MARA ELLISON
Bride laughing on a pebble beach as her long veil blows sideways, holding the groom's hand
01 Mara Ellison, photographer, Portland, Maine

Nothing staged. Everything kept.

Documentary photographs of weddings, elopements and the people in them — made quietly, closely, without a shot list.
Check your dateSee the work →
Fr. 01 — Camden, Maine — 14:52
Documentary weddings & portraits

02 A note before the pictures

I don't direct your day. I stand close, stay quiet and keep what was true — the nerves, the vows, your father pretending not to cry. Eleven years, twenty-two weddings a year, and never a shot list.

Mara Ellison, Portland, Maine

03 The work

Four kinds of days.

Every gallery is delivered in the order it happened.
01
Bride and groom kissing as guests throw white petals around them
Weddings
The whole day, unposed
From the flowers in buckets to the last song.
02
A small couple on a rocky ridge in a misty mountain valley under a snowy peak
Elopements
Just the two of you, somewhere wide
A trailhead at dawn, a pebble beach, a field.
03
Mother lifting her laughing toddler into the air under trees
Portraits & families
People as they actually are
Ninety unhurried minutes, mostly talking.
04
Model in a white linen dress by a sea wall, dress and hair blown by the wind
Editorial
The same eye, on assignment
Lookbooks and features for independent labels.
04 Kept, counted
11
Years photographing weddings
22
Weddings a year, never more
800
Finished frames from a full day
6
Weeks to your full gallery
05 One day, in order

Hannah & Sam. Camden, Maine.

A barn wedding, from the first coffee to the last song. Scroll slowly — each frame holds the screen.

Hands sorting wildflowers in zinc buckets on a barn floor in morning light
07:4001 / 05

The flowers are still in buckets.

I arrive before anyone is ready, so nobody performs for the camera later.

Hands fastening the buttons down the open back of a lace wedding dress
11:1502 / 05

Buttons, nerves, a borrowed veil.

Getting ready is where the day's real faces are.

Guests in a timber barn watching the couple exchange vows in the open doorway
14:5203 / 05

The barn doors open. The vows.

I stay at the edge of the aisle and keep the lens long.

A guest in a suit raising his glass during the speeches, people laughing around him
19:1004 / 05

The speeches.

Glasses up, voices shaking. I stay low at the edge of the tables.

Bride and groom slow dancing close under strings of bulb lights at night
23:4805 / 05

The last song. The lights come up.

I leave after the last dance. Your gallery follows in six weeks, in this order.

06 Contact sheet No. 14

Thirty-six frames. The ones I circled.

Every gallery starts like this: the whole roll, read slowly, the keepers marked in red.

Hannah & Sam — Camden — Roll 14 of 31

Tap a frame to see it larger

07 How it works

From first letter to finished gallery.

  1. Write

    Your date or season, the place, a sentence about the two of you.

  2. Talk

    Coffee in the studio on Fore Street, or a video call.

  3. Plan for the light

    Six weeks before, we build the timeline around your venue's best light.

  4. The day

    I stay close and quiet. Nine frames in ten are moments nobody asked for.

  5. The gallery

    Twenty previews within a week. The full gallery in six weeks.

Mara Ellison in a striped shirt by a studio window, a film camera held at her chest
Mara Ellison — Fore Street, Portland
08 Behind the camera

Mara Ellison

Photographer · Portland, Maine
For eleven years I've photographed weddings the way a good friend with a camera would: close enough to catch the small things, far enough away that you forget I'm there. I take on twenty-two weddings a year, plus elopements, families and the occasional editorial story — so every couple gets the whole of my attention.
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09 Kind words
We didn't notice Mara for most of the day, and then the gallery arrived and there was our whole wedding.
Hannah & Sam, Barn wedding, Camden
She planned our elopement around the tide table and a thermos of coffee.
Ruth & Theo, Dawn elopement, Maine coast
I've hated every portrait I've ever had taken. These are the first ones I've been happy to put on a book jacket.
Nora Whitcombe, Author portrait session
10 Collections

Three ways to keep a wedding.

Portrait and family sessions start at $650.

Most chosen

Signature wedding

$6,400
Full-day documentary coverage, from getting ready to the first hour of dancing.
  • Up to 10 hours of coverage
  • Two planning calls and a light-based timeline
  • A second photographer for the ceremony and reception
  • Around 800 finished photographs
  • Engagement session in a place you love
  • Handmade 30-page linen album
Check my date

Intimate wedding

$4,300
Six hours for weddings of up to sixty guests.
Ask about a date

Elopement

$3,200
Up to five hours anywhere in New England, with help on the place and permits.
Plan an elopement
11 Before you write

Questions, answered plainly.

Something I haven't answered? Ask in the form just below.
Most couples book twelve to eighteen months ahead for summer and autumn Saturdays. Weekdays, winter weddings and elopements often have space at shorter notice.
12 Enquiries

Tell me about the day.

Your date or season, the place, roughly how many guests and a sentence about what matters to you. I reply personally.
Studio
48 Fore Street, Studio 3, Portland, ME 04101
Email
hello@maraellison.photo
Phone
(207) 555-0148
Visits
By appointment — second floor, above the framing shop

A couple walking hand in hand down a winding coastal road as sea fog rolls in
13 Now booking 2027

Tell me the date. I'll keep the rest.

Weddings, elopements and portrait sessions across Maine, New England and beyond.
Check your dateSee the collections