Be Excellent To Each Other

5 days in vegas for £700pp including hotel and flights, that's not bad!

You can come to our wee homecoming party!
I wouldn't bother with save the dates for an at home wedding but for this then I think its useful to let people know that if they want to come they need to save some cash. Plus we'll be doing it during the school holiday so don't want people booking anything else.

I want to go to Vegas.

So, Las Vegas. Here we go.

I bloody love Las Vegas.

One thing the wife and I did that made everything easier was we went over there a year in advance, scouted out loads of places, and then went back a year later to actually get married. I do, however, appreciate that this is probably not very convenient for you! On the positive side, it means we know really quite a lot about the place (especially when added to the several other times I’ve been there).

[EDIT NOTE! Feel free to ask Bobby, APOD, Myp and/or their wives about all this stuff, as they were all there. From my POV as groom everything was amazeballs. They may be able to offer differing opinions on what worked well and what didn’t, but I’d rather they do it in private so as not to ruin my memory of the event!]

VENUES!

We checked out some chapels, but decided in the end to go mid-strip to one of the nicer hotels. They have really lovely rooms in which to get married. Options for that are the likes of the Bellagio, Caesar’s, Venetian, Palazzo, Wynn etc. All have very nice places. We settled on Bellagio or Caesar’s, and since a friend had got married in the Bellagio, we chose Caesar’s. They have three different chapels, and they’re far nicer than you might imagine. No dancing Elvis in sight (though they can probably provide one if you want!).

Cost is actually comparatively little. I think we were in the region of 200-300 dollars for a room that could seat a couple of hundred, an officiant, music tech bloke and webcast of the ceremony. Plus the room looks amazing and you don’t need to provide flowers or anything. I’m sure the various chapels around can provide similar services, and there are cheaper options (and far more expensive ones too, obv) available.

PARTY!

Vegas (and possibly America in general) has a different thing about receptions to the UK. Over here we’re likely to have a meal in a place, and then it turns into some sort of disco, and we stay there until everyone falls down or they kick you out at 2am when you’re hammered and just getting going. In Vegas the de facto option is to go for a meal, and then to fuck off elsewhere, like to a bar or just a casino. Which seems odd to me, but there you are. As such, most places providing a wedding ‘breakfast’ (as in the afternoon/evening meal) will expect you to be there for a meal, maybe to mill around a bit, and then to leave. It won’t be the same kind of reception as you would expect here. That said, numbers are likely to be very different, so what you plan could differ greatly.

We took loads of people over, as we were lucky enough to have a crazy amount of people willing to spend a fortune to go see us get married (more likely they wanted to go to Vegas… I cannot blame them).

So, your main options are likely be to have a nice meal somewhere, potentially in your own private room, or to hire a place for the night and make it your own. We decided on the latter, and looked at various suites and rooms that we could use. At this point you choice becomes massively tied to how many people you are going to take with you. We had 40-odd, so we hired the G-Suite at The Palms. It had recently been hired by the Foo Fighters for some after show party, so it seemed like a cool place to be - http://palmsfantasy.vegas.com/gsuite/gsuite.html

There are plenty of other amazing places that we looked at, including the Absolut Suite at Caesar’s (http://www.harrahs.com/casinos/caesars- ... etail.html), various others at the Palms, some at Planet Hollywood, etc etc etc.

My other friend who got married over there did so at the Bellagio, with the reception in a function room at the Four Seasons, which served lovely food and had good entertainment and stuff, though it was only for a couple of hours.

Restaurants are great for smaller groups to have a reception, followed by drinking and carousing around The Strip, and you can hire a private room and keep it for the night at many places. Some of the better places to eat that we considered for a reception venue included:

Joe’s Stone Crab and Steak House - http://www.joes.net/
The food is amazing, and the place itself is really lovely. It’s in the shopping arcade attached to Caesar’s, but a little bit of a walk away. It’s almost closer to the next hotel along, to tell the truth. Anyway, you can get cabs from wherever to the front door, as it has views out on to the Strip. It has a function room that we very nearly had for the reception. The food is so good! We ended up having our pre-wedding family meal there two or three nights before the actual wedding. Best steak I have ever had, and the crab claws are nice too!

Mon Ami Gabi that Squirt mentioned and had his at is also great. We had a very lovely meal there, and they also do a cool thing where if they are busy and you’re just there for a meal (it’s a prime spot so always busy) you get a big electronic beer mat, and can go off gambling. When your table is ready, it starts to buzz. Food is French and yummy. - http://www.monamigabi.com/home/?loc=vegas

Maggiano’s is also popular. They cater to lots of parties and weddings. Italian food, well thought of, but I’ve never actually been - http://www.maggianos.com/EN/Las-Vegas_Las-Vegas_NV

At the Bellagio, ‘Le Cirque’ does a corking menu, and a good value one for pre-theatre, but it’s still pretty spendy as it’s a Michelin star job. Instead, try sister restaurant Circo, just next door, which is superb and a fraction of the price. The rack of lamb and the caprese salad martini were particular highlights!

