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wedding ceremony/reception locations in RI

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Hudson_Hawk

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Hi All,
Well the FFI gave me the notice over the weekend. The ring is really coming within the next 3 months...YAY. We''ve decided we''re going to get married in RI as it''s where we live now and all of our friends and family will have to travel about the same distance to get there. Right now the front runner for location is Linden Place in Bristol, RI. Has anyone gotten married there or been to a wedding there? I''m looking for any feedback on the location/services I can get.

Are there any other good locations for weddings that are affordable? We''re looking at $10-15k for a budget, possibly $20k but that last 5''s not guaranteed. Unfortunately that kills the idea of a Newport wedding all together. We''d like to avoid a reception facility and focus on a historic location/venue.

Any ideas?

Thanks!
HH
 

basil

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Hey!

I just booked that place. I have to run but will come back with my impressions later on. What date are you looking at? Susan, coordinator there, is awesome.
 

ktkakes

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ive never heard of that place im going to look at quidnessett this weekend! keeping my fingers crossed on that one!
 

Hudson_Hawk

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We''re really just in the early stages of brainstorming. I think it''ll be Summer of ''08 or ''09 if ''08 is booked already. We''re looking to use Mark Morrell for the caterer as well . He catered bf''s previous wedding (another post/vent) and was AMAZING. My bf is insisting on using him again. I hope that''s not in bad taste.
 

Hudson_Hawk

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ktkakes

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its beautiful! i hope you get it! i hope your ring comes soon. i still find myself looking at mine in awe.
 

Hudson_Hawk

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HAHA I don''t think it''s Mark Morrell, he''s on PS. God, I''m so blonde! It''s Russell Morin http://www.morins.com/
 

Hudson_Hawk

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Your''s is beautiful, congrats!
 

basil

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Ok, back.

I think Linden Place might be pushing it on your budget, unless you do a Friday or Sunday or off season. But off season is tricky if you want to do your ceremony there as well. Keep in mind that catering is more expensive than you would think it would be. Russel Morin has a great reputation, but their prices aren''t cheap. How big is your guest list?

The site itself is very nice though. The rental includes: 150 white garden chairs, use of the property 2 hours before a 5 hour event, with 1 hour clean up. It has a full kitchen in the carriage house. They have some tables and chairs, of various sizes. They have plenty for my guest list around 80, but you might need more for bigger groups. They do not provide linens, dishware. They are starting this year (07) to tent their patio from May-Oct. I''m pretty sure that she told me it would have full flooring as well. This isn''t included in the rental fee, though, it''s an extra $400. 2 "hostesses" are included in the rental fee who will educate your guests on the grounds and will also keep you from doing stupid stuff to their property. They aren''t really wedding coordinators though. You are allowed use of the mansion for dressing, photos, and your guests can have a short tour by the hostesses, but you can''t have food/drink in there obviously.

Anyway, any other questions, feel free to ask. As I said before, Susan has been really helpful and very patient with all my questions.

Another place to consider (though not as historic) is the Bristol Yacht Club. We also really liked this venue, and it''s really really inexpensive. You could have a ceremony out on the lawn overlooking the docks, or use the ceremony site in Colt State Park which is something like $15 to rent. They will have a ceremony inside if it rains. There are no pictures on the website of the inside, but it has been recently renovated (all hardwood floors, nice fireplaces, french doors out out onto the deck, full windows on 3 sides, pale blue paint). They have a deck with an awning for cocktails. The room maxes out at about 100. The steward of the yacht club, Chris Healy, I think really wants to build up the yacht club as a viable wedding venue and is also extremely helpful. They also have tables and chairs included. It''s pretty close to Linden Place, so if you''re making a trip to Bristol, I would definitely shoot Chris an email and ask to just quickly check it out. We''re seriously considering doing a post-wedding brunch here.

Anyway, I looked at and contaced a bunch of other places in RI too. Let me know if you have any questions.
 

