Newport Rhode Island Wedding!

[erizzle]

So I recently got engaged [talk about thrilled! ], and my future husband to be and I have pretty much narrowed the location down to Newport Rhode Island.

My question is-does anyone have any experience with the Chanler hotel? Negative or positive? I think it''s absolutely gorgeous and would be perfect for meshing his and my styles fairly seamlessly, but there''s a lack of anyone talking about the Chanler as a wedding venue on the internet!

Thanks so much!

 

[Laurie2]

I can''t help you with your question, but I looked up the hotel and I just wanted to say it looks beautiful.

 

[Munchkin]

We originally planned to have a Newport wedding. We looked at the Chanler but were leaning towards Astor''s Beechwood. In the end, we had too many guests to fit at Astor''s.

We also ran into a few roadblocks in Newport.

1. We wanted a catholic mass. We live in CT, so are clearly not members of a parish in Newport. ONE catholic church in the area would discuss *maybe* marrying us - and not more than a certain number of months in advance. I forget the number of months, but we were not comfortable booking a reception venue whilst not knowing if we could have a local ceremony. Wait, sorry, Salve Regina would let us marry there, too, but it would cost $2500 as neither of us are alums.

2. If you want a summer wedding most hotels would require a multi-night commitment. Some hotels required that guests stay (or pay for) 2 nights, others required 3! We would have had a ton of out-of-towners and couldn''t ask that of them.

In the end, we couldn''t fit into the place we really wanted. We were at risk for not have the kind of ceremony we were adamant about having. Also, neither of us are from the area. We had thought it might be a good compromise for my Mass family and his NY, but it would have simply been too bothersome and expensive for our guests.

Newport is a gorgeous place for weddings, but it has its plusses and minuses - like anywhere else.

 

[sap483]

We''re getting married in Newport at Castle Hill. We had looked at the Chanler- it''s gorgeous. It''s a great venue for smaller weddings. It can''t accomodate larger weddiings though.

 

[ellaila]

Congrats! We got married at Castle Hill in Newport and can''t recommend it enough -- it''s FABULOUS.

The Chanler on the other hand ...

Bad bad experience. And from what I''ve heard, that is the norm (which is probably why there is a lack of review -- because no one actually winds up using the place!). Maybe things have changed since we dealt with them (two years ago), but they were horrible to work with. We even sent a letter to the manager complaining, and we never even got an apology. I know they did huge renovations there and I think they were still trying to get on track or something, but seriously they were clueless. Too bad because the place is absolutely gorgeous.

So I gotta say .... Castle Hill HANDS DOWN over the Chanler!!!

 

[erizzle]

What do you mean by "they were horrible to work with?"

 

[Munchkin]

Well, Erizzle, I didn''t want to burst your bubble so I didn''t mention it earlier. The never even got back to me after I contacted them for information on weddings. Twice.

I looked at Castle Hill, Rosecliff, Astor''s, Oceancliff and the Hotel Viking. All got back to me. All sent me information. All would answer my myriad of questions.

I hope everything works out perfectly for you, though!

 

[erizzle]

Wow! That''s so strange. I e-mailed them and they responded to me with brochures and information within a few hours! They called to follow up and make sure I received the information and inquire as to any questions I may have.

They even reserved a date for us--7/25/09--without taking a deposit until we could come see the place, which we''re doing in two weeks.

 

[basil]

We are getting married in Bristol, RI. We looked at a few places in Newport (Belle Mer, Hyatt, Hotel Viking, Atlantic Beach Club in Middletown) but ultimately decided those places weren''t perfect for us. There are a lot of good options!

 

[Munchkin]

Well, bear in mind that we were looking at reception venues 3 years ago. Rumor has it there was a change in management.

To be frank, I never pursued it. I had enough places to look at that I didn''t bother if a place didn''t get back to me. My feeling was basically that venues are (typically) almost OVER eager to book. Thus, if they weren''t great at replying early on, I took it as a sign that we definitely wouldn''t mesh when hashing out details later on.

 

[erizzle]

My big thing is I''m like the anti-bride in that I haven''t ever thought about my wedding, let alone started planning it when I was ten years old, so unfortunately for my husband to be, I''m about as clueless as he is, or at least pretends to be.

So, for us--and by us I mean me!--finding a place that my Ohio born and raised fiance and my east coast loving self both really liked seemed short of a miracle, and the Chanler happened to be it. I''m sure putting all my eggs in one basket is going to come back and bite me in the behind, but a girl can hope, right?!

 

[ellaila]

Date: 6/18/2008 6:08:05 PM
Author: erizzle
What do you mean by ''they were horrible to work with?''

I don''t remember all the details, I just know it was unpleasant and stressful. Here''s what I do remember: we were working within a really tight time frame (got engaged in April and were planning on getting married that September, and we were dealing with them in May), and they were so bad about getting back to us with prices, menus, everything. I mean, like two weeks went by without hearing back from them, and this was after we had already gone down there twice to meet with them in person, so it''s not like we were just some random person calling them! They knew we didn''t have a lot of time to plan, so those two weeks were pretty important to us for planning, you know? And the woman we were dealing with there was miserable at her job, and it showed. When my husband told her he works for a job recruiting company, she said, "Can you get me a new job?" Ummm, that didn''t exactly make us feel as though she cared very much about our wedding, you know? The whole experience just left a bad taste in my mouth.

Hopefully there''s new management in place since then because the people who were there two years ago were really incompetent! But again, the place is truly lovely to look at, so I hope for your sake that the service has improved! The fact that they got back to you so quickly seems to indicate that it has, so ... yay! The rooms there are absolutely incredible. Palatial!