Belle Mer

Most amazing venue and staff ! Belle Mer is a fantasy venue! Perfect place to start a marriage! I feel blessed my wedding was there

This venue is absolutely gorgeous! The website does it no justice. My Husband and I were married onsite in September. Our event was in the Island House which suited our size and vision. You cannot get a more breathtaking view and the grounds are so pretty that you don't need anything extra. The food was amazing and our consultant Erica was an absolute life saver. She made the process so easy and fun. She even picked up some desserts in Boston for us! I'm hoping to be invited to a wedding here in the future so that I can enjoy the space again. You never get to fully enjoy everything at your own wedding.

I just got married at the Belle Mer Island House this past weekend and I am very satisfied in my choice to get married at Belle Mer. Here is some of my feedback:Venue- the island house is beautiful and if you are lucky and get a gorgeous sunset like we did you will appreciate it even more! our guests were stunned by the views and how beautiful the grounds were. some people told me it was the most beautiful wedding venue they have ever been to. Staff- Joslin is AWESOME. I have a very demanding and particular mother who I was worried would not be pleased but Joslin always made an effort to ask my mom what her needs were and executed everything with professionalism. She always has a smile on her face and she is eager to please you. She made the planning process very easy and never made me feel bad for asking too many questions. She also pays attention to the details and any small requests I had were taken care of. My only complaint is sometimes she took a few days to respond to emails however I understand it's not easy coordinating multiple events in one weekend. The rest of the staff is very professional and during your event they are all communicating with radios so if you need something you will be helped right away.Food- As the bride I wasnt able to eat too much on the wedding day however many of my guests said the food was very good.Overall Belle Mer is a beautiful location to get married! your photos will be stunning and your guests will be very impressed!ps. some people are concerned about the fact that two weddings are taking place at the same time (one in the island house and one in the salon). The night of my wedding there was a wedding going on in the salon however I did not hear any noise from the wedding next door and none of my guests seemed to notice there even was another venue next door.

I fell in love with Belle Mer when I saw it.... it's gorgeous and just what I was looking for. It is however extremely pricey and to meet the event minimum you have to use a few of their vendors. Which can be tough when you have someone else in mind. In terms of responsiveness... I didn't get calls/emails returned to me for months. When it got closer to my wedding they were extremely responsive but if you are paying that kind of money, you should really return your clients calls. Everything was great the day off.... great service all around and the food was wonderful. One of the best filets I've had and that is hard to say at a wedding! I would definitely do it again. The room/view is incredible...

We had our daytime wedding at Belle Mer on September 3, 2011 in the Salon. Fortunately the weather was gorgeous (windy, but gorgeous!).The staff at Belle Mer is top notch and very professional. Even when we were meeting them the day before (during our rehearsal) everyone was very accomodating. My bridal attendant was Lorena. She was fantastic. She really made me feel as though she had everything under control. I didn't have to do a thing but enjoy the wedding! (Don't let the fact she isn't a big "smiler" fool you; she's amazing... very professional.)During our rehearsal we found that the Island House next door was not having an event while ours was taking place. Joslin (our event planner... also amazing!) arranged to have the extra loves seats available at the Salon for our guests. They also provided Boccie and Croquet lawn games. Our guests had a great time playing on the beautiful grounds. All of our guests were incredibly impressed with the service they received while attending the wedding. The waitstaff checked with then to ensure the steak and other food was prepared to their liking. Nobody was left wanting for a thing.The food...The hors d'Ĺ“uvre and entrees were fantastic. For entrees we served the petit filet, herb roasted chicken and stuffed eggplant rollatini (which was the chef created vegetarian option). Everyone is still raving about the food!We believe we received an excellent value for the price (though we did get in prior to a price increase). The food, the service and the fact that everything was handled and we didn't even have to think was worth every penny. We merely had to fill in their forms and spreadsheets with the required information.Fair warning to nervous brides... the staff here is very busy, so response times may not be what you are hoping for. I would send an email and might receive a response immediately or in a day or two; once it took about 5 days for a response. Having said that, nothing was ever late. I have managed many projects and understand the process. But this process may unnerve some.I'd highly recommend this venue for a wedding ceremony and reception.

Belle Mer is without a doubt one of the most beautiful venues in New England. While it is expensive, you get what you pay for. We had a few miscommunications with our coordinator leading up to the wedding, which made me a little nervous about the day-of execution, but in the end everything was flawless and she did a great job. I would highly recommend Belle Mer!