Wendy’s near to The Flamingo is useful for breakfasts if you don’t want to spend big on a massive buffet.

If you do want a buffet, the one at Planet Hollywood does the best lunch/dinner. The roast beef is incredible.

Bradley Ogden’s has a Michelin star, is in Caesar’s Palace, and does a superb value set menu, and good value catering for groups (considering it also has a Michelin star).

Enough with the restaurants! I could talk about them all day!

TIMING!

Do not get married there in the middle of Summer. Well, you can, but it will be over 40 degrees outside all day, and you’ll go bright red and not look as awesome in the photos as you should. One of the cool things about getting married in vegas is going to cool photo spots in all your gear. Doing that in June/July is NOT FUN.
October is the ideal month. That tends to be when people from Vegas get married. Or something like that. Temps are high twenties as opposed to forties. It was glorious when we were out there (Oct 23rd).

Stag and Hen Fun Stuff!
We went to The Gun Store. Do this. It’s ace. We shot all sorts of guns, and they have themed COD and L4D and other game packages, so you can fire an M16 with a red dot sight, or a Desert Eagle, etc. It’s very expensive (100 quid for the four guns I fired, I think), but it was a once in a lifetime thing, and with a load of us there we had a ball. And the marshall nearly shot Riles for disobeying an order, which is always entertaining. (He didn’t actually nearly shoot him… he just told him off very sternly).

We also went to the rollercoaster through New York, New York. That was ace. If you’re hardcore then the rides atop the Stratosphere are way crazier.

We went to the Hooters casino. It’s awesome because it is full of hot girls in tight clothes, and they have low table limits, so you can play 3 dollar blackjack.

The girls went to a pole dancing class and some tea party at the Four Seasons or something. I forget.

WHERE TO STAY!

Stay mid-Strip. If you have the budget, the nice ones in the middle like Caesar’s, Bellagio, Venetian, Wynn are all great. Slightly cheaper is the Flamingo, which is still cool, as is Buffallo Bill’s, and the Imperial Palace is well cheap and also nearby. It’s a false economy to go further out than the crossroads of MGM/Trop/Excalibur/NY one way or Imp palace the other, as you’ll spend all you time travelling to places.

Right, that’s enough for now. Feel free to ask me quezzies.

Overall, it was the best week of my life. Just amazing fun with awesome friends.

Excellent, thanks Curio
I had suggested a cheeky wee recce trip to Vegas but we ended up both deciding that we'd prefer our first visit to be our wedding and it saves a wee bit of extra cash to spend on the wedding trip as well. I have registered on The Knot forum which coupled with a website called Vegas Groom is an absolute goldmine of information, plus brides that have just come back are constantly posting reviews of the various vendors used and hotels/restaurants they have visited. Hopefully that, coupled with picking the brains of you and others on here who've been, will help us make some decisions.
Good advice about the hotels and chapels, I don't want to pay a couple of thousand dollars for a package at a hotel chapel when we only really want a 15minute ceremony, so that's good to know that even the big hotels will be willing to provide a basic ceremony.
Hotel wise we had already decided that we would prefer one of the more upscale ones, it is a special occassion after all Where have you stayed, and what sort of room did you stay in if you don't mind me asking? We would like to stay in a suite, if even just for the wedding night, with a great view of the strip.
We are trying to keep numbers low and will hopefully be under 30 but we won't really begin to get a proper feel for that until we've decided on the date and told people that that's what's happening to find out if they're really serious about coming.
What did you do about catering and alcohol for your in suite thing? I really like the idea of an in suite reception, but I'm unsure what it would cost. Did you use the hotels services or did you get outside people in? What did you do for music?
On the day did you hire a photographer or just use the one provided at the chapel?
I'm pretty sure I have more to ask but I can't think of them right now so I'll be back soon I'm sure

Again, really appreciate you sharing all this with me

Oh and i forgot to mention, October 2014 is on the shortlist for our choice of date, it'll either be then or Easter 2015 so it's great to hear that's such a great time of year

It was shit.

I thought I was harshly treated. It was only a couple of flesh wounds.

Maria did a load of research via 'The Knot'. It's a good site!

We stayed in Caesar's for the week we were there, and also had one night in the suite in the Palms.

We were getting married at CP, and got an upgrade to an awesome room for not much extra. It was pretty big, about 30 stories up, and looked out directly on to the Bellagio fountains. Any room with that view is automatically awesome. I can dig out some pics if you like.

One good thing about Vegas is that the overall cost of stuff over there tends to be quite low. For instance, the amazing venue, flights over there, food and booze for the event, ceremony etc all cost less than the follow up meal/party in London did! The people in Vegas very much want your business, and are very good at helping you out. It's a competitive marketplace, especially in a recession, so they will be trying to entice you in.

