Aria Panoramic Penthouse: A+++
We held our wedding ceremony and post-reception party here. What
can I say but WOW. We spent the night before the wedding there and then the
night of the wedding. It fit our guests easily and was just breathtaking with
stunning views of the Strip. The Sky Suites staff treat you like royalty too!
The only downside: late check-out was something like $50. Even though we
mentioned we had gotten married the front desk didn’t waive the fee. That is
only one minor complaint though, overall the penthouse was just perfect. We
will definitely stay there again, maybe for a special birthday or an
anniversary!
Blooms By the Box/Whole Blossoms – A+++
I ordered my flowers
online in bulk. It was probably one of the best ideas I had! My best friend
arranged them for me (she worked in a flower shop in high school and does a lot
of weddings on the side). I ordered dendrobium orchids, some greens, cream
roses and Picasso calla lilies; the roses
showed up looking pretty beaten up and didn’t really recover for the most part,
so roses probably aren’t ideal for mail-order. But everything else was in great
condition and arrived right on time!
Desert Glamour/Whitney Larios (HMUA): B+
Whitney and her assistant showed up on time and did a really
nice job with everyone’s hair and makeup. They were fun and easy to work with and
really took our preferences into account. I loved how natural my makeup looked
and my veil stayed in place although even though it was being blown all over
the place when taking our pictures outside. One of my bridesmaids even remarked
that she liked her hair better than how it was on her wedding day! However Whitney
ran late and we almost started the ceremony late as a result. I had originally
booked her to be done an hour before the ceremony was supposed to start, but
they didn’t finish until something like 20 minutes before the ceremony. That
would have been okay except for the fact that we weren’t able to put out most
of the decorations until after they left because a lot of the chairs and open
spaces in the room were being used by them (which is totally fine, no issues
there).
Luckily my bridesmaids were real life-savers and cleaned the
whole penthouse up, arranged all the flowers and decorations and seating in
time for the guests to show up… but if it hadn’t been for their help the guests
would have seen me in a mad dash trying to get the room in order right up until
the ceremony started. I do understand there could have been a variety of
reasons for why the hair and makeup took so long – but I had been very clear
when scheduling the appointment that my bridesmaids have a lot of hair that can
be tough to style, so really there was no excuse for running so late – only
Whitney and her assistant can know how much time they need. In the end
everything turned out okay but I was really stressed and frankly irritated that
the preparations came down to the wire like that when it could have been
avoided.
Todd (Bently & Wilson) A+++
Everything positive people have said on here about Todd is
true. He is on time, professional, very flexible and everyone liked him. He was
super laid-back and took exactly the pictures I had asked him to take.
Personally I prefer more photojournalistic style pictures than what he
typically does but he did take a lot of really beautiful candid shots.
Ultimately we chose him because I love how he composes his shots and how he
frames the Strip into the background of the pictures – and he did not
disappoint! In 4 hours he took over 1000 shots and we have over 200 favourites,
and no pictures that I actually dislike. I had emailed him a list of shots that
I wanted and he brought it with him and actually had most of it memorized which
goes to show how much effort he puts into doing quality work. He pretty much
just followed us around as we took pictures around the Aria and Bellagio, and
stopped when we did. He made a few suggestions here and there but generally was
laid-back, friendly and very professional. I couldn’t be happier that we chose
Todd!