My wedding was last month in the Main Salon at Belle Mer. We had a beautiful day and a perfect sunset that night. I'm still drooling over the photos. I'm giving less than average ratings because we had a few issues during the planning. We originally booked the wedding with a girl named Ryan. We were then assigned to a different day-of coordinator and then switched again 2 weeks before the wedding. My biggest issue was that we were never told about the other ballroom next door. I didn't even realize (until it was too late) that they had booked anther wedding the same day as mine. This was shocking to me because we were spending over 50k and thought the venue was private. I also felt that they were very accommodating to our requests but there was always an extra fee attached and ultimately we far exceeded our budget.The venue is lovely and our wedding was amazing. If you are looking for a stunning waterfront ballroom - this is a great place.

I had my wedding at Belle Mer two weeks ago and boy was it phenomenal!! The space is gorgeous, we had a perfect ceremony on site, the cocktail hour hors s'ouevres were to die for, dinner was delicious and the reception was so much fun!! I would highly recommend this venue to anyone planning a Newport wedding with a few caveats:The first of which is money! Belle Mer operates on what's called an event minimum, so instead of booking the space for a set fee, you are contractually obligated to spend a set amount of money through them on food, drink, or other services provided by their "preferred vendors." That all sounds fair enough and depending on your budget may work in your favor. My advice is to read your contract thoroughly and do the math before booking the space. My event minimum was 25k, however there is a 20% service fee as well as a few other fees, so really we were contractually obligated to give them a little over 32,000. If you have room in your budget for this, I will reiterate the place is fabulous and your event will wow all of your guests.Caveat #2, during the planning process your event coordinator may be difficult to get a hold of. The place handles multiple weddings on Friday, Saturday and Sunday throughout the wedding season, as well as many during the colder months. Your coordinator is very busy and will take time to get back to you. The pushier you are the faster you get results. We had several snafus throughout the planning process and occasionally we had to kick a stink to get some attention. In the end the staff worked with us to get everything we needed.Caveat #3, and this is small and probably doesn't happen often BUT, I got married on a day that set the record for the hottest day in Newport...ever. When we entered the bridal suite it was warm, like really warm. My mom was complaining to the attendant who assured us that the AC was on. Well an hour later a guy came up and pressed some buttons and then there was a magical whirrring noise and voila, NOW the AC is on. It never really cooled down because it was too little too late and there's a lot of pictures of me with my gown hoisted up in front of the fan trying to cool my legs off a little bit.All that said, it was still an amazing event. My guests couldn't get over how beautiful it was. I would totally use them again!! Also if you do plan your wedding there I VERY VERY highly recommend the saffron shrimp fritter and arancini appetizers and the balsamic glazed salmon entree. DELICIOUS!

Belle Mer was a beautiful and clean location. The food was excellent and staff was overall great. However, I felt that they could have had better communication and more flexibility when it came to the planning process of the event.

Don't get me wrong, the VENUE is absolutely breathetaking!! But if I had to do my wedding all over again, I would do it elsewhere for sure. The service was absolutely horrible, they put you on a timeline which is normal to do but they made me feel like I was being rushed through my weding bc they had a night wedding coming in they wanted to get ready for. We paid for meals for our vendors who were only given leftover COLD food at the end of the wedding! That was completely embarrassing to us bc our vendors thought we just didnt feed them so we had to write apology letters after the wedding. We told our planner several times what kind of beer not only the Groom would be drinking but almost entire wedding wedding party and many guests and they still ran out with 2hours left of the wedding. My husband I were abviously busy with our guests but we never even saw our food! Someone could have just let us know dinner was being served or possibly put out meal up in thebridal suitein case we got hungry. But nope, food was never seen as for most of our wedding party. I would have to say for the amount of $$$ we spent we definitely didnt get the service we deserved. Even prior to the day, our planner was so rude in may instances and made me feel like I was interfereing with his ideas when we wanted things done different than what he had suggested. I can go on and on about what made us unhappy which is unfortunate bc I would have rather been ranting and raving about how amazing the Belle Mer was:(

Belle Mer is an absolutely beautiful venue. It really has that wedding day wow factor! If you want your guests to talk about your wedding for years to come, then Belle Mer is the right choice. There is nothing about that place that is forgettable. We had a wonderful experience. The food is UNBELIEVABLE! The staff is incredibly attentive, as if you are the only person in the world who matters. The bride is assigned a bridal attendant who takes care of her every whim and makes sure she is well fed. The event specialist is your contact throughout the entire process, I highly recommend Joslin. She is incredible to work with and was really great at helping work out some kinks.Belle Mer can be incredibly expensive, comparatively, but it is an unparalleled venue so I suppose they can get away with that! One thing that they did to go above and beyond for us was that the island house was not in use on our wedding day and they gave us use of the bridal suite (which is much larger than the one in the salon) and they gave us use of the downstairs for our cocktail hour for no charge. They really went out of their way to make our wedding day special and were very accommodating of all of our needs.Belle Mer is by far, the best place to get married in Newport!

