Newport Bachelorette Party - Julia's Extra Night in Newport — Emily Sawyer - cape cod based graphic designer, calligrapher & photographer

Ok so obviously as a creator/designer I LOVE to plan parties. My sister, friends and I have always been pretty involved in all the parties that go on around us. I somehow always find a way to insert some handmade creations. There’s something about getting together with close friends and planning a party (themed or not) that is SO fun and always rewarding when it comes together.

When our best friend, Julia (of literally over 20 years) got engaged - one of our first thoughts was “okay, bachelorette party?!”. So it’s safe to say we had a lot of ideas floating around. We kept it a surprise for Julia, which was honestly the only difficult part of the process.

We chose the location first, which then introduced our theme. We planned a one night stay at the Newport Hotel and Marina in Newport, RI. Newport is known for it’s great nightlife by the sea (Jules loves both). Like any bachelorette party, the goal is to make the ultimate experience for the bride based on whatever she is into. So this was an easy choice.

Julia’s go-to is of course, dancing and fashion, so we landed on the master plan of ‘Julia’s EXTRA Night in Newport’. A night of best friends, satin, florals, clean whites, fabulous outfits and rose gold detailing. The night was basically perfect thanks to the combined efforts of us bridesmaids and our amazing squad of friends.

Setting Up:

We always seem to make some sort of entrance wherever we go - so after two broken champagne glasses in the parking lot and a rough elevator ride of squeezing decor in (world’s tiniest elevator is in RI, by the way) - we made it to our room to decorate and wait for our Bride To Be to arrive!

We took advantage of the table runners and peonies we had from the shower. They made SUCH a great pop of color that was on theme not only for this, but the whole wedding. These runners match our bridesmaid dresses perfectly - so they were the icing on the cake. Planning an epic party is all about the details - and I think we delivered!

Julia is notorious for giving great gifts - so I can’t lie, we overthought this one for a bit. We wanted the favors to be on theme but also useful to our guests. Even though the night was an ‘extra’ theme, by contrast, we kept the favors simplistic.

And if you know me - I love love LOVE any excuse to emboss in a shiny gold (more on that later). The wedding invitations are wrapped in vellum, so I embossed each of our ladies names on a vellum strip in rose gold. They made such an unexpected gorgeous combo when we affixed them to the golden satin goodie bags. And of course, embossed champagne glasses with personalized coasters featuring a different fab term for each guest: ‘wifey’ ‘baddie’ ‘bougie’ ‘lover’ ‘darling’ to name a few!

Custom labels made by yours truly to match the invitations! They looked SO CUTE when we put them on the Rosé Splits and mini waters. This little detail really carried our theme out nicely. We didn’t know what the room was going to look like - so can you imagine the nerves…

Our bride was totally surprised and loved the hotel room setup! She especially went nuts for the Selena piece made especially for her! ‘Like the flower’ which… I mean could that be any MORE on theme?!

The best part of the evening of course is making the memories. We have such an awesome group of friends who get together as if no time has passed. After our bride arrived we had a blast with the instant camera, dancing around to Julia’s favorite music and breaking out the trusty traveling Prosecco Pong set (that has made it to each bachelorette we’ve planned). Then we hit the town for dinner and dancing.

The Mooring Seafood Kitchen & Bar was first and was unanimously ruled as ‘the place with the best bread’. After we stopped at One Pelham East. ‘Good Will & Them Apples’ played and they were amazing. It had to have previously been a bank. They converted the vault door which opened to a game room/ pool table area. SO cool. Last was the Boom Boom Room. This super swanky dance club/bar beneath the Clarke Cooke House - so it was right up J’s alley (dance, dance, dance). After that it was heels off and pizza back at the hotel for a Kiki (gathering). It was an amazing night honoring Julia! And like any girl’s trip - we capped the weekend with brunch at Diego’s (SO good) and some light shopping. Everything was within walking distance of the hotel which made it the perfect place to have Julia’s Extra Night in Newport!

Shops we LOVED:

Inpopnito
The BEST flavored popcorn ever and I, personally, wasn’t leaving Newport without it. (They also have NEW CBD infused popcorn.)

The Salty Babe
Everything in here was SO cute. Shirts with hand lettering / simplistic fonts ( !! ) Soft tanks with adorable phrases like “The ocean made me salty” “Keep newport salty” and the coziest looking sweaters.

The Pepper Palace
This is a store dedicated to just sauces so we had to go in. Jamie signed the waiver and tried the hottest sauce in the world and she is our champion.

A lot of the decor was either reused from Julia’s shower or DIY! I saved our wine bottles and sprayed them white for sleek decor. Because John works with wood, we always have it around - so I scored some bamboo squares to make coasters out of. They were refinished, painted and embossed.
We moved around the hotel room a bit to give us the table space we needed and of course, used white table cloths. We used basic boxes for levels and added interest and lined them with the table runners.
(Those runners were an amazing score from the MOH and they can be used for SO many things and came with a ton of shades of pink!).

I always tell everyone about the magic of Embossing, too (satisfying Instagram videos out there can provide too many hours of watching & learning this method). Anyone can use an embossing gun - they just take some getting used to! I encourage everyone out there to give it a try because it adds SO much flair to whatever you write, whether you consider yourself creative or not. I mean, look at how much it added to this party’s display!? (a starter kit is linked below!)

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Newport RI Bachelorette Party - Julia's Extra Night in Newport