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wedding photographer nyc | Miami | la | destination

wedding photographer nyc | Miami | la | destination

castle hill wedding

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Susanna & kit

newport, rhode island

susanna & kit's wedding at castle hill

Susanna & Kit's Newport wedding at Castle Hill was the perfect place to bring together their families for a weekend of celebration. After a suggestion from a family friend to visit the Inn, Susanna and Kit immediately fell in love with the venue. They are both happiest by the ocean, so they knew it would be the perfect place to host an awesome weekend! Susanna and Kit wanted their wedding aesthetic to feel effortless and organic, allowing for the beauty of the location to shine. The whole wedding weekend had a relaxed elegance to it. They wanted to make sure that they had a fun weekend for all of their guests who had traveled from near and far to celebrate the. They kicked off the weekend with a clambake at Sweet Berry Farm, followed by welcome drinks at The Landing in downtown Newport. They ended the weekend with brunch, bloody mary's, and mimosas at Midtown Oyster Bar. 

Susanna & Kit dated for six years before the proposal. They did two years of long-distance before both moving to NYC. They first met at the Old Stone Jug, a local Colgate University bar, when Susanna was a Sophomore and Kit a senior. Sparks flew immediately and the rest is history! The couple began planning their wedding from NYC with the help of Susanna's mom in Chicago. They enlisted Jaime of Eventfully Planned to help tie all of the details together. The couple opted for a color palette of light greys, blues and greens, to really let the scenery at the Inn to standout! They wanted to bring as much of the outdoors into the tent as possible. Ryan Designs sourced gold orbs that hung throughout the tent, with greenery entwined. 


After trying on over forty dresses in both Chicago and New York City, Susanna revisited Vera Wang with her mom, sisters, and a friend back in Chicago. Her dad came towards the end of the appointment and just happened to pull a dress off the rack and insisted on Susanna trying it on. He selected a custom Vera Wang wedding dress, in which the style was worn once before, by former First Daughter, Barbara Bush. From the moment she tried on the dress, she knew it was the one. The gown, which features spaghetti straps and a cowl neckline, was a custom creation and the silhouette looked absolutely stunning on Susanna. Susanna incorporated many family heirlooms into her bridal look as well as a gorgeous white Van Cleef bracelet for her something new, gifted by Kit on their wedding day. 

The couple opted for a first look before the ceremony. The lighthouse at the Inn at Castle Hill was he perfect place to have an intimate moment. Kit waited for Susanna on the Cliff's as sailboats passed by cheering for the couple. We then headed to the famed Grace Kelly Beach. Named after the movie star, Grace Kelly would spend her downtime between scenes during her filming of High Society in the summer of 1956. She would sneak down the rocky landscape to the water's edge where she would sun on the rocks, swim in the coves, and enjoy the solitude. The couple's romantic pics from this spot are some of my all time favorites. 

The ceremony took place on the Terrace Lawn and the arch was beautifully decorated by Fig & Squill. From Susanna, " I was overcome with happiness and love as I walked down the aisle with my father in front of all our family and friends. It had been cloudy all day leading up to the ceremony; however, the clouds parted right as my dad and I walked down the aisle. We like to think it was all our loved ones who could not be there shining down on us."

After the ceremony, guests were invited into cocktail hour in the tent with trays of champagne and hors d'oeuvres. Susanna, Kit, and I snuck away for a few sunset couple's pics. The sky was all colors of pastel and made for some really dreamy portraits. 

The reception tables were a mix of round tables with long tables down the middle. Fig & Squill used a mix of high and low florals to decorate the reception tent. Guests entered in to the main tent for dinner and dancing and Susanna and Kit were called in. The couple went right into their first dance. The Colgate 13, one of the oldest a cappella groups in the country, came from upstate New York to perform "Come Go with Me" for their first dance. Back when they were in college, Kit had been a member of the group and he serenaded Susanna with that song during his final senior year performance. Susanna and Kit agree that it was one of the most magical moments of the night!  


  

Featured on Over the Moon | Newport Wedding Venue: Inn at Castle Hill | Newport Wedding Photographer: Leila Brewster Photography | Wedding Videography: Elysium Productions | Rhode Island Wedding planner: Eventfully Planned | Wedding Florist: Fig & Squill | Wedding Invitation Suite: Emily Rose Ink | Susanna's Elegant Wedding Dress: Vera Wang | Earrings: Capucine De Wulf | Bridesmaids Dresses: Shona Joy | Grooms Suit: State and Liberty | Groomsmen Suits: State and Liberty | Wedding Cake: Confectionary Designs | Rehearsal Dinner Venue: Sweet Berry Farm | Film Developing: The Find Lab 

View Susanna & Kit's wedding video by Elysium

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