So, ask for stuff, and haggle! We got a grand off our reception venue just by asking for it! And that was before the world economy went to shit!

For catering, we used a bar service provided by The Palms. They have us a bartender and unlimited booze for, I think, 3 hours, on a per head basis. We also used the in house food catering, and had some cool stuff, like a mashed potato martini bar, steak, tuna and some other stuff. We also bought in amazing cupcakes from a local bakery.

After the 3 hours was up, we moved on to the booze we had brought ourself (and hidden in a cupboard). The staff were aware we had brought our own drink in, but we okayed it beforehand. So that was loading up on beer and wine and spirits from a supermarket.

We also lucked out in that the previous night there had been a wine trade type event there, and they left us about fifteen bottles of wine and a couple of crates of beer. Bonus!

Music in the suite was via my iPod. It has a built in sound system, as most will do. We also had Elvis, because fuck yeah Elvis!

Actually our Elvis was awesome. He had recently won a Best Elvis in the World competition. Reasonably priced too, and the old people especially loved it!

Our photographer was Ron Miller, who is amazing, and made us look incredible. We did luk out a bit there, as since we booked him his prices went up by about 1000%, though he gives discounts for reccomendations. I'll post some of his pics here too at some point.

A few pics from the wedding are here - http://www.ronmphoto.com/blog/2009/10/2 ... 23rd-2009/

Excellent photos, that suite looks incredible. I'm really not sure yet what our numbers are going to be so that figure is going to have a big impact on what we can do for our reception. A suite is the favourite right now though

Wedding is now booked, and today I went for my first visit to bridal shops 'just for a look'. Pretty sure I found my dress, probably going to buy it on Monday when I go back with my sisters

How did you find the bridal shops? Jazzy and I went in a couple a few weeks ago and they made me feel nauseous, even though I have had my dress since January. I think it was the emotion invested in the place (there was a girl in the shop clearly distressed as the dresses she was trying on she didn't like and she was very upset), and staff members: 'when's your wedding?'
'Mid July'
'What? Well you've not left yourself much time!!!!'

Really abrupt and... I don't know. Anyway, I had my dress and was mostly looking for Jazzy, but they still made me feel panicked and bad about everything, so I wondered if it was me, those particular bridal shops or just all bridal shop staff

Helen got her dress from tk maxx for £55, then spent months trying to find something 'proper' but in the end it was just the best one

I imagine it helped that we weren't doing a white wedding.

In Vegas?

Details!

I believe 'the traditional package' runs along the lines of champagne, gambling, champagne, a shotgun wedding you don't remember, champagne, gambling, blow, hookers and champagne and blow, real shotguns, dead hookers, police chase and deportation.

Aw that sucks Mimi, I fortunatly had a really good experience. I have always said I wouldn't buy an expensive 'bridal' gown and would rather spend the money elsewhere but once I'd tried on a couple that I loved, all my sensible thoughts went out the window. I love the way they are fitted to your body and give you the most amazing looking figure and silhoutte. I wish I could wear one every day!
We were the only group in the shop for most of the time so I didn't see anyone getting stressed or upset. The first few dresses I tried on didn't really impress me and I started to get a bit anxious that maybe I just wouldn't suit a wedding dress but once we found my style I was delighted.
I think you must have just had bad staff, I hope the rest of your planning is a bit more enjoyable!

I went to sleep last night thinking about my dress and it was the first thing I thought of this morning. I'm now beginning to worry though that I've picked the first one I loved and maybe I should see more so I might try and fit in another appointment on Monday afternoon.

I wish I had tried on some lovely designer non bridal dresses first and I bet I'd have been happy with one of them for less than £200, but now I've tried on a glamourous gown fitted to my figure I'm afraid I've got full on bride brain

We've booked the Platinum hotel, ceremony on the rooftop terrace at sunset, then a cocktail hour, then inside for dinner, then back on the rooftop where our DJ will be set up and dancing under the stars.
Booked Gin and Sake as the photographers and nearly settled on the DJ (my favourite one has been ruled out based on costing $5000 ).
Flights are just coming out now so we'll be booking them and the hotel sometime in the coming weeks!
Our date is Thursday 9th April 2015

Amazing

Sounds super!

Less than a year to go now!!!!

Looks brilliant!

sounds wonderful!

Thanks everyone, we're both so excited about it I still need to sort out flowers, officiant, cake, transport, accomodation and honeymoon.
We were originally thinking of hiring a car and driving up the west coast for our honeymoon but I'm beginning to think that after a week in Vegas and the stress of planning the wedding long distace, we might appreciate an ultra all inclusive or luxury hotel in Mexico or Hawaii. Might as well use the excuse of our honeymoon to go somewhere we would not normally be able to justify to ourselves!

We said this and ended up in Vegas... and then went again the next year so that almost worked.

Mrs T has a terrible experience in one of the bridal shops she went to, and a brilliant experience in another, so I think it all depends on the shop itself and the people who work there.