Acadia National Park Elopement

This beautiful Acadia National Park Elopement is a testament to how amazing a wedding can be if you focus on what’s truly important to you. Check out Diandra & Adam’s Intimate Maine Wedding Photography to see why!

From the moment Diandra & Adam reached out to me back in the fall of 2020, I knew they were going to have an amazing elopement. They decided to have an intimate wedding in Acadia National Park, with just their immediate family there to witness – but even they didn’t know the full plan for the day! The most important thing to them was that they have fun, and they thought the best way to do this was to avoid creating expectations. They were just happy to follow my lead with three important ideas in mind – having fun, celebrating their elopement with their families, and a big lobster bake dinner.

ACADIA NATIONAL PARK ELOPEMENT | INTIMATE MAINE WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY

Acadia National Park is located on Maine’s Atlantic coast, mostly on Mount Desert Island. It’s known for its rugged terrain where the coast meets the mountains, and you should probably know that, if you choose to elope there, you’ll likely face at least a little bit of wind! Don’t worry though, this makes for spectacular photos (especially if you have a flowing dress!).

Like most National Parks, you’ll likely need to get a permit before your Acadia National Park Elopement. The process is super simple though – just mail in your application with the $50 fee, sign a regulating permit once it’s been accepted, and keep a copy of your permit with you on the day. That said, if you’re planning an intimate wedding or elopement with less than 10 guests, you might not even need a permit! Either way, I’d be more than happy to help you understand this process while we plan your epic day.

Intimate Maine Wedding Photography

For Diandra & Adam’s Intimate Maine Wedding, they really just wanted to have fun and enjoy their day with their families by their side. At the same time, they wanted to make sure they had some quiet moments for themselves to take in this beautiful occasion. They did this by breaking the day up into different parts, which also meant we were able to explore so much of the park together!

After Diandra & Adam got ready at the Acadia Hotel, and Diandra had a really fun first look with her Dad and her brother, we headed off to a secret location. They’d let me know they wanted their first photo location to be a surprise, and so I picked one of my favorite Acadia locations, Schooner Head Overlook. It’s this really beautiful, cliffy spot overlooking the Atlantic Ocean that’s also surrounded with greenery. They shared their vows with each other before we headed over to their ceremony location, where their family and a close friend, their wedding officiant, were waiting.

From there, we spent some time just exploring Acadia. We’d planned to take some portraits on Beech Mountain but the wind that day was insane! Instead, we just played it by ear and stopped at a few different spots I knew along the way. We made the most of the beautiful greenery lining the road and we even stumbled upon a wildflower field filled with lupins which was really special.

Lobster Bake Wedding Dinner

One of the things Diandra really wanted for the day was to celebrate with an authentic Maine dinner. Of course, that could mean only one thing – lobster bake! We called it the lobster bake saga, because with pandemic restrictions constantly changing, we weren’t sure if any of the diners around would be open. Luckily, by June, restrictions had eased and the team at C-Ray’s Lobster Shack in Bar Harbor put together a delicious feast.

Diandra & Adam’s Intimate Maine Wedding is really a testament to making your wedding day your own. They weren’t worried about how things were typically done or lists of dos and don’ts. Instead, they decided what was important to them and focused on that, which made for a truly epic elopement day.