It's that time of year again—time to submit photos for the 2013 issue of Real Maine Weddings! Oh how time flies. The deadline for submissions this year is FRIDAY, JULY 20. Mark your calendars right now! We're looking for weddings that took place between July 2011 and July 2012.
If you haven’t picked up a copy of our 2012 issue yet, it’s a doozy. At 140 pages, plus a 16-page pull-out planner, it’s our biggest issue to date. And we couldn’t be more thrilled! We added some new content this year and, thanks to our wonderful advertisers, were able to feature more photos by Maine photographers than ever before. More ads mean more pages!
Here is what we are looking for this year:
Wedding Features
We will be publishing 6 wedding features—but one of them will be our 2012 Real Maine Wedding of the Year contest winners. So there are 5 slots to fill. This past year we featured weddings held in Leeds, Stockton Springs, Portland, Freeport, Bethel, and Harpswell. There is a lot of Maine to cover and we try not to cover the same venues two years in a row. Please keep that in mind when choosing your submissions.
We love couples of all ages, sizes, and shapes—so don’t discriminate! We’re looking for ethnic couples, weddings that take place in all four seasons (winter, too!), creative design ideas, touching love stories, and all around beautiful photographs. Please send along a little bit of info about the couple—like where they live, how they met, etc…, it would greatly help us in making sure we have a variety of different weddings in our magazine.
Maine Cakes
We publish photos in three categories for this section: Down by the Seashore, Inspired by Nature, and The Bliss of Blueberries. When submitting images for this section, keep in mind that we only publish photos of cakes made by Maine bakers. We will need the name of the bakery for publication—we like to give credit where credit is due!
Flowers for Your Maine Wedding
We expanded this section this year to rave reviews! We are looking for beautiful and interesting wedding bouquets. Please keep in mind that we only publish photos of bouquets created by Maine florists. We will need the name of the florist for publication.
Trends
What do you see happening at Maine weddings these days? In the past we have featured the following trends: photo booths, boleros, colorful cakes, succulents, Ball jars, feathers, and uplighting. Send us photos of trends you see happening in Maine.
Destination Pages
We always need photos for our destination pages! This is where we really like to feature as many Maine wedding photographers as possible. We need photos for the following towns and areas: Bangor, Bar Harbor, Bethel, Blue Hill Peninsula, Boothbay Harbor, Ellsworth, Freeport, The Kennebunks, Midcoast: Camden & Rockland, Northern Maine, Ogunquit, Portland, and Rangeley Lakes.
Editors’ Picks
This is probably one of my favorite sections—and not because I’m the editor! These photos are stand-alone gorgeous and we try to capture wedding day magic on these pages. Do you have a photo you are particularly proud of? Send it on over!
Cover Shots
I am constantly on the lookout for that perfect cover shot—and it’s not an easy photo to find. We need a photo that leaves room at the top for our title, as well as room on the right hand or left hand side for teaser copy of what’s inside. We pour through hundreds of photos to find the best ones. Please send us any vertical shots you think might work—the larger the file the better as the image has to bleed off the page. It’s a tricky assignment, but it has great results!
The best way to submit your images is to put them on a disc and mail them to us at:
Real Maine Weddings
Melanie Brooks
263 State Street, Suite 1
Bangor, ME 04401
(yes, our address has changed)
Pick out your favorite 30 images that include portraits, candid shots, close ups of the details, and photos that showcase the area.
NOTE TO BRIDES: If you would like us to consider featuring your wedding photos, please ask your wedding photographer to submit them for you. This way, we can be sure to go right to the source if we need a larger image for something. Plus, it assures us that the photos are, indeed, allowed to be published.
You can also send them to me in a zip file via email. The images do not have to be high resolution and RGB jpegs are fine. You can also send me a link to an FTP site, but a link to a blog post has proven to not be very helpful. What I do is I create a folder with your name on it and put all of your images there. That way the other members of our team can quickly pour through them to help make the final decisions.
So many Maine wedding photographers have submitted images over the years, and I sincerely thank you! Without your hard work, dedication, and willingness to share, Real Maine Weddings would not exist. Each year, we grow a little more and expand our reach a little further. This past year I have mailed magazines all over the country, including to Alaska, California, Tennessee, South Carolina, Washington D.C., Chicago, New York, Florida, Arizona, and more. I am so excited to see what 2013 brings….