Hudson_Hawk

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We''re looking at between 75 and 100 guests. I''m basing my budget and wants/wishes on a friend''s wedding in ''05. They used RM and had their wedding at RW Park/Casino. They had upwards of 200 guests and their budget was 20-30k (30 including EVERYTHING like dress etc). They had a full sit down meal with open bar (beer, wine, 3 cocktails).

Have prices really gone up that much?
 

So_happy

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Another RI bride here :) Congrats on your almost engagement!!!

We are on a 12k budget and we chose the Towers in Narragansett as our venue. It''s very historic and they give a discount to RI residents. For a Sat evening it is about $2k non-res or $1,600k res (approx.). We did a Sunday so it was even less than that. They have no minimums which is great for us as we want to keep it at about 80. Max is about 150 if you''re having a sit-down. You can have the place for up to 5 hours and they give you an hour before and after for clean up. There is a gazebo adjacent to it that the town owns so if you wantd to have your ceremony outside but nearby, you can get a permit of use for $25 for it. You can also have your ceremony inside the Towers, too, if you want.

That fee does not include tables, linens, or anything else for that matter. You have to rent all tables and chairs from the Towers and bring in have your caterer bring in linens.

It''s a gorgeous location, right on the beach and is 5 stories high. (You probably know about it but just in case!!)

For our budget, this venue was a little out of line but we''re scrimping elsewhere for it :) We are using Blue Rocks Catering in Newport and doing a cocktail reception to compensate for the venue cost. And we''ll supply our own liquor so we''ll have a full open bar but at a great cost to us :)
 

Hudson_Hawk

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We thought about the Towers but I thought it would be too expensive. I''m definitely going to look into it now. When are you getting married?
 

ellaila

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Hi,

I was a RI bride, too (six months ago, wow!!)
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We got married in Newport at Castle Hill but we had a very small wedding (~38 people total I think), so we were able to use a small dining room instead of the Chateau. We also had a Sunday late-afternoon wedding. Add those two factors together, and that''s how we were able to afford Newport! It''s a darn pricey place to get married, that''s for sure. I would definitely recommend ALL my vendors though: Castle Hill (obviously) for venue; Nancy Birch/Grandiflora for flowers; Kathryn Whitney Lucey for photography; and Scrumptions for cake (though I had no choice with bakeries since they work with Castle Hill, but the cake was reallly yummy)!

So_happy, I love the Towers! I went to URI and lived right near there, so it makes me all kind of happy plus it''s just lovely!

Good luck, RI brides!
 

So_happy

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Funny, I totally thought the same thing. I put it on my "neva gonna happen" list and began looking elsewhere. I put a call into Kate one day just to see and it took her 2 weeks to get back to me. By then, I had completely forgotton about it. When she said it would be $1600 I was pleasantly surprised as I thought it would be at least 2k. Then, when I went to visit the site with her, she told me about the resident rate and I just knew we had to take it :)
 

basil

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Well, I don''t know how much it costs to rent the Roger Williams Park casino (Linden Place prices are higher for 2008 than they list on the website for the 07 rates), but the problem with catering costs is that things get cheaper per person for the bigger guest lists. For our 80 people, we are most likely looking at ~$110-120 pp including: hors d''oeuvres, salad, mid to mid-high range entree, cake, hosted non-premium bar for full reception, linens, dishware, glassware, flatware, service fee, gratuity, tax. You can go cheaper by choosing a chicken dish, but you only save ~$10 pp. Bringing your own alcohol can save you some money if your guests aren''t big drinkers (standard nonpremium bar seems to run ~$20-25 pp for the caterers I''ve contacted), but just bar set up runs ~$10 pp for glassware, soda, bartender, liquor liability, so you''d realistically save about $5 pp. So I think realistically for a sit down meal including bar, you should probably budget $100 pp. I''m still trying to figure out if it will be cost effective to purchase a cake elsewhere since the caterer costs are somewhere around $4 per slice. I think you could do Linden Place for $20k if you''re willing to compromise on other things (photography, flowers), but believe me, things add up fast! The Friday and Sunday rates for LP, though, are much more reasonable, and I would have done that if my parents had agreed.

Anyway, it''s cool how there are so many RI people here!

