Hi Knotties!
I found this forum extremely helpful and I was able to make decisions thanks to all the feedback. Thanks to everyone! To share a little about me I am from the Sarasota area of Florida and decided to do a destination wedding in Las Vegas. We love Las Vegas and this was the best choice. We decided to do an untraditional/traditional wedding, if that makes any sense. I began to plan this wedding in November 2014 and we had a total of 19 guests, majority flew in from the east coast.
Little Church of the West:
Very cute chapel and very convenient to Mandalay Bay and the Las Vegas welcome sign. The ceremony was very nice and the officiant was excellent. The girls in the office were very pleasant and great to work with. I purchased the package that allow my guests (and my own photographer) to take photos. The bridal bouquets were champagne and lavender roses, nothing fancy. I ended up getting the bridal suite to wait in until all my guests arrived. This room was just a room, no bathroom. Decor was from the 1980s.
Even though my package included photos and video from the ceremony, the church's photographer took more photos after the ceremony, outside and on the grounds of the church. Then we were shuffled to a room in the back to review the photos and then the sales pitch came in. They offered all the other photos, not included in the package, for $495. We declined then she began to drop the price by $100. Also, you don't have tomorrow to look at them, the decision had to be made right then and there. This tactic irritated me and we declined to purchase anything extra. We were then given our CD and video and we were on our way.
The limo driver was supposed to drop us off at the Las Vegas sign and it wasn't until we noticed that he didn't take his first left that we told him where he was suppose to drop us off. He was heading back to Mandalay Bay.
Mandalay Bay Vista Suite:
We had the suite for the day of the wedding and the day after. We used the suite for a cocktail reception with light apps after we took some photos with our guests at the Las Vegas welcome sign. The suite was a perfect size for our group. We got very lucky and got the 200 wing so the view of the strip was awesome. The suite was very roomy and it has a bar which is what I wanted.
For those who reserved a Vista Suite, even though you requested a certain wing, it is not until the day of your checkin that you will find out what you will get. We found that to be very frustrating and disappointing but sadly that is how it is. We got lucky and even was able to get the keys for the suite around 1pm. I was thrilled so that I could get dressed and have photos in the suite instead of a standard room. My recommendation is to start calling the front desk by 11am to see what room will become available.
The only hiccup we had was trying to figure out how to run my music from my cell phone through their speaker system. There were no instructions in the suite so my wedding coordinator had to call for someone to set us up.
Culinary Pros:
Excellent! We had Melanie and she was great! We stocked the bar and she got everything setup. She even made our signature cocktails and had them displayed next to the framed sign I created with the Bride's and Groom's signature drink. Working with Culinary Pros was smooth. I was able to send my signature cocktail recipes to them before my wedding so that Melanie would had them. She did a great job of cleaning up the suite and the appetizer trays. We were so pleased to return to the suite and find it clean!
Emily Reno, Day of Corrdinator:
I was very lucky to find Emily and thank goodness she wasn't booked that day! She was so wonderful to work with, always answer my calls or texts, and provided me with a lot of help finding bartenders, where to get my dressed pressed, etc. I flew to Vegas for a week in February and she met with me several times to do a walk through of the Vista Suite, meet at Nove Italiano to discuss floral, tablescape, and even to go to a cake tasting with me. I ordered a lot of items for my wedding online and I was able to shipped them to her to hold. That was a big help.
Everything went well on my wedding day and she insured that everything was right. What can I say, she is awesome! Thank you Emily!
To be continued, Part B coming next!