Wedding Planner's Puppy-Filled Wedding in Portland, Maine

Christina Padavano (32 and a wedding planner) and Eddie Flaherty (28 and an experiential marketing planner) met while working at L.L.Bean, spent date nights exploring Portland restaurants and got engaged at Oxbow Brewery. “Our relationship grew in this city,” Christina says. The couple thought of their wedding as a chance to show off Portland to their out-of-town guests. They exited their ceremony in an L.L.Bean bootmobile, held their reception in the historic U.S. Custom House, served up local seafood cocktail-style and gave out monogrammed totes as favors.
Christina carried ranunculus, anthurium, protea, sea star ferns and, yes, flannel flowers.
Christina and Eddie entered the U.S. Custom House carrying lab puppies that modeled in the L.L.Bean catalog.
Anthurium-studded arrangements decorated the reception. “We didn’t have a sit-down dinner and the night’s schedule was relatively informal,” Christina says. “We wanted to create areas where guests could interact with the space, like a sangria wall, Polaroid photo booth and a cotton candy maker.” Guests chose from three cakes: confetti, lemon blueberry and chocolate peanut butter with cookies and cream frosting. 
The cheeky sayings on the old-school board changed throughout the day. The newlyweds danced to their favorite song, “You Make it Easy,” by Jason Aldean, which Eddie had playing when he proposed. “We wanted our guests to experience what Portland residents do all the time: epic food,” Christina says. The couple offered lobster rolls and clam chowder, plus pasta Bolognese in honor of Christina’s Italian father.