a great job. Remind us of the Maine Magazine website where people can read the February issue. The wedding issue.

Kate Seremeth:

Yep, it's themainmag.com and thanks for thanks

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

for doing such a great job with the work that I've sent in as a writer for the magazines. Kate, you do an amazing job laying things out and coordinating the photography. And Kelly, you're my editor, so you do a great job helping me sort of wordsmith. And both of you have been so supportive of the radio show and I agree it's a great ecosystem for us all to be working within. We're very fortunate. We've been speaking with Kate Sarameth, who is the art director for Maine Magazine, and Kelly Clinton, who is the managing editor for Maine Magazine and also the producer for the I Love Maine Radio Show. Thanks for coming in.

Kate Seremeth:

Thank you for having us.

Kelly Clinton:

Thank you.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You've been listening to Love Maine radio show number 177, Maine Weddings. Our guests have included Valerie Kairos, Kate Sarameth and Kelly Clinton. Love Maine Radio is downloadable for free on itunes.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

For a preview of each week's show,

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Follow me on Twitter and see my running travel, food and wellness photos as bountiful1 on Instagram. We love to hear from you, so please let us know what you think of lovemain Radio. We welcome your suggestions for future shows. Also let our sponsors know that you have heard about them here. We are privileged that they enable us to bring Lovemain radio to you each week. This is Dr. Lisa Belisle. I hope that you have enjoyed our Maine Wedding Show. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your day. May you have a bountiful life.