Wedding planning has begun! HELP!

Bean87

Hi! Me and my OH are planning on getting married in Vegas in a couple of years and are just starting to research it all now so that we can get a rough budget that we need to save. The plan as it stands is to fly to LA, spend 1 night there then drive to vegas (something OH has his heart set on) spend 5 nights in vegas (including getting married) then drive back to LA, spend 7-10 nights in LA and surrounding area, want to go to Universal hollywood, Disneyland, Seaworld San Diego etc. So here goes, I have a few questions which I hope that you can help me with! -Best time of year to go to vegas (needs to be either February/April/July/August/October/December as has to coincide with uk school holidays due to 2 close friends being teachers) -Tips on the resort wedding packages (so far have looked at the bellagio and the MGM grand), anywhere recommended? -Tips on reception venue (looking at a nice restaurant as there won't be many of us so thinking we will probably just book a table) -Advice on 'haggling' with hotels over wedding party discounts Any other advice would be greatly received about getting married in Vegas/honeymooning in LA. I would love to hear your experiences! I have plenty of time to get planning so need as much advice as possible! Thanks :-)

Em&MPatti

One place I would start if I were you is vegasgroom.com  He has all sorts of listing for all sorts of places.  He even has reviews from previous knotties so you can get an idea if that's what you are looking for.  I have been to Vegas in April and absolutely loved the weather at that time.  We are getting married in July and from everything I've read, it's going to be HOT ~ all day, all night!  I'm not sure about the other months.

 

Happy planning!!  This place is great, it will help tons!

ktbabe530

The drive from LA is fun, especially when you can start seeing the lights in the distance!  

July and August are going to be HOT!  I live in Phoenix (similar weather) and it's June and already over 100 every day.  Although, some places might offer discounts in those months.  And the pools are always fun for day drinking!  

February and December will be a bit cold (no snow or anything but cold).  Vegas around Christmas time is soooo pretty with all the decorations they do.  Also hotels are fairly cheap between Thanksgiving and New Years.  

October would probably have the best weather out of those months.

We are booked at the Mirage and really excited and so far the ladies I've been working with have been really nice.  We also looked at Flamingo and Planet Hollywood and both seemed nice as well.  MGM and Bellagio are also really nice and will have really good restaurants in them too!  

Good luck!

Jiimanie

Hi, welcome to the board!

I'm getting married in April (also having to coincide with UK holidays as my Mom works in a school), weather is typically good, driest month of the year apparently! Temperatures are average 24c which is pretty warm by UK standards, but this year on our wedding day it was 29c which would be awesome, if a little sweaty! Don't think I could handle hotter than that on my wedding day, if you're the same then I'd avoid the summer holidays! Whilst Feb/Oct can be nice weather too, we thought April is good as its the Easter holiday so those working in schools have 2 weeks off and can make a longer trip of it if they wish. Of course Vegas is slightly busier that time of year too due to spring break and several conventions (check the dates of the really big ones before booking your trip!). 

As for hotel packages, I can't really comment as we went straight for the Little Church of the West without any other research. Same with our meal, we booked the semi-private room at The Wynn Buffet (holds 36 people) with very little research on anything else as it fitted our needs perfectly. I'm sure the other brides on this board can help with those two things though, and @vegasgroom of course!

Enjoy the planning, you have lots of time

mnupp

I've done the drive from LA multiple times--the first few hours are boring but it's always fun to see the lights on the horizon!

My first bit of advice is to figure out what kind of wedding you want and what your priorities are:

•  Do you want to get married inside or outside? 
• Do you want a chapel? 
• Do you want a package that makes it easy, or would you prefer to choose vendors separately?
• Do you have a certain photography/floral/cake style that you want, or will you be happy with what the casino/hotel can provide? (This is especially important for photography, as some places won't let you bring in an outside photographer.)
• Would you prefer your reception in a ballroom or a restaurant?
• Do you want people to sit and enjoy a good, quiet meal, or to dance and get drunk?
• Do you want everybody to stay at the same hotel where you're getting married, or is it ok for them to spread out and just come together for the wedding?

Then I would suggest reading reviews and looking at blogs (littlevegaswedding.com has a great assortment, or find some photographers that you like and review their photos) to see what KINDS of places you like.

I pretty much stalked those blogs for the first few months I was engaged to figure out if there was somewhere that "felt right," then I e-mailed a BUNCH of hotels, chapels, wedding coordinators, etc to see who I liked working with (oddly, the wedding coordinator we chose is from my tiny hometown in NY!) and what the prices were. Heck, I STILL stalk those blogs and think about "what-ifs"!

As for haggling, get some things narrowed down before you start asking tough questions. It gets easier when you have 3-4 favorite spots and you can say, "I really like your package, but I know that other places offer _______ (courtesy rates, room comps, buffet upgrades, open bar hours, etc) and I'd be more likely to sign with you if you can add that to the package." 

For the wedding/honeymoon combination, I would probably lean towards October or April, as Dec/Feb is not beautiful in LA (it can be wet and rainy, you still have to wear a jacket) and July/Aug is uncomfortably hot in Vegas.

vegasgroom

Welcome to the board!

I had to look up what an OH is? :-)

Regarding haggling, unfortunately you'll find that typically you can do better on your own using coupon codes than what resorts will typically give you.  There are room blocks you can make so you can at least guarantee rooms can still be booked up to 30 days before wedding day but the rates are not what you'd get just using online coupon codes.  There is a sometimes exception to this and that is Caesars' Total Experiences group, which manages all of the Caesars properties.  I have heard of them giving some reasonable deals on blocks of rooms bought in advance, so if they were able to do something for you you might be able to work out a deal there but you never know, I've heard good and bad.

The drive from LA to San Diego is a fairly long one but not as bad as Vegas to San Diego which I made the stupid decision to do last fall.  With stop to re-fuel and food, it took over seven hours each way.  You may want to cut a night or two out of LA and add them back in San Diego.  The Gaslamp Quarter is a really cool place to hang out; tons of bars and restaurants and not priced as horrible as LA's trendy areas.