Be Excellent To Each Other

Hiya pals, we're currently favouring Vegas as the place where we want to get married and I know of at least one person here who has personal experience of having a wedding there, with more people certainly having at least visited there. So I was hoping I could pick your brains.
If you have married there, where did you have the ceremony, did you pay for a package or just a service, how many guests did you have (and was this number prone to fluctuation a lot prior to everyone booking?), when did you book the after events and what did you do after the service (sit down meal/buffet/private suite party).
If you have visited, can you recommend any wonderful places to stay/visit/eat/drink?
We haven't decided for sure on this yet but it's looking like a serious contender and if we did it, we'd be looking at Easter 2014 to give our family a chance to save and because too many of my relations work in schools so it needs to be during the holiday! The other time that would suit would be summer holidays and would mean we could honeymoon immediately after because I'd be off Uni, but we think it would be too hot (especially for my pasty Scottish skin!). Can anyway who's visited let us know when they visited and what the weather was like? If we go in April would we be able to sunbathe and would the pools all be open? We like the idea of booking some poolside cabanas one day and chilling with all our friends by the pool.

I'm sure I have more question but I'm typing on my phone so I'll just leave it at that for now. I hope someone can help, thanks

I went April 2010 and it was warm and dry the whole time, but not unpleasantly hot.

Go see La Réve if you can.

I love Vegas. I want to go back to Vegas.

Curio is the man to speak to.

That looks brilliant! I'm going to have to start a wedding folder I think.

Yeah I was going to PM him but then thought that there might be others here who had useful stuff to add

I went in August 2010 and August 2011... and it was bloomin' roasting! The air conditioned casino's were a welcome respite to the heat.

I like how you said that you'd like to "relax" by the pool. Las Vegas is not the place for relaxing in my opinion. There's so much to see and do that you won't want to sit around doing nothing. When I went I saw a couple of shows (The Phantom of the Opera was amazing but it's finished now) I shot some guns, visited the Grand Canyon, went shopping, ate in bars and loads of other stuff. If you do go shopping, don't buy much on the strip as it's very expensive. There's a couple of out of town shopping centers that are cheaper and only a bus ride away... Oh yeah, get a bus ticket to last the time you're over there too. They're very regular and cheaper than taxis.

It's great.

I didn't get married over there but I saw a few couples that did and they looked very happy. It's definitely something you'll never forget!

I wish I were getting married in nevada.

Eat some vegetables before you leave home. It will be some time before they come into your grasp again.

Edited to remove reference to concepts that will be confusing to scotch folk.

I didn't get married in Nevada. However, my sex life has been like Nevada ever since.

Cheap whores that smell like cordite? Awesome!

I will post at length in this thread.

Hey, I can be partial to a slice of cucumber in my gin!

That's a fruit.

Did you get married over there then?

Vegas baby!
We had the ceremony at http://www.littlechapel.com/ - it was lovely, the people were crazy helpful and did a lot for you. You'll have to go to the courthouse before to get your license ( or we had to, anyway ) but it's literally a 15 min form filling. We only had a few guests and hired a private room at http://www.monamigabi.com/home/?loc=vegas but I know curio's was much bigger. You might be able to save a few quid hiring limos and stuff yourself rather than through the venue.


I agree with TheVision - there is no way you'll see everything, so don't even try!

Some tips:

- Don't underestimate how big the Strip is. It's blinking miles from end to end. Even walking a couple of casinos down can be a fair old trek.
- You will spend lots of cash, but there are free things about. Definitely spend some time watching the fountains outside the Bellagio.
- If you want to gamble, don't be afraid to try the table games! I found you spent less money than on the slots, and at a low-stake table the dealers are used to beginners, so won't rush you or expect you to know everything. A good craps table with a lot of people around is fun, even if you're only sticking down a buck a roll.

I certainly wouldn't usually associate Vegas with a day poolside, I just think that maybe the day before the wedding, or the day after, a day of not having a lot planned and being in one area where we got to hang out with the people who'd came over with us would be a good way to chill. We'd probably aim for about a week in Vegas but we'd plan to go for a proper Vegas experience on another trip. I like the idea of shooting guns! Where did you do that?

I went here.

http://thegunstorelasvegas.com/

It's 5 minutes away from the strip but if you wanted to go, I'd recommend getting there very early in the morning. There's always a massive queue and bear in mind that it's quite pricey, but when else are you going to have a chance to shoot guns?

As it stands, we wouldn't need to make the trip to the courthouse because dissapointingly Nevada turned down same sex marriage. I think that's one of the reasons we're not 100% set on it. We could go to New York and legally marry but in Vegas it would be a commitment ceremony with the legal stuff happening at home before we went. I would still treat the ceremony in front of our family as the moment we were married though and I am so into the idea of a Vegas wedding!

