PORTLAND, Maine – Alyssa Kavanagh and Nick Planeta have been selected as winners of the 2012 Real Maine Wedding of the Year Contest. As grand prize winners, the Cambridge, Mass. couple has won their wedding, which will be valued at up to $100,000. The announcement was made at the Maine Wedding Association Bridal Show, at the Hilton Garden Inn in Freeport.
Nick grew up in Westwood, Mass., and Alyssa was born and raised in Winslow, Maine. The couple met at Gifford’s Ice Cream in Waterville in 2006. They each attended Colby College and have since made Cambridge, Mass. their home. Portland holds a special place in the couple’s hearts. During Alyssa’s final year at Colby, they met in Portland because it was the halfway point between each other’s homes.
The wedding package includes the services of a wedding planner, a wedding dress, bridesmaid dresses, wedding décor, ceremony and cocktail hour, reception at the Holiday Inn by the Bay, photography by Emilie Inc. Photography, favors, invitations and paper goods, specialty linens, wedding bands, entertainment, videography, rehearsal dinner, spa day retreat, hair and makeup services, bachelor and bachelorette party, boudoir photography, toasting flutes, an officiant, a Maine weekend getaway, and a honeymoon.
The Real Maine Wedding of the Year contest was announced in January. After receiving many entries from across New England, a panel of judges and voting from the general public narrowed the field of finalists down to three. Finalist voting took place for about a week and thousands of votes were cast.
Alyssa and Nick’s wedding will be held on Friday, Nov. 2, with the reception to be held at the Holiday Inn by the Bay in Portland.
Members of the public will be able to vote on various aspects of Alyssa and Nick’s wedding at realmaineweddings.com starting in about a month.
The two other finalists were, Eliza Martin and Andrew Harner of Portland, Maine, and Tammy Nichols and Tim Bailey of Monmouth, Maine.
Let me get this straight; the “real Maine” wedding was won by people who live in Massachusetts? I am aware that the “bride” grew up in Maine. That must mean couples who live in Maine aren’t getting married anymore.
I live in New Brunswick, Canada but visit Maine 5 times a year – I wonder if I could have entered the contest?
Sorry… Your from North of Bangor and as this contest clearly pointed out this year we don’t count. Get the most votes in prelims (couple from Caribou) and don’t make the top 3 anyway. It makes sense though because I’m sure Real “Maine” Weddings wants to cater to their sponsors (All from Southern Maine of course).
I’m with ya on that…….something smells about the outcome.
While this is nice for the couple, it is deflating to see that we have two Colby graduates who could probably afford their own wedding. They live in Cambridge so they must have a few bucks. What about making the award to a Maine couple living in Maine next time ? Perhaps the whole idea was to bring people in from out of state who could afford to drop their money here. Oh well, I wish them lots of luck anyway.
Just because they attended Colby and now live in Cambridge, Mass, does not mean they can afford to pay for their own wedding. Ever hear of student loans? How about entry level pay? I’m sure they were really rolling in the dough when they both worked at Gifford’s. Try not to make presumptions about a person’s way of life the next time you hear of where someone went to college or where they reside.
I’m stunned at the comments people are making here. “Real Maine Wedding” is a contest to give ANY couple the chance to win a Maine-based wedding. The ignorance here is not surprising.
Check out the RENT in Cambridge
Hate to break it to you, but in my experience, a ‘real’ Maine wedding involves beer in a can, macaroni salad, country music and at least one fight.
Have fun getting all those 1099’s from the vendors! Nothing like paying taxes on all those “earnings”
They look pretty happy. I wonder if they will still be smiling when their champagne flutes are filled with Allen’s.
For $100k ….. 2 couples could have won @50k:disqus apiece and have had a marvelous wedding.
That’s one heck of a wedding. I hope they are as happy 10 years from now as they are on their wedding day. Odds don’t seem to be any better with the expensive weddings
Backyard wedding with a justice of the peace or a full-blown churh wedding, at the end of the day you have the very same piece of paper.
Exactly! And you’re still married to the same person.
What a bunch of TROLLS. They won a wedding. You can live in Oregon and enter this contest. It’s national. It’s put on by a magazine called REAL MAINE WEDDINGS. Guess where all the vendors are from? Maine. Guess where the wedding is taking place? MAINE.
GUESS WHERE WE ARE GETTING MORE POSITIVE NEWS COVERAGE?? All points south of Maine.
So what is the problem? People had something awesome happen and you feel the need to point out every negative aspect you can fathom?
Mainer’s, oh how you love to complain when the great happens to the good. We can’t all be from Washington County.
Congrats to the winners…
To set the record straight the contest was open to anyone except Fla., and NY and Puerto Rico. As for the couple from Caribou, that is my daughter Ashley and Brian. BDN covered the voting, we truly appreciated it. They pulled out because the cons outweighed the pros on this and there was mistruths on things that were told to us at the Northern Maine Wedding expo. Ashley and Brian and I her mother then supported Nick and Alyssa because of the amazing cancer story and we met them and they are genuine, sweet, compassionate and amazing couple. We wish them well and only hope in the future that everyone is told the truth and not embellished. That was the bad thing about the contest. The best was the amazing 14,000 votes they got. What amazing support from across the state, the country and our military followers! Thank you from all of us!
I don’t think Ashley and Brian will regret their decision. Starting out is hard enough without a huge tax bill waiting for you. Sponsors sometimes have a way of overinflating the value of things and it’d be hard to sort it all out. Good luck and have a wonderful, long and happy life you two.
What is the matter with some of you people. Can’t you read. She was born in Maine, she lived in Maine practically her entire life up until recently! Just because she moved to Mass. shouldn’t mean she shouldn’t win or deserve it. I had the pleasure of meeting them both and congratulating them after there win! They are a charming couple with a great story and I honestly have never met such nice people who were 100% genuine.
Also wanted to point out to the comment a few above that my mom also left a comment on that I as well was in fact in the running for this contest, I did make top 3. However due to the misrepresentation from Real Maine Wedding and the flat out lies, I felt that even if I could win, or did win that it the whole entire experience would have been tainted from that point on. They lied to get me to enter- it was completely wrong of them to be dishonest at the very start! Which was why I made my decision to pull out and full show my support for this truly amazing/deserving couple. I am so happy to have gotten a chance to meet them, as well as happy for them both and wish them the best of luck!
Ashley, Thank You for clarifying the situation. Many times we of Northern Maine feel slighted by the Feeling of 2 separate states in Maine. I strongly felt you and Brian deserved to be in the top 3 and now that I know you were I must apologize for my earlier comments. I wish You two all the Luck and Love in the future and truly appreciate both of your service to our country.
i propose a new law. first time marriages must spend no more than 100.00 for the ceremony and the reception must be pot-luck. after completing 10 years of marriage, and providing the couple still wants to be together, then a big bridal blow-out can happen. seen too many “daddy’s little princesses” get a coronation style wedding and then the couple live like knaves. the couple should have to earn that big day. when i say earn i mean put in the time in the trenches learning what marriage really is.