A coastal wedding in Newport at The Bohlin

The coastal location of THE BOHLIN in Newport, Rhode Island heavily influenced Kayla & Ben's wedding style.Both hailing from New England they took inspiration from the region to inspire the colors, flowers, food, and decor for our wedding weekend which was beautifully captured by Rhode Island Wedding Photographer COLTON SIMMONS.

WHY DID YOU CHOOSE THIS LOCATION? We chose to get married in Newport because we got engaged there and had many memories while dating each other, our friends, and our family over the years. We felt like it was the perfect place to invite our loved ones to celebrate our marriage with us.

HOW DID YOU MEET? We met in college at Villanova University. A mutual friend set us up for my sorority date night, and we have been together ever since. We both moved to Boston after college and have lived there since graduating in 2017.

TELL US ABOUT YOUR PROPOSAL: We were heading to Newport for a family trip, and Ben suggested we visit Castle Hill Lighthouse before meeting my family for the night. We drove from Boston on a Friday afternoon in traffic, and Ben kept calm and relaxed in a bumper-to-bumper grid look the entire drive. He surprised me by proposing at the lighthouse – my nails weren’t even done! We had a celebratory dinner with both of our families in downtown Newport and enjoyed the rest of the weekend in the town.

TELL US ABOUT FINDING YOUR WEDDING DRESS/ATTIRE: I only brought my mom along to look at dresses, and finding my wedding dress with her was so special. I did not go into dress shopping interested in a specific dress or designer, but I knew I liked a mermaid shape, which I ended up in. My dress was an Anne Barge mermaid cut dress with off-the-shoulder straps and a floral jacquard pattern throughout the dress. I changed into a custom-made mini dress by Bremelia for cate cutting and dancing. I spent about 6 months designing my dress with Bre in the South End of Boston. I had the most fantastic experience piecing elements and inspiration from dresses I loved into one dream mini-dress.

DID YOU HAVE ANY DIY ELEMENTS? I did not DIY many elements of the day, but one thing I did was DIY the containers for our late-night snacks. We had a Ben & Jerry’s Ice cream bar and changed the signage to “Ben & Kayla’s” with the Ben and Jerry’s branding and had “Ben & Kayla’s” ice cream cups. We also served cheeseburgers in fries, and I had them in boxes branded “BK” Burger King style—they were a hit!

DESCRIBE YOUR WEDDING FLOWERS: Ever since I was in high school, I had a Pinterest board for my wedding dreams. A coastal wedding with hydrangeas galore was precisely what I wanted since I could remember. We had blue and white flowers emphasizing hydrangeas throughout our wedding tent, which we also featured on our wedding crest on our save, the dates, invitations, and day of details. We had a fantastic cascading hydrangea waterfall across our sweetheart's table and down to the ground. It was a dream come true.

FAVOURITE DETAIL OF THE DAY: We got an amazing oyster shell seating chart wall from Boston Backdrops, which was the focal point when guests arrived at our cocktail hour.

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE OUT TO A COUPLE PLANNING THEIR WEDDING? Enjoy it! You only get this time in your life once, and it goes by so quickly.

MOST MEMORABLE MOMENT? We had the most fantastic time on the dance floor with our guests. Not one person was sitting down, and so many guests said they had never experienced a wedding where absolutely everyone was dancing together like that.

WHAT ASPECT OF THE WEDDING WAS THE MOST IMPORTANT TO YOU BOTH? We spent most of the time working on our wedding ceremony. We got married in a Catholic Church and spent many hours engaging with our priest and deacon to make our ceremony very personal and meaningful. We meticulously chose all of the readings and music and helped with the discourse, and we are so happy with how special it was.

TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT YOUR HONEYMOON: Our honeymoon was booked for Maui just a few weeks before the fires broke out on the island. We quickly pivoted to two other Hawaiian islands, Kauai and Oahu. Neither of us had been to Hawaii, and we had the most amazing two weeks exploring and relaxing right after our wedding. We are itching to go back already!