Good tip! We got off the bus at a stop and saw our hotel in the distance. It looked walkable.... 30 minutes later and it was still the same size in the distance! The haze and brightness play tricks on the eyes so watch out.
Yep. Agree with this... don't forget Freemont Street. I'll post a video later that I took while I was there. It has to be seen to be believed.

For a real Vegas pool-side experience, try http://www.mirage.com/nightlife/bare.aspx !

We went to a "Legends of Rock" type show, which was a bunch of impersonators ( Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis, Johnny Cash ) which sounds cheesy but was good fun. I think for Vegas you have to sort of "let go" and just admit that everything is going to be over the top and a touch crazy, and just dive in.

This is a good idea because not everyone will be able to afford to visit Las Vegas.

I can't decide if that's an honest question or you being sarcastic because I mention it a lot!

In short, Vegas is awesome, I can recommend a ton of things, but will wait until I am at home on a PC so I can type properly and stuff. Also, I get giddily enthusiastic about stuff like this, so will likely go off on one at length.

We also went to The Gun Store after breakfast on my Stag Do. They have packages you can buy, such as a Left 4 Dead and Modern Warfare ones, where you fire the guns from those games (though they change the names slightly).

I fired an M16 w/ RDS, a G3 and a Desert Eagle. It was amazing. Expensive, but amazing, and well worth the money for the experience.

Ah, the memories. Just being able to be in Vegas, and wander around bumping into my best mates in casinos.

I wanna go back!

GILLY'S WEDDING BEEX VEGAS TRIP!!


We're all invited, right?

I vaguely remember you mentioning it but I don't pay much attention so don't worry.. It must be me!

Obligatory:

I think the at home legal bit would be just Jen and I and our witnesses. Then the wedding in Vegas, then an at home reception style event which would basically pick up from the evening part of a normal wedding at home.

Squirt that legends of rock thing sounds excellent, I can imagine that being a right laugh
Did you book and arrange everything yourselves or did you use a planner?

It was these guys, I think : http://www.legendsinconcert.com/performers

They were actually pretty good - not just your average down the pub tribute band.

There was someone at the chapel who helped us organise and advised us on things, but most of the holiday we sorted out ourselves.

I know I'm not Squirt but the first time I went to Vegas, I booked everything over there but the second time, I booked stuff in advance.

Booking in advance is much better as you'll have more time to get the cheapest prices and know well in advance in case you need to sort out any problems, Plus.. who wants to spend time on holiday booking things?

CURIO!

I wrote a massive long post yesterday, covering about half of it. Decided to leave the rest until later (today)... and my computer seems to have turned off and on again or something in between. So I lost it.

I have started writing again, this time in Word.

xxx
I have been given the task of selling it to my fiancee, she is into the idea but just needs that last little push I think. Mainly it seems to be her not being able to properly visualise what it will be like so I want to be armed with as much info as possible to set the scene for her

Hah! Just been informed that this morning my daughter sneaked into the spare room and bashed the keyboard on y computer for five minutes.

At least that explains why it got deleted!

Chop off her hands, it's the only way she'll learn.

Nah. I just gave her Maria's laptop.

I am nearly finished with the writing of this post...

Yay!

What's the deal with invites then? Did anyone who did a destination wedding do invites letting people know of a rough time period so they kept it free and started saving, or did they just handle this by word of mouth?

Decided on it about a year in advance, and sent out 'Save the Date' things, I think (but also, more usefully, discussed it with everyone likely to go).

At least that's what I recall doing. It might have actually been different. Bobby, APOD or Ange might remember, as they were all there.

You expect me to remember anything about Vegas. Brave, brave man.

Already discussed it with most people, so will endeavour to tell any others asap. Have no idea yet where we'll be getting married but I think we have roughly the right time, so maybe we should get our asses in gear and book *something* even if it's just the ceremony, then we can send out STDs. hehehehe.

We were going to send out Save The Dates, but couldn't work out why we would do that instead of just sending out invites a bit earlier than is traditionally done. A STD is just an invite with no detail as far as I can tell...

My uber post will be finished by the end of tomorrow.

Don't do anything hasty before then!

I'm going to send out some STDs at the quiz.

You've forgotten at least one.

/waves

Duh! This thread is an open invite!

Me and Mrs T are planning a Vegas holiday next year anyway, when we have the dates shall I tell you so you can make sure you plan your wedding at the same time?

Myp and Ange combined with me and the wife to synchronise our wedding and their honeymoon!