Block Island Wedding- Help!

mandy10er · February 2012

Hi Fellow Brides,

I just got engaged and my fiance and I are really in love with Block Island.

We wanted to see if anyone else is planning a BI wedding. If so, which venue did you pick? Can anyone give us an idea of cost up there? Did anyone use a wedding planner? We're talking to Mona tomorrow.

Any information is really appreciated!!! Thank you

bells24412 · February 2012

i don't know when you are planning to get married, but there is a BI wedding show every year it is usually in June or July. You may want to go to get all the info you need to get married on the island. Hope this helps!

shanski27 · February 2012

My fiance and I are getting married in September 2012 at the Spring House Hotel. We couldn't be more thrilled with that decision! Danielle is a pleasure to work with and we're really looking forward to the wedding.

We met with several venues on the island including the Atlantic Inn, Sullivan House, Lynn's Way. We also checked out Rose's Farm Inn where you'd have to put up a tent. One venue that is also often overlooked is Ballards. They just underwent a massive renovation and from what I heard are doing another round on that main room now. My fiance was trying to convince me that it would be an incredible location once it's done but I'm crazy and needed to book a place and couldn't wait to see how it would turn out. We will be doing a welcome reception there though the night before the wedding.

I met Mona at the Block Island Wedding Show and while she is very nice, I didn't feel any sort of connection to her. Not that we're supposed to be best friends or anything, but basically she told me that she doesn't help with any sort of planning for the wedding and just puts into place all the planning I've done. And of course, she liases with the vendors. For the price she quoted me to NOT plan my wedding, it was easier just to cut her out of the mix and do it myself. That was my two cents. She's also not giving you any sort of inside scoop on vendors - if you do your research you'll be able to see who are better than others.

One thing to note (and I'm sure everyone has told you) is that music on the island has to be done by 9pm due to a noise ordinance. Annoying but manageable.

I researched a ton of vendors and am extremely pleased with who we booked. If you need any other insight or recommendations, let me know.

mandy10er · February 2012

shanski27- that was extremely helpful! How did you decide on the Spring House? It seems like the list you put up is about it for the venues on the island. Anything that stood out for you for any of the others--good or bad? I so appreciate your advice!

bells24412- thanks! ideally...we'd love to get married in the fall but we definitely understand that we're cutting it close!

katie47n · February 2012

Oh, I always dreamed of having a Block Island wedding! It really is an awesome place. We went out for the wedding show last July and it was fun and educational. Due to my fiance being in medical school far away, we have a small window to get married between semesters which is 2 weeks in August this year. So while we had wanted to do the Block Island wedding, we found at the wedding show that an August wedding there definitely has its difficulties. For one thing it is hot and a lot of the popular wedding places (such as the Sullivan House, which is where we would have had ours) don't have air conditioning. Another thing to consider is if you have a lot of people coming to the island and staying over at hotels, in the summer there are minimum stay requirements, and on weekends in August it's a 3 night minimum requirement at most places (oh, and summer is of course when hotel/inn rates are highest) Finally you have hurricane season which, even if we don't have any hurricanes, can cause a lot of high surf sometimes when the 'canes are far out to sea which can cancel the ferries.

So all that being said, I would say if it works for you to have your wedding in September or October when all of the above things are not so problematic, and the summer crowds are gone and the weather is fall-beautiful, then it would be pretty much perfect!

BTW as for venues - my two personal favorites are Sullivan House (the view from the house is just ridiculous, on a hill overlooking New Harbor and you can see Crescent Beach on the other side) and Spring House. There is also the Atlantic Inn, the 1661 Inn, and Rose Farm. We only got price quotes from Sullivan House but they were definitely reasonable.

shanski27 · March 2012

Sorry for the late reply. First, I’ll tell you that I did a lot of internet research to check out other weddings that had happened at these locations. I wanted to see what they looked like in action. I live in NYC so we planned to come out for a weekend and knock out all the appts at once.

Here’s my cliff’s notes on all the venues we toured:

Atlantic Inn – very small inside and very dated décor (although all the venues on the island are Victorian themed). We emailed Brad twice before coming to the island and he never got back to us. Then the night before we were going out there I called and a very nice girl that worked there said she’s be happy to show us around. We met and she gave us a tour and a packet of info. I asked if she could have Brad send us the prices and we never heard from then. I followed up twice after that (once on phone and the other on email) and never got a response. At that point this place wasn’t worth my time. Also, you have to rent out the whole inn (22 rooms, I think). I felt very uncomfortable telling my guests that they had to book at this place and pay high prices to come to my wedding.