Belle Mer is amazing!! I just got married at Belle Mer in the water salon room and it was more than anything i could have ever dreamed of! Everything from beginning to the end was unbelievable. Of course the venue is gorgeous, but really the people and the service made the wedding amazing. Joslin, our coordinator, was so so professional, sweet and accommodating. Anything that we asked she found a way to accomodate including a custom menu, specialty cocktails, and varying timelines. More than anything though, she felt like a friend. The planning process was flawless and the wedding was the most incredible day of our lives. We're still receiving compliments from our guests on the beauty of Belle Mer and the amazing service. Book your wedding here and make sure you ask for Joslin!!!

We were a bit skeptical about the venue before actually going to visit, but fell in love with the space instantly. We live in New York City, and knew this would be a perfect venue to host our friends and family. In the words of another reviewer, it was "New York glamour with Newport charm!" Everything about our day worked out perfectly. We were married outside on the lawn in front of the Salon and then moved inside for the cocktail hour and reception. The food was fantastic, and the servers did a great job sticking to the timeline and making sure everyone's glasses were filled. People still rave that the service and venue were perfect. We were matched with Stuart Horwitz for our coordinator, and it couldnt have been a more perfect fit. He was responsive, helpful, accomodating and flexible. He never said 'no' to any of our requests, but rather, what is an alternate solution? I cannot say enough good things - we truly walked away without any regrets.

Had a great wedding at Belle Mer - they were amazing and I loved every minute of my wedding! What a beautiful and special place!

My husband and I got married at Belle Mer on Aug 13th at 630pm then we held the reception right after in the Island House. I cannot speak highly enough about the level of service we received from our wedding coordinator Joslin and the staff at Belle Mer on the day. Joslin was there through the whole engagement to answer our questions and was very thorough. I highly recommend her to anyone and everyone.The grounds were impeccable and the perfect weather made the wedding day all the more special. Joslin added 6 large lanterns to the sea wall which were just stunning at night all lit up. The fire pits were glowing at twilight and the fountains made it all the more romantic. On the day of the wedding my bridal attendant was amazing, I dont remember her name but she was so sweet and attentive and our glasses were never empty which my husband was happy about. ;-)The food was SPECTACULAR, having worked in the restaurant industry for years this is something I am especially particular about. The chefs really did an amazing job. WE served a plated meal with options of summer chicken due and grilled ribeye. My mouth still waters when I think of the food even though I only had a few bites on the wedding day!! haha.My husband and I agree that Belle Mer is and will always be our "happy place" the beauty of the place and the memories we have there will leave us RAVING about it for years and years.

THE VENUE WAS SPECTACULAR! THE VIEWS WERE FABULOUS. THE FOOD WAS BEYOND DELICIOUS. SOME ISSUES IN THE PLANNING STAGES, BUT EVERYTHING WORKED OUT BEAUTIFULLY AND THE DAY OF THE WEDDING THEY EXCEEDED OUR EXPECTATIONS .IT WAS BETTER THAN WE EVER COULD HAVE EXPECTED AND WE WOULD RECOMMEND THIS VENUE HANDS DOWN. VERY EXPENSIVE BUT WORTH IT!