Not to hijack, but, So_Happy - Have you been satisfied with Blue Rocks so far? They seem to have reasonable prices, and their menu is interesting and they have been helpful so far, but I can''t seem to find a lot of information about them. What made you choose them?
 

Hudson_Hawk

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emcry.gif
my bubble has officially been burst. We''re going to look at the Bristol Yacht Club and The Towers as well.

Why do weddings have to cost so much
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I''d be happy with hot dogs in my back yard....Hot dogs and Dom Perignon that is.
 

basil

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Sorry to be so discouraging!

At first, I thought the catering was pretty insane myself. But when I''m really thinking about it, if I go to a nice restaurant and get a drink (or two), wine with dinner, appetizer, salad, entree and dessert, I probably rarely spend less than $100 if you include tip and tax. Plus you figure you have to pay them to come to your facility and set it up. And though I haven''t looked into it yet, apparently caterers will do a lot of coordinating for you if you are renting tables, outside chairs, will help you set up your favors, place cards, candles, etc.

A friend of my parents recently had a very nice, casual, wedding and reception on a beach in Jamestown which they had catered with clamcakes, chowder, hot dogs, hamburgers, etc. By all accounts, it was quite beautiful. There are definitely ways to go nontraditional and save money. It''s just for a "traditional" wedding, they know there are people who will pay out the nose!
 

So_happy

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Basil~ At one time I was working with 3 or 4 caterers and getting different quotes for a sit-down and a cocktail recpetion. Initially, we were going to go with Pinnelli Marra but once Dennis realized we were trying to keep our costs down I feel like he dropped us a little. He wouldn''t get back to us for weeks!! This was not cool for us. So, in the meantime, I was still working with Blue Rocks and one other and Blue Rocks just kept being responsive during the whole process. I guess BR just won out in the end because Ingrid could "handle" my many questions, concerns, and our budget!! We are having a cocktail reception with a pasta/salad station for about $60pp. This includes linens, gratuity, taxes, bartender, liability insuranct, servers etc. but does not include cake or liquor.

With BlueRocks, at at least $4pp for cake, our 100plus guest list made a per person charge really expensive so I went to the knot to find a freelance baker who''d charge per cake (and not per guest). We found one who''ll do our cake (in any flavor and design) for $250!! And she came recommended so I''m going with her. I don''t know if I can pass on her information here on PS. Can I post email addresses here?

For liquor, we are going thru Wakefield Liquors in, well, Wakefiled because they offer free delivery (even on sundays) and we can bring back any unopened stuff :)

To afford this wedding at 12k, I''ve had to spend countless hours reseraching and will probably spend even more doing DIY wedding projects. I''ll definitley have to do my own flowers to keep it at $300 or less. My fiance traded his sign making skills for a limo the day of hte wedding. He also traded with a wedding planner who needs business signs so we have one of those too for the day of. I did get a lovely maggie sottero gown so the only splurges for us were teh Towers and my gown. Bridesmaids will carry silk fans and groomsmen will have coordinating pocket squares instead of flowers. I''m making my own bouquet of either calla lilliis, dahlias, or roses.

I guess it just all worked out :) And it will be beautiful
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Oh, and we are having the ceremony at Wilcox Park in Westerly......it''s a beautiful flower park so we won''t have to decorate that at all and we hired a student classical guitar player for $75 so it''ll really be special.

It is very cool there are so many RI brides on here!!
 

Hudson_Hawk

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I definitely know what you''re saying about the cost of a good meal. The food is the one thing (other than us) that I want the focus to be on.

At RM, they''ll bring in the chairs, tables, linens, etc. (at a cost to you of course) so the coordination is taken care of.

Speaking of nice restaurants, we''re going to Cafe Nuovo for my birthday tomorrow night...YUM!
 

basil

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So_Happy - Your wedding really sounds beautiful! Ingrid seems great to deal with so far. I got a quote from Pranzi and wasn''t all that impressed, plus their menu is sort of boring. I cannot stand when vendors don''t return my emails! I''m waiting on a quote from Ingrid, and I am meeting with Russel Morin as well.