Sullivan House –Sean (also the owner of BI Gourmet) met with us. The house itself is old and you must rent it out for the weekend of your wedding. It was very windy on top of that hill and I was worried that with a September wedding it might be too windy. Also, the tent and décor seemed rather plain to me. I know I could bring in nicer chairs, linens, etc. but all that seemed like a lot of expense. Comparatively the food prices seemed high for the what we would be getting (chicken, vegetables, potatoes).

Lynn's Way – it’s a great house (with commercial quality kitchens) and Kelly is a doll. You can pitch a tent in the front yard. Ultimately it seemed like it might be a squeeze for our guests. But we did book the house for my family to stay at for the wedding weekend (sleeps 20).

Rose's Farm Inn – Beautiful location where you would pitch a tent for your reception. The thing that I didn’t like about this was the ducks. There were ducks and subsequent duck droppings ALL over the lawn. I didn’t want my guests having to march on duck poop all the way up to the reception.

Ballards – it’s a party place in my opinion. It always will be. But there renovations are gorgeous. I’m not sure if they’ve completed that big room yet but it would have been a contender for our reception had we been able to see it done.

Spring House – I liked that we didn’t have to put up a tent and everything was spaced out. Ceremony on the lawn (overlooking the water), cocktails on the porch (with the renovated bar), dinner in the dining room (no folding chairs – which I had seen everywhere else) and dancing in the parlor. I’ve eaten there a few times and the food has always been delicious. Also everything is priced a la carte so you have the ability to control the menu and the prices a bit (not a flat rate for everything). They have a few funky policies but our guests do not have to book at the hotel. All in all this was our fave.

Here are a few weddings at the Spring House so you can get a sense for it:

http://www.stylemepretty.com/destination-weddings/2011/09/02/spring-house-hotel-wedding-by-mia-campopiano-photography/

http://www.snapri.com/2011/09/14/stephanie-mae-cooper-at-the-spring-house-block-island-part-three/

After we booked that, then the search for cake (they don’t do dessert), music, photography and flowers was on. Most everything is booked. If you decide to go with BI I can share some insight on all of those as well. Most people charge to come to the island; and ferries and logistics are not for the faint of heart.

shanski27 · March 2012

Also, Mandy10er - I notice that it says you're from New York. I live/work in the city so I'm happy to pass along all the venue information I got to you if you want it. It's all in a binder and I don't really need it anymore.

hthrcpr · October 2012

Hi Ladies!

I'm in the midst of planning a Block Island wedding for June 2013 and I just found this thread.

Shanski27, thanks for the great insights!! I'm leaning towards a Spring House wedding, but also love the 1661. I would love, love to e-mail you and get some advice and recommendations!

Mandy10er, did you get married this fall? Where did you end up booking? And did you have any trouble finding a venue?

I know this thread is a bit old, but hopefully you'll see this!

Heather

g4thomps · October 2012

Heather,

I'm planing a wedding on Block Island too! Ours is at the spring house on May 31 2014! I love that place.

shanski27 · October 2012

Hey Heather, The Spring House was incredible! Here is a link to some of our photos: http://www.snapri.com/2012/10/18/shannonmarksweddingatthespringhouseblockisland/ Happy to answer any questions. Send me your email address in a PM :

SoontobeKellyO · February 2013

Hi ladies! I'm getting married at the Spring House in October 2013. People are starting to book their rooms and I just read on tripadvisor several posts about bed bugs! I am beside myself right now. Did anyone have any issues??

shanski27 · March 2013

How horrible! We did not have bed bug issues. Several people rented houses through Sullivan Realty, and also stayed at the Spring House.

Sweetkerryb · April 2013

Hello Ladies, I'm also looking to get married on Block Island next fall 2014, & I am a bit worried about cost. Would like to have an idea before attending wedding expo in July. Are there site fees for any of the suggested venues? Thinking a clambake for about 75 people, anyone have idea of prices on the island? Thanks!

chelleebell · May 2013

My fiance and I fell in love with BI the first time we went there! I dream of having my wedding there, but too am worried about cost. We are keeping it pretty small. Has anyone heard anything good about Ballards? When we visited BI last year we heard/saw a wedding going on there. Hopefully we can make it up to BI this summer for the Bridal show. We are thinking of having our ceremony July 2014.

lka2480 · May 2013

I have always dreamed of having my wedding on block Island as well, but I am not sure if that dream can become a reality. I am sure it is very pricey to have a wedding there and was curious to know how much the average wedding of around 150 ppl would cost at any of the venues there. Just trying to get a rough idea before I spend countless hours of research. I live in Arizona currently but am originally from Boston, MA. So going to visit venues will be extremely diffiuclt for me. So any help/advice or info would be greatly appreciated! Thanks and happy planning to everyone!

jbugny · August 2013

hi shanski27, what did you think of Ballards? I was thinking of this and the cost is affordable I was just curious when they do weddings what happens to everyone that would normally attend the restaurant/bar?

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