Hi All -
I wanted to share my experience with 3 Newport vendors and a rehearsal location that I would HIGHLY recommend. We are from CT, so I found it a great help to get honest reviews of local vendors and wanted to share my experience. They made our day so beautiful and special!
Wedding Planner: I used Jessica Castiglia (jlcastigliari@yahoo.com). She is available for total planning, but I used her as a day of planner and I am so happy we did. She was amazing! So organized, and just let me relax and enjoy every minute with no worries or questions. She was always available for questions prior, venue meetings, and random questions. I consider her the "wedding ninja" as things would just happen perfectly by her the day of without her even having to involve us -- truly priceless! (as you brides know there are so many questions people have, it was nice just to sit back and enjoy the day!), and she would just direct us on when it was time to do certan wedding activities. She was a dream to work with. With Jessica everything goes perfectly! Even my family was just amazed by her.
Flowers: I used Julia Huggins Floral Design (
http://jhfloraldesign.com). Truly an artist! From our initial meeting to day of, her concern was always delivering on our request for something different, textured, and vibrant. She was amazing about taking our suggestions and building on them with her expertise. She always kept us in the loop on all choices, and on the day of I just died with the creative talent and beauty of our flowers. She has an amazing eye, and really understands her brides. Her passion and love of her art shines through in everything she does, and I feel so blessed to have her creating our flowers.
Hair/Make-Up: I used Jennie Kay Muprhy (
http://www.jenniekaymurphy.com). "Gorgeous", "Beautiful", "Elegant", "Amazing" these are just a few of the descriptions we received all day, and now four days later with pictures posting from our friends, to describe me and my bridesmaids. Jennie and her team are just amazing. I am not a big make-up and hair girl, but told them this will be my vainest day as I just want to look and feel so beautiful! They over delivered! I felt like a princess, and will treasure our wedding pictures forever for the classic and elegant styling they did for my bridesmaids and me. Jennie is also great for recos throughout the process on nails, etc
Rehearsal: Brick Alley Pub (
http://www.brickalley.com). We have some picky taste buds in my larger family, and all they could talk about was the AMAZING food and service. Even our friend that manages are large restuarant in the Washington D.C. area, was like this place has truly outdone itself. The servers were all so, so nice and took care of all the guests as if they were their number 1 priority. Such an amazing night to kick-off our wedding weekend.
2 non-Newport vendors we used were:
Photopgraphy: Robert and Kathleen from CT (
http://www.robertandkathleen.com). What a duo! Just look at their pictures they are like works of art. We did an engagment session with them in Newport and the pictures were stunning! They capture the true essence of the day, which is what we were looking for vs. posey pose fake images...just catch us loving each other and having fun!
Band: Drop Dead Sexy (
http://www.dropdeadsexy.com). My feet still hurt from the dancing! ha! My mother-in-law told me, "I have never seen a bride not leave the dance floor" -- with this band you and your guests will be dancing all night! They are based out of Philly, and let me tell you just knocked the socks off of our guests! From the music to the lighting they were out of this world!!
You can see some of our wedding pictures from a friend at
www.jennyandbrett.com, and my contact information is there if you would like further images or have questions.
Best,
Jenny