Reviews Part 1

LaurenGarciaKrueger

 

LaurenGarciaKrueger

I keep getting "body required" error everytime I try to post reviews.... It's very frustrating.

LaurenGarciaKrueger

First of all, our families were a little worried when we decided to go to Las Vegas to get married. The preconceived notion of LV is flashy, classless, and Elvis. I didn’t want to break the bank, but I also wanted to share the day with our family and friends with a fun, classy experience. I would have changed nothing from our wedding day… Except the nervous gut I had all morning, LOL. Here are the reviews from just the wedding day. Please feel free to ask me any questions. Enjoy!<?xml:namespace prefix = "o" ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

THE GOLDEN NUGGET- (A) We stayed in the new tower, the Rush Tower and the room was beautiful. Only con about it was our room looked out to Freemont Street and it is quite noisy at night. A pro about it was that we were able to see the Plaza hotel LED screen and found lots of cheap, good food places there, just within walking distance. One of our absolute favorite places to eat was Zabas- a taco place with some of the hottest salsa I've ever experienced. 2 tacos and a beer for less than $4! Some of our guests and family stayed in the Carson Tower and the non-smoking rooms were actually non-smoking! The rooms were nice. Also, some of the gamblers in our group won on the penny slots. The pool was THE COOLEST!!! The kids loved the slide and the shark tank. It was quite an experience. The seats fill up early though, so finding a chair poolside is a must!

THE CHAPEL OF THE FLOWERS- (A+) We couldn't be more sure of our choice. We started with the Traditional Package and added on to it. The only photography we had was at the chapel, so we upgraded the package. (Originally to the Tulip package, but my husband wanted the copyrights by the time we go to the consult so we upgraded again. Unfortunately this cut a couple weeks off of the online viewing, but we have the wedding DVD- it was included- so we can post on Youtube.) We got the limo transportation from the hotel to the marriage license bureau, then to the chapel for our consult. Heidi is the planner we were working with online, but she was on vacation during our wedding. Michelle helped us while we were in town. All of our flowers were sunflowers, and my bouquet had blue delphinium. It was gorgeous. We also got the First Look package- a limo came to pick up the groom and groomsmen, then another limo came to get me and the girls. The limos were so nice. Huge, white limos and the drivers we had were courteous, and friendly. The groom and I didn’t see each other until I walked down the aisle. I also added the Dazzling Gown Package because I wanted to rent the dress. Great choice- reviews to follow. Our wedding was live webcasted for our families and friends to see. The website was very easy to set up, and our families loved the minister. Tim performed our ceremony and he had some very wise, sweet, perfect words to say. Even the unity candle part of the ceremony made me tear up. It was so perfect. We invited about 53 people, so we chose the La Capella Chapel. It was stunning. The chapel looks grander in photos than in real life, but the whole place was really great. Also, we added the wedding cake package through the chapel. Heidi coordinated the floral, the bakery, and the cake topper we had delivered to provide us with a tasty, gorgeous, perfect cake at our dinner location. If I could do it again, I would chose this chapel for SURE! Only thing that I felt bad about was our guests: while we were taking photos after the ceremony, our guests had to sit outside on the shaded patio. It was 101 degrees that Saturday, so  I felt bad that they weren’t in AC for the 45 minutes of photo shoot. Luckily, the DDB was ready, and on time when we were ready to leave.

Ilene’s Tux and Gown Rental (A-) I didn’t want to travel with a dress, or spend a fortune on a gown to wear just one day of my life, so I rented the dress, through the COF. The boutique they work with is Ilene’s and it was nice. They picked up my mom, BM, and me in a Mercedes van. They had a great selection of dresses to choose from. I knew my size, so they let us look at the rack, and pick any dresses to try on. There were probably 35 dresses in my size. We were the only ones in the shop. I found it strange that no one was there to help me get into the dresses, but my mom and BM helped me, so we were just fine. I ended up choosing  a dress ($950 to purchase, but only $300 to rent). They altered the dress while we waited- I only needed the bust area to be tightened a bit, and we were able to take the dress back with us. I did like the dress, and the boutique, but the alterations concerned me a bit. The seamstress didn’t use any pins, or anything at all really. She just sort of eye-balled it before doing any alteration- without even touching the dress while I was in it. She wanted to feel like some expert I guess. I tried on the dress and it was still too loose, so she had to alter it a little more. She, again, eyeballed it, and didn’t get it right the second time. It was way tight, and when I brought it to her attention, she just sort of blamed me for cinching it too tight. SO anyways, after the third time, the dress fit fine. I am not the type of person to get mad, or be a bride-zilla, but this particular seamstress pissed me off a little. How do you call yourself a “master seamstress” and you don’t even do a single measurement or use a single pin? She was full of herself and of something else too…  The dress was gorgeous though, and I had to sign a form stating that I wouldn’t send the dress back damaged, or super dirty, or I may be charged. I was careful to keep it bustled, and didn’t have any problems at all. I left the dress at the bell desk at the hotel, and Ilene’s picked it up the next day.

