Hello All! I'm finally able to sit down & let you all know how everything went for us. We had a small wedding with a wedding party of five, and 20 guests total. We got married February 15th at the Grand Lakeside off of the strip. We booked everything with Always & Forever Wedding Chapel & Destination Weddings. It was an outdoor ceremony with a nice view of the lake during the ceremony. We opted for a 30 minute ceremony. We were able to use our iPod & create a playlist to be used throughout the ceremony. The package that we choose included a photographer for the ceremony as well as a DVD of the ceremony. My only qualm about Always & Forever is that our ceremony didn't start as scheduled (about 10-15 minutes) which meant that we went over our scheduled time with the shuttle.
We shuttled our guests, and we used Bell Transportation. Great customer service, the reservation process was pretty easy. We used a shuttle bus for our guest and a limo for our wedding party. Both drivers were prompt & courteous! I recommend to all brides to get a day of coordinator, especially if you are like me & doing all of your planning away from Las Vegas (we live in Houston). We used Culinary Pros, and I highly recommend them. They are very affordable. I was able to ship items such as things we needed for our reception. Any questions, comments, concerns, worries, I was able to discuss them with the company's owner, Sari.
We decided to have an insuite reception at THE Hotel by Mandalay Bay. We were in the O suite which gave us gorgeous views! We had pasta & salad from Maggiano's & a lot of wine & champagne from Trader Joes. The cake came from Retro Bakery & it was absolutely delish!!! I LOVE cake, so one of the biggest issues I had was picking a bakery & not having the opportunity to sample. We decided on two flavors to accomodate each our layers, red velvet & salted caramel. The cake was excellent, moist & flavorful. The buttercream icing was just right, not too sweet, soft & melted in your mouth. Our guests raved about our cake. We didn't use a DJ, we opted for our iPod. We made a playlist for the reception & brought our docking station.
My dress came from David's Bridal, and his tux came from Men's Warehouse. The groomsmen got their tuxes from Men's Warehouse & the bridesmaids got their dresses from etsy.com Etsy can satisfy your wedding needs. We also ordered our caketopper, bouquets (brooch bouquets), & groomsmen's gifts (engraved flasks) from Etsy. Etsy also gave me some ideas, especially the bridesmaids gifts. For my party, mother & mother-in-law I did men's shirts with their initials monogrammed on the front pocket. I was able to get the shirts from Marshall's for about $10-$12/shirt. We used a photobook that we created on Shutterfly as our guest book. (Shutterfly frequently offers 50% off of their photbooks, and you can also catch a deal on Groupon).
We honeymooned in New Orleans. We were able to find a great hotel deal on Groupon! Had a blast. Great food, great music & overall great times!
We thoroughly enjoyed our wedding!! It was small & intimate, and we were able to share our day with the people we absolutely love. I recommend for everyone to download the Wed Pics app. This allows your guests to upload any pictures & videos from your ceremony to one site, and you'll be able to download the pictures to your computer. Have fun!!!! Brides: Make sure your ladies are comfortable. I don't know about you guys, but I've been in some uncomfortable bridesmaid dresses and even more uncomfortable shoes! My ladies walked down the aisle in Coach tennis shoes & after the ceremony, my husband & I changed into high tops.
Avoid taking cabs if you can, Vegas offer other transportation options such as the bus & Monorail, and you can buy day passes. Expect the unexpected & know that things happen. We live in Texas, but our groomsmen live in Louisiana. My husband got fitted for his tux in Louisiana, and one of the groomsmen was supposed to bring it with them to Vegas. Well, one day before the wedding our groomsman arrived & my husband's tux didn't! (The other groomsman's luggage was put on the wrong flight). Thankfully, everything came together!! My advice to everyone is that you don't have to meet that averagec cost of weddings (roughly $30K) to have a great wedding! We were able to have everything we wanted, enjoy it with the people we love, and at a fraction of the cost. Remember, you have a liftetime to spend together & you don't have to spend all your hard earned money in one day!!!
I hope this review will be helpful to someone, and I wish all of you the best on your upcoming weddings!
~Lauren