Our wedding pretty much turned out exactly the way we wanted it to (minus a few hiccups). I can't believe its been over for a week already since yesterday! We just came back late Thurs. night and of course our weekend was super busy so I apologize for my reviews being late. But here they are...and as soon as I can round up some pics I'll post them too!
Debi with Fit for a Bride - Grade: A
Debi was a pleasure to worth with and my dress, veil and crinoline, DH's tux and my mom's dress came back perfect. We opted for the full delivery service which I'm glad we did. Easy peasy.
Veronica with Makeup to Remember - Grade: A
Veronica came to our room with two assistants to help her complete all 5 of us. I forgot to bring my inspiration pics with me, so all I asked her for was a smokey eye with maybe some pink or champagne tones. I loved what she did, I felt soo pretty!
We all opted for the airbrush makeup and it was FANTASTIC! Everyone was happy with their makeup...except for my MIL. I told her to tell the assistant so that she could fix it but of course she said nothing. I thought her makeup looked nice but I think she was missing her usual lower eyeliner so I think she just added it herself.
Caesars Palace Venus Garden - Grade: A-
Brooke was our WC and she was absolutely fantastic to work with. Venus Garden was beautiful and romantic and I was soo happy to see the ivy wasn't on the pillars! Our wedding day was soo windy though, so the rose petals we had scattered down the aisle were pretty much gone by the time I walked down. We also definitely heard the pool noise, especially the bass from their music "boom, boom, boom, boom". One of our GM's complained about it before the start of the ceremony, and they turned it down a bit but told him they can't turn it off. I think in the future Caesar's should have the decency and respect for their wedding couples and turn off the damn music during their outdoor ceremonies! Our families said they barely noticed the pool music but I think they're just trying to be nice :-) because we sure heard it!
My bouquet and all the wedding party's flowers were soo gorgeous, and exactly what I had asked for. The music CD we provided played without a hitch and the staff were very good at timing the music according to the timeline we provided them. I made a few adjustments to our officiant's ceremony script and he had no problem carrying it out (Rev. Brian Ross). We didn't talk to him much but he was very nice and professional.
The Cohens Photography - Grade: B (no pro pics yet)
As many of you know, we changed photographers two weeks before the wedding due to our 1st photographer becoming ill. I booked Josh & Keny Cohen because they were originally our first choice back when we were planning our wedding, and they were still available for our wedding day.
I have no doubt that our wedding pictures will be gorgeous but there were a few concerns that came up during the day. My mom said that she saw Josh a few times rolling his eyes when we were getting family and wedding party photos (if they took a long time). Other family and wedding party members also commented that they found him a little bit arrogant to deal with. Keny was a sweetheart though, and seemed to be the one watching the time and keeping Josh on track.
We went out to Lake Las Vegas to do our pictures based on Josh's recommendations (he talked us out of doing a Strip tour). It's beautiful out there, but 1/2 hr from the strip so the travel time did cut into our "picture time". We dropped our wedding party off at a local bar for drinks and snacks, and then DH and I headed out with Josh & Keny to do our pictures first.
Well...near the end of our pictures, we were doing the classic "Thank-you" parasol shot. Josh & Keny asked DH to take my hand and to run down the grassy field with me. I took no more than 3 steps and TRIPPED on my stupid crinoline that must have been falling down under my dress and totally BAILED landing on my right arm with my elbow going through the parasol! Everyone was so shocked and asking "OMG, are you okay? are you okay?" Luckily I only bruised my arm really bad and received a scratch, ripped the bottom of my dress and had some grass stains...no broken bones, no blood, only a bruised arm AND ego and a broken parasol hahaha!!! We ended our photo session there since I needed a bag of ice and some advil before continuing on with the bridal party shots.
Since we took too long doing our pictures, we really didn't have a lot of time to do pics with our bridal party which I'm really disappointed about. I wish Josh was more aware of the time...Keny did remind him every now and then but he seemed to ignore her. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the ones we DID get will be fabulous! Also, we ran over our time limit with our limo so we were charged another hour!
At our reception, the plan was to do our grand entrance, first dance, parent dances and cake cutting before the dinner was served. Josh & Keny were willing to stay for this extra time (1/2 hr) in lieu of us using their complimentary engagement session. Due to the sound system snafus (read about those down below) I think they stayed closer to an hour so I really give them props for that!
Overall...we were very grateful to have them there and we'll just have to wait for the pictures to give our final review!
EARTH LIMOS - GRADE: A
We used their mega stretch SUV limo bus and it was nice and clean. Our driver was very professional and friendly, even when he had to tell us we were going to run over our time limit and he'd have to charge an extra hour. I'd use them again.
Note: My dad noticed this weekend that he was overcharged on his credit card for the balance of the limo so the owner is suppose to reverse one of the charges hopefully on Monday.
MAGGIANO'S - GRADE: A-
The food and service at Maggiano's was soo good, I'm wishing right now I could eat that meal again! Our banquet captain, Jeremy, was very attentive and all the staff there were wonderful too. Cassy was an absolute blessing during our planning, she answered so many of my silly questions and to walk into that room and see everything come together was just so amazing! The martini's were yummy as well, I'm sure us girls tried every one at least once lol. We did a consumption bar and capped it off around $1000 and we came just under that so we were happy because it was still cheaper then paying for their per person open bar.
The only issue we had during the whole reception was the music. One of our GM's and his brother brought all their sound equipment (Ipod dock, speakers, microphone, wires, laptop, etc.) for our reception music and to play our slideshow. The staff helped them connect it to their sound system and they tested it all before the reception began and everything worked fine UNTIL DH and I did our first dance. The music all of a sudden dropped in volume but since you could still hear it a bit we continued on. My dad and I then started our dance...the music completely cut out! It was pretty embarassing standing there while everyone tried to fix the music. My FI was sooo mad, and I was surprisingly pretty calm so I grabbed him and we went outside into the hallway so I could calm him down. After what seemed like forever, they had fixed the music but only by bringing down the screen and turning on the projector. We decided to re-do the first dance and father-daughter dances now that the music was fixed. But during the dances, everyone said we had the projector glow on our faces so I hope our pictures turn out okay 
In the end, they took off the $200 charge to use the projector/screen AND allowed us to stay in the room an extra 1/2 hour because of the interruption. So all was good!
CREATIONS BAKERY - GRADE: A+
Our cake looked exactly the way we wanted it to and tasted SOO good! Our bottom layer was half chocolate, half white with raspberry mousse filling. The top layer was red velvet cake with cream cheese mousse. They were both very good but my favorite was the half choc/half white with raspberry mouse.
Since we had lots of cake left over Maggiano's packed up a bunch of boxes and we took it back to our hotel. Somehow though, the bag was lost in our parents room amongst some other wedding stuff, so we didn't get to eat any of the leftover cake! I could cry just thinking about how much went to waste...boo-hoo!
Pam with The Palette - GRADE: A-
Pam did all the centerpieces, the cake floral and my toss bouquet and everything looked beautiful. I noticed though that the purple orchids in our submerged vases weren't sprayed a dark purple like we had talked about, so they were more of a fuschia pink color (our colors were apple green and plum purple). I had also asked for a ti leaf to be wrapped around the base of each submerged centerpiece and what we got was a very thin green leaf. So the centerpieces didn't look exactly as what I had planned, but they were still very pretty.
Well ladies I think that's enough for now, once I think of more I will re-post! If anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask.
BFP #1 MM/C discovered at 8w2d, loss 11/18/11
I'll hold you in my heart until I hold you in heaven
BFP #2 7/7/12, EDD 3/14/13, stick baby stick!