Double Decker Bus Company (A+) I’ve read mixed reviews about the DDB company, so I was most nervous about it. Mike was our driver, and met us at the chapel. Rocco was assisting Mike. He would run up and down stairs while the bus was moving to get us all more drinks, cups of ice, or anything else we needed.  The parking lot at the chapel cannot accommodate one of the busses, so we met them next door at the 7-11. It was a very short walk. We were on the white bus with the Famous Footwear logo advertisement on the side. A few days prior, we took 2 cases of beer, 2 cases of bud light lime-a-ritas, 1 case of water, and a case of sprite to the bus yard with a few dollars for ice. Although this worked out splendidly for us, I think the DDB Company should think of a better way to secure the drinks. All of our drinks were on the bus, iced and cold! It was perfect. I didn’t care about where we stopped. I just wanted our guests to cool down, drink up, and tour the strip and take their pictures. (We stayed downtown at the Golden Nugget. More reviews on that in a later post.) I asked Mike to make the best decision on a place to stop so we could cool off in the AC, go to the bathroom, and gamble for 30 minutes. He took us to Treasure Island because it was the closest, and it was fine. A couple people won $$$ on the penny slots, and we had a great time. We all got back to the bus and Mike drove us up and down the strip. We had the Go-Pro mounted to the front of the DDB, so we have video of all the strip. It was really awesome. Mike got us to dinner right on time. BTW, the bud light lime-a-ritas and the bud light mango-ritas were a hit. Those were the first thing gone. When we got off the bus, there may have been 5 beers left, and 6 bottles of water.

Stripburger/ El Segundo Sol (A++) I didn’t want anything too fancy, or expensive because I think people rarely remember wedding food. Probably the best service we got while in Las Vegas. We originally were communicating with Dusty, but found out the week before the wedding that Natalie was our contact. That is probably better because I thought Dusty took too long to respond to emails, or phone calls. Natalie seems really nice, knowledgeable, and accommodating. We chose the Build A Burger party menu ($22pp) and we added sweet potato fries (+$2pp). We invited 53 people, but our final count was 37 including us. We also had about 5 kids under 12 years old, so their meals were less than the adults. We got to the restaurant, and inside there were 3 large tables set up for us. We were very close to a bar, and there may have been a couple tables near ours, but we didn’t notice them. Every place setting had a small menu with a choice of a hamburger, chicken sandwich, or veggie burger. Chips and guacamole was served immediately. It was delicious! One of the only things I didn’t like was… the guacamole was too good and there wasn’t enough of it J All of the guests ordered their burgers, or chicken sandwiches, and added whatever toppings they wanted. Some ordered fried eggs, bacon, cheese, and jalepenos. All of the toppings were included, but it wasn’t mentioned on the menus. The 2 servers took all the orders, and it didn’t take long for dinner to be served. Before they passed out our burgers, they dropped off family style and family sized fries, sweet potato fries, and fried onion strings. Everyone loved it. There was a slight mix up on a couple of the burgers, but the servers fixed the burgers quickly and everyone enjoyed dinner. I had a vanilla milkshake- delicious. The margaritas- perfect. Our guests were beyond satisfied, and only had great things to say about dinner. Through dinner, the servers kept getting drink orders, and promptly returning with them. After dinner, we had to ask for the cake, as everyone forgot about it (I didn’t of course). They had a table just for the cake and it was perfect. The chef came out and sliced the cake. We had more cake than we could eat, so we left the rest for the restaurant staff. The managers came out, to make sure everything went fine, and everyone left happy.

Bell Trans- (A+) We reserved a 29 passenger shuttle to transport our guests from the Golden Nugget, to the Chapel of the Flowers. The shuttle was on time, picked up all the passengers from the Starbucks meeting place, and got them to the chapel on time. We also reserved the shuttle to pick up passengers from Stripburger, back to the Golden Nugget.  I asked the driver to make 2 trips on the way back, because since we had the limo to the chapel, we had more than 29 passengers going back to the hotel. He had no problem making the 2 trips in the hour we had reserved. My dad really liked the driver, and had a great conversation with him. As far as payment, everything went very smoothly.

MishMashPotato

Congratulations!!!!! Brilliant detailed reviews!  Sounds like you had a perfect day!! Definitely think we've made the right choice with Stripburger. Great to know about the burger toppings too. I wondered how this worked which is one of the reasons we thought about going for the main menu option. We are also working with Heidi from Chapel Of The Flowers who has been super helpful so far! Congratulations!!!

KikiMira

Great reviews!!! Congrats!!!

I love El Segundo! I make Hubby go every time we are in Vegas! The Guc is amazing!