Oh Bugger!

We're getting married in late July. Outdoors. In Maine. On the coast.

To some this might bring to mind pictures of tranquility like this:

Does this image look familiar? It's the Asticou Inn, where we'll be getting married :-)

To others, who have spent time in New England in the summer, the idea of a coastal Maine wedding might bring to mind pictures like this:

Source

That's right. Bugs. Mosquitoes in particular, and LOTS of them.

Now I for one would really like our guests to enjoy themselves at our wedding, and foster fond memories once they return home. Not memories of swatting away mosquitoes and scratching itchy red welts.

Enter our wedding bug control plan. I spent some time this afternoon scouring the internet for deals on individually-wrapped bug spray wipes. We are planning on providing a basket of these wipes at our wedding, with a cute sign encouraging our guests to use the bug spray or suffer the (itchy) consequences. We're also planning on tossing some of the wipes into our out-of-town bags, so that our guests can hit the trails for some hiking during our wedding weekend without having to first hit up a local drug store for a can of Off. I'm thinking 2 wipes per person in the OOT bags, and a single wipe per person in the self-serve basket at the wedding. That adds up to approximately 300 wipes, if we wind up at our goal of 100 wedding guests. (If you're wondering, we decided to go with wipes, rather than cans of bug spray, since most people will probably not want to get smelly chemical-filled bug spray all over their formal attire. The wipes are much neater, since you can just wipe the bug repellent on areas of exposed skin.)

Thanks to google's shopping results, this is what I came up with:

Tender Ben's tick and insect repellent wipes -- 30% DEET. $3.67 for 12 individually-wrapped wipes at luckyvitamin.com

...and for those who would rather not use DEET:

Natrapel all-natural, deet-free bug spray wipes. 12 individually wrapped wipes for $4.94 at backcountry.com

We'll probably order a mix of these two products, since some of our guests will definitely prefer the all-natural bug repellent, while others are known to appreciate the stronger and more reliable version that contains DEET. For somewhere in the neighborhood of $100 for 300 individually-wrapped bug spray wipes, I'd say we've found ourselves a deal, non?

Anyone else have any interesting (bug-related, or otherwise) considerations for their outdoor wedding?