ANSON — Steam billowed out the roof of the sugarhouse at Luce’s Maple Syrup on Sunday as people made their way across a muddy lawn and gathered in front of a large snowbank.

Family, friends and strangers held plastic cups of maple mimosas, made of champagne and maple syrup, and parted a path in the mud as Greta Tillson made her way up the snowbank.

It was a rare twist on the events of Maine Maple Sunday, a statewide day dedicated to promoting Maine’s maple sugarhouses and inviting the public to visit them.

Tillson, wearing flannel and a white apron touting the event, was in minutes about to marry her fiance, Jason Goding, in a ceremony outside the maple sugarhouse her family has run for over 100 years.

On a wood pallet atop the snowbank, Tillson and Goding joined her sister, Meredith Nunn, who officiated the wedding wearing a similar apron and knee-high mud boots.

“Greta and Jason want to thank everyone for coming to celebrate their union and for participating in Maine Maple Sunday,” Nunn said as she welcomed the roughly 130 people gathered outside the sugarhouse.

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String lights and red and orange maple leaves hung in the background, and the smell of fresh maple syrup wafted through the air.

In a ceremony that lasted no more than 20 minutes, the couple exchanged vows and rings that were brought to them by Tillson’s 95-year-old grandmother, Norma Luce, who parked her wheelchair, despite the mud, as close as possible to the snowbank.

The couple took a few photos with their daughters, Gabby Goding and Elliotte MacKenzie, and toasted with the maple mimosas before someone from the crowd yelled, “Alright, back to the sausage!” – a reference to the many meat products the Luce family makes and sells.

Maple syrup making and Maine Maple Sunday have always been a tradition for Tillson’s maternal family, the Luce family.

So her aunt and uncle, Arnold and Elaine Luce, who own Luce’s Maple Syrup and Luce’s Maine Grown Meats said they were not surprised their niece wanted to get married at their sugar shack on Maine Maple Sunday. The day, organized by the Maine Maple Syrup Producers Association, is something they have participated in since the 1980s and that their entire family comes to.


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