Ocean Cliff Wedding

From the bride: The Ocean Cliff wedding venue is a mansion overlooking the water in Newport, Rhode Island, and it was the inspiration behind our day. We loved the castle-like atmosphere of the venue and wanted our wedding to mirror its elegance and romantic feel.

Our color palette consisted of warm ivories, soft pinks, sage and eucalyptus greens, accented with slate blues and pops of jewel-toned ruby reds and rich shades of burgundy.

We wanted to create a warm, whimsical, romantic atmosphere. Prior to entering the ceremony, a DIY antique, gold-framed mirrored sign welcomed our guests. For the ceremony, clear pales filled with small floral arrangements hung by velvet burgundy ribbon at the end of the chair rows to accent the aisle.

A romantic copper arch structure decorated with wild, loose florals and accented with various sizes and styles of lanterns framed our alter where we said our “I do’s.” For the reception, the room was scattered with lit lanterns, gold and mercury glass votives, and cascading floral centerpieces in mercury compotes.

The bridal and bridesmaid bouquets consisted of a loose cascade arrangement of green seeded and baby blue eucalyptus, soft pink and ivory garden roses, with pops of rich burgundy ranunculus and astrantia, and full, bold, ruby-red garden roses, tied with rich ivory and burgundy satin.

I was most anxious about our ceremony and exchange of vows. Since we’ve been together, I have always had this underlying feeling that this was it, we are meant to be together and always will be. I just could not wait to make it official and to do so surrounded by all our family and friends.

The room was filled with so much love, happiness, and laughter – from our comical exchange of vows. I loved every moment of it, and I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

For Dave, his most anticipated moment was our first look; “because I wanted to see how pretty you looked.” Luckily for him, I had arranged for his brother-in-law to be his “first” first look. These two have an inexplicably close and hilarious relationship, that I had to make sure was celebrated.

Don’t sweat the little stuff, even if everything doesn’t go as planned you and/or your guests won’t even notice. Make sure you mentally “take it all in;” the day goes by so fast you want to remember as much of it as possible. As for marriage, here is an excerpt from our wedding that really resonated with us and we aim to live by:

“No ceremony can create your marriage; only you can do that – through love and patience; through dedication and perseverance; through talking and listening, helping and supporting and believing in each other; through tenderness and laughter; through learning to forgive, learning to appreciate your differences, and by learning to make the important things matter, and to let go of the rest.”