Glidden Point Oyster Farm Wedding in Maine: Tuna on the Dock

Photos by Hattie Mae Photography

Emma and Josh got married at Glidden Point Oyster Farms in Edgecomb, Maine, in August 2025, saying their vows on a working dock over the Damariscotta River. Then, at cocktail hour, a whole tuna showed up by pickup truck.

It was Labor Day weekend, one year to the day after Josh proposed at Higgins Beach, beside the marsh Emma grew up on. The oyster farm isn’t a wedding venue in the usual sense. When the owners floated the idea of hosting them over Labor Day weekend, Emma and Josh hadn’t known that was even possible, and they took the blank slate.

A linen ballgown and an off-white tux jacket

Emma wore an off-white strapless linen ballgown from Willowby by Watters, with a drop basque waist, a corset bodice, a light sheen and a train. Linen made sense for a coastal Labor Day weekend, and the dress was light enough for the weather. She added pearl earrings Josh bought her on one of their yearly trips to the Berkshires, square-toe satin kitten heels and a mid-length veil with a blusher and a lace hem.

Josh matched her in an off-white linen Ralph Lauren tux jacket, black pants and a black bow tie. For the reception and after-party they both changed: Emma into a For Love & Lemons mini with embroidered sequins and an embellished keyhole neckline, Josh into a black suit jacket over an unbuttoned white collared shirt. Emma got ready outside, on the water, with her siblings, including her sister and maid of honor.

Vows on the dock at Glidden Point Oyster Farms

Ten floor vases lined the dock and framed the river, filled with cut flowers and wild blooms gathered around the property. Two days before the wedding, Emma and her dad picked out every stem and drove them up to Boothbay, and friends and family arranged them together at the venue: white and blue hydrangeas, white foxgloves and greenery. Emma’s bouquet and her sister’s came from the Bath Farmers’ Market the morning of the wedding and were finished with satin ribbon while they got ready.

Emma’s siblings made up her wedding party, and Josh stood with his brother and best friends. Josh’s cousin, who is also one of their best friends, married them. They read their own vows, and the father of Josh’s late best friend read a Christian verse. They’d agreed not to see each other until the aisle, and they count locking eyes there as one of the most special moments of the day.

A whole tuna, an oyster boat bar and a rain delay

Cocktail hour looked out over the dock and the river, with white linen cocktail tables and small flower arrangements. Then came Emma’s surprise for Josh: Ralph from Boothbay Harbor Restaurant Group pulled up with an entire tuna in the back of a pickup, wearing fishing waders and carrying a wooden pipe, cut it with a chainsaw and served it in front of everyone. An oyster boat bar kept the raw bar theme going.

Halfway through, the blue sky turned into a downpour. Guests kept eating tuna and oysters through it, and the storm ended with a rainbow. Emma and Josh say the rain only brought them closer: they huddled under an umbrella and ran up the path to the tent laughing.

A reception Emma made by hand

Emma did the venue herself, start to finish: linens, florals, signage, vases, bar and dinner menus, table settings, tent lighting, seating charts, aisle runners and ten seasonal fruit galettes. She hand-stitched each guest’s name into a hemstitched cocktail napkin that worked as a place card and a favor, set beside a ticking-stripe menu on hemstitched linen runners down long natural-wood tables. Antique art, pewter trays, engraved heirloom wine bowls and framed photos lined the way from the reception tent to the water. Her sister, an architecture major, drew up the seating and tent layouts.

Their closest people gave speeches, there was a champagne tower, and after dinner a cigar bar opened with custom matchboxes. Emma and Josh choreographed their own first dance, which they say made planning more fun and took the pressure off having every eye on them. They ended the night with a last dance that pulled every guest onto the floor. If you’re building your own playlist, start with the 20 most requested wedding reception songs.

Their advice

“Do whatever feels right to you; trust your gut, and remember truly nothing else matters but being by your partner’s side on the day of your wedding,” Emma and Josh say. They also planned a night before and a day after with immediate family and close friends to decompress and recap. “The day goes by faster than ever, so every moment you can soak it up really is worth it!”