Belle Mer is gorgeous. We fell in-love as soon as we saw it. It's modern, chic and has a great view.The restrooms at the Island House were tiny and looked like gas station restrooms, except cleaner. The lounges at the side of the ceremony area that you think are automatically set up when a wedding is going on, weren't set up at our wedding. They also used a hanging rack for coat check and hid it behind a wooden divider (that did not fit the decor) placed at the entrance of the Island House. It was an eyesore.Belle Mer staff did a great job with the food. The guests loved the food, even though the food at our tasting tasted better. Our guests were impressed with the service. Everything was well coordinated from serving food to retrieving empty dinnerware. The wait staff was eager to accommodate everybody's food requests.I love how I get a bridal attendant who waited on me hand and foot. I am not used to having an attendant so I tried to do everything myself, until my bridal attendant told me to use her. At the cocktail hour, two of the wait staff were assigned to serve us (my husband and I) food while we do our photos which we appreciated very much. I think they were assigned to serve us during the reception too. One was even able to get the kitchen staff to cook extra scallops that John missed at the cocktail hour. But they were delayed in serving us the courses. There were a couple of times we were served last, the guests started eating their food and we were still waiting.The last Belle Mer event coordinator assigned to us was very helpful. And she seemed like she really cared about our wedding, unlike the first event coordinator assigned to us. She was quick to respond, sometimes even in the middle of the night! She did forget about a few details, like the number of chairs at the ceremony site. She was the one who suggested doubling the number of chairs. But come wedding day, there weren't enough chairs for my guests. The place setting was set up differently from what we discussed, but it wasn't a big deal coz it was still beautiful.A lot of brides complained about the planning stages with Belle Mer. I think it depends a lot on the event coordinator. A good event coordinator can make the planning go smoothly. Our event coordinator made the planning less stressful for me. This does not mean that the planning wasn't stressful at all. Belle Mer was actually a big stress on our wallets. Our event coordinator did help us and eased some of that money-related stress.Instead of minimum number of guests or food and beverage minimum, Belle Mer has what's called "event minimum." Unlike the food and beverage minimum that only includes cost of food and beverage, the event minimum includes everything from site fees to food to third party vendors hired through Belle Mer.I prefer the event minimum over minimum number of guests coz I didn't have many guests. All of our guests were from out of town, so I wasn't sure of the number of guests that would be able to attend. With the event minimum, I was able to use the rentals, my DJ fee, and favors to meet the minimum. If Belle Mer had to enforce a minimum number of guests, I would have had to pay for people that weren't there. Thankfully Belle Mer had event minimum instead.Longwood Events (Belle Mer's parent company) consider themselves a "full-service event company" They can help you plan your event from food to your photographer. Tell them what you envision on your wedding day, and they can find and hire the vendors that will implement your vision. This is great for brides who would want everything in one place, but also have the money for it.Belle Mer adds 30% to the vendors' prices they procure. In addition to that, Belle Mer's administrative charge (18%) and taxes apply to those prices as well. Belle Mer may tip and feed the vendors free of charge (to you), but I don't think it's worth the extra charges they tack on. I will not pay a wedding planner 30% (Belle Mer's upcharge) + 18% (Belle Mer's administrative charge) to hire a vendor for me, would you? But if you hire the vendor yourself, Belle Mer charges you a vendor fee of $500 per vendor. Don't be afraid to ask your event coordinator if he/she can waive the vendor fee.Take note that Belle Mer does not charge service charge unlike other venues, but they charge 18% administrative charge. Most venues charge less than 8% for administrative charge. And remember that taxes (7% State of RI tax and 1% City of Newport tax) are applied to Belle Mer's 18% administrative charge.I hope I did not scare you with the costs. If planned well, the cost can be minimized. So yes, I would still recommend Belle Mer. Overall, they did a great job and everybody enjoyed our wedding.TIPS: * Hire the vendor yourself if the vendor's fee is higher than $1047. If less than that, ask Belle Mer to hire the vendor for you, unless your event coordinator is willing to waive the vendor fee ($500). * Don't be afraid to ask your event coordinator if he/she can waive vendor fees if any. * If you're meticulous with details, make sure you tell your event coordinator every little detail. Don't leave out anything from decor to coat racks to timelines.

Very disappointed bride here. We are from nyc and really feel in love with the Salon at Belle Mer. I regret not looking around at more places. The food was less than average and really not what I had expected. I also did not realize that there would be another wedding taking place next to mine. I actually saw the other bride walking across the parking lot to take photos near us at the water. I was so embarrassed. We still managed to have the best day of our lives but my experience overall here was not worth the $45,000 we spent here.

The Ceremony was fantastic. The reception could have improved if the food was served on time. The band was eating their dinner when they should have been playing music. The setting was absolutely perfect but I was not impressed with my event coordinator. I don't think I had high expectations and I was still disappointed.

For the amount of money we paid, most of the guests were waiting a long time for their dinners to arrive while other guests were finished already with their meals. There was a mix up in the kitchen and the manager had to come out and direct the waiters which table to go to and who to give the meals to. I felt bad because most of my bridesmaids and close friends didnt get their dinners until at least 10:15-10:30pm! Our wedding coordinator at Belle Mer took a long time to respond to any of my calls and emails. Sometimes, I would wait weeks to hear a response back from her. Not until my wedding day did I find out she was trying to plan her own wedding as well so she didnt have a lot of time for her brides! Also, we had our reception in the Island House and noone told us that the flaps had to be down if you have ANY music at your reception. We were told from the beginning we could have those flaps open if we wanted to . It kind of lost to whole point of the view for the guests.