Would love to know the name of your cake baker! I also noticed that 4 pp for cake is sort of high...I read on the Knot that Scialo''s bakery has quoted $1.75 pp or so. We used to live right near one, so we''ve had a lot of their bread, muffins, pastries over the years and they''re always really good. We''re hoping to make our own marzipan fruits and then deliver them to the baker and have them stick them on as decorations, so I''m not really worried about having the fanciest, most elaborate cake anyway.

We''ll probably buy our own alcohol too. My dad is sort of a wine afficionado, so he''s looking forward to finding the best (cheap!) wine once we set the menu. No returning of unused stuff for us though...my mom was like "oh, that would be great, we can just keep whatever we don''t use!"

Hopefully, we''ll use my uncle''s Model T instead of a limo so that will save us more money. We''re thinking of asking a neighbor to officiate. I think he probably wouldn''t charge too much, either.

Oh, and I''d love to know where you found your student guitar player, too!

Hudson Hawk - the other place you could look is the Bristol Harbor Inn. It''s right on the water in Bristol Harbor. They have a big tented dock/deck for your ceremony or cocktail hour, and an inside room. We never ended up actually seeing it in person. When I contacted the actual inn, they referred me to Blackstone Caterers (who is the exclusive caterer for that site). That person was pretty flaky, never got back to me in a timely fashion, and couldn''t meet up at any of the 3 or 4 times I suggested. I had a friend who is also planning a wedding and saw it and said the room is sort of long, narrow, and rustic, but I have seen pictures that look quite attractive. I forget exactly what their prices are, but they are less than Linden Place.
 

So_happy

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Date: 4/3/2007 3:19:18 PM
Author: basil
So_Happy - Your wedding really sounds beautiful! Ingrid seems great to deal with so far. I got a quote from Pranzi and wasn''t all that impressed, plus their menu is sort of boring. I cannot stand when vendors don''t return my emails! I''m waiting on a quote from Ingrid, and I am meeting with Russel Morin as well.

Would love to know the name of your cake baker! I also noticed that 4 pp for cake is sort of high...I read on the Knot that Scialo''s bakery has quoted $1.75 pp or so. We used to live right near one, so we''ve had a lot of their bread, muffins, pastries over the years and they''re always really good. We''re hoping to make our own marzipan fruits and then deliver them to the baker and have them stick them on as decorations, so I''m not really worried about having the fanciest, most elaborate cake anyway.

We''ll probably buy our own alcohol too. My dad is sort of a wine afficionado, so he''s looking forward to finding the best (cheap!) wine once we set the menu. No returning of unused stuff for us though...my mom was like ''oh, that would be great, we can just keep whatever we don''t use!''

Hopefully, we''ll use my uncle''s Model T instead of a limo so that will save us more money. We''re thinking of asking a neighbor to officiate. I think he probably wouldn''t charge too much, either.

Oh, and I''d love to know where you found your student guitar player, too!

Hudson Hawk - the other place you could look is the Bristol Harbor Inn. It''s right on the water in Bristol Harbor. They have a big tented dock/deck for your ceremony or cocktail hour, and an inside room. We never ended up actually seeing it in person. When I contacted the actual inn, they referred me to Blackstone Caterers (who is the exclusive caterer for that site). That person was pretty flaky, never got back to me in a timely fashion, and couldn''t meet up at any of the 3 or 4 times I suggested. I had a friend who is also planning a wedding and saw it and said the room is sort of long, narrow, and rustic, but I have seen pictures that look quite attractive. I forget exactly what their prices are, but they are less than Linden Place.
I would love to pass on that info to you. What''s the best way to do this? Is there a PM funtion on pricescope? I don''t know if I can post emails or phone numbers of individuals (as opposed to businesses) without getting my post removed.......
 

sap483

Brilliant_Rock
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Hi ladies. I''m also looking at Linden Place as a potential venue! I just talked to Susan today and am thinking about driving down there to take a look next weekend :)
 

Lil0818

Rough_Rock
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A friend got married at Glen Manor House in Portsmouth, RI. It is a beautiful old mansion and they accomodate both ceremonies and receptions. Good Luck!!
 
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