Hi - I've mainly been a lurker since I got engaged 13 months ago, but I just wrapped up my wedding in Newport and want to give credit to all the vendors who knocked themselves out to make our July 24th wedding so amazing ... As well as give some honest feedback about where vendors can improve.
Feel free to PM me with questions.
Venue - B+ The Commissioned Officers Club on Naval Base Newport was a heck of a good deal (thank GOD for military prices, or we would have been stuck paying out the nose even in our home town of Fairfield, CT).
The venue itself was beautiful; we had the grandballroom and a huge wrap around porch for our guests, and it was just a stunning view. It could not have been more picturesque.
The event staff was great the day of, although they left something to be desired in the months leading up to the wedding - I had to chase them down for answers to simple questions like "will there be a microphone for our officiant at the ceremony?" Really simple stuff that shouldn't have turned into a chase.
The services/food was decent - nothing to write home about, but definitely not sub par. The bar had more than reasonable prices (Jack and Beam were both well drinks, which was a huge savings for our group), and the bartenders/servers were warm and friendly.
Rehearsal Dinner - A+ The White Horse in Newport was AMAZING. Unlike every other place in Newport that I called about a Friday night rehearsal dinner, they did not require a massive venue fee and equally massive food/drink minimums. Megan, who is in charge of their events, was incredible and kept in contact with me in the week leading into the dinner.
Even better? The chef was amazing. We served my dad's favorite soup (clam chowder), and the chef prepared a seperate soup for an aunt who's allergic to shellfish (cold peach soup, which was so good that she passed it around for everyone to try). And when the flounder that was scheduled to be part of our menu came in that day, the chef decided it wasn't up to his standards - so they upgraded us to ahi tuna free of charge.
The one downside? No AC (which was a killer in the summer), and steep stairs leading to their private room upstairs - that was a bit of an issue with my grandparents.
Planner- A Christine at Planned to Perfection kept me sane, and kept the wedding perfectly on schedule. As I'm an event planner myself, we really only used her services for day-of stuff, but she really was a huge lifesaver.
Florist - A+++ Despite the fact that we had a budget that is just a fraction of Stoneblossom's normal budgets, Sherri went out of her way to work with me throughout the year leading into the wedding. She even took the time to sit down with my finace and myself when he decided that he wanted to be more involved, and went out of her way to research multiple money saving options for us.