Mob Museum (Ceremony): B
The courtroom (where the weddings happen) is majestic and exactly what DH and I wanted; the museum itself is small, but very dense with cool exhibits. Almost all our guests took advantage of the free admission to go early and see the museum before the ceremony, and really enjoyed it. There were some communication snafus with Karri, the event coordinator, right before we left for Vegas (NOT the time you want snafus!!), and the day of, there were times where she didn't seem to know what was going on. Archel took over to figure out what was going to happen next, and to ask her about the photography (the package we got came with an hour of photography time around the museum -- Karri was just kinda like "oh yeah you can take pictures if you want but it's kind of busy" -- excuse me, I PAID for that, what do you mean I "can" take pictures?!). Luckily Archel was on it, and Joey had shot the Mob Museum before and knew exactly where to go; if neither of those had been the case I probably would have lost my shit on someone. However, the other staff were all just great, very courteous and accommodating .The A/V guy was even joking around with DH to help him calm down before the start of the ceremony!
Reverend Roland: A++++
I am pleased to confirm that all the hype is true! Roland is a real professional. I don't know if he does all the weddings at the Mob Museum, but he did ours and it was nothing short of outstanding. We e-mailed a little bit before going out to Vegas, and then we talked for about 20 minutes right before the ceremony. He understood us and our crowd (who'd been getting kind of excited and rowdy while waiting in the courtroom) perfectly and did a ceremony that was alternately funny, touching, sweet, joyful, and still very "us." Many guests told us it was the best ceremony they'd ever been to. He was a few minutes late, so the ceremony started a little late, but it came out so well we didn't even care (and really, what ceremony ever starts on time?).
Sauced (Catering): A-
This recommendation came from
@trm358 after I posted to bitch about our original caterer falling through! Communication by e-mail was a little slow at times, and some food ended up uneaten due to weird layout on the table and unclear labeling, but otherwise everything was really great -- our guests are still raving about the food. We got heavy hors d'oeuvres from the tapas menu and the biggest hits were the pretzel bratwurst bowls, the stuffed cherry tomatoes filled with whipped cucumber dill cream cheese, and the blackened shrimp. People also really liked the "bbq pork" and the "cucumber salad" although they were actually supposed to be part of a Korean taco -- nobody realized it because the tortillas were at the opposite end of the setup from the pork and the spicy cucumbers, and the wasabi cream topping was in a different place too. Again, though, nobody really seemed to mind because the pork and cucumbers each tasted great on their own. Fantastic food and service at a great price. Will definitely be stopping by their food truck the next time we're in town.
Kristyne Molzen, Kristy's Bartending Service (Bar, hired through Thumbtack): B-
Kristy did our booze shopping for us and even took pictures of her local liquor warehouse's entire beer selection so I could pick out what I wanted. She was very sweet and personable, worked really quickly and efficiently at the reception, and did a great job keeping everything clean and orderly while churning out drinks; she darted out from behind the bar periodically to find me and DH and make sure we always we had the drink we wanted. Since we had leftover booze and one of our friends had a birthday the next day, she also let us keep her cooler an extra day; we just emptied it out and left it at the bell desk for her to pick up. She did our booze shopping for us and even took pictures of her local liquor warehouse's entire beer selection so I could pick out what I wanted. However, there were some frustrations. All of the cocktails were way too sweet (although I also noticed this problem at all but two of the bars we went to in Vegas -- maybe it's a local thing?). I gave her a range of beer choices and she said she'd call me if any of them weren't available; she didn't and instead just bought something random. The beer itself was fine but she should have called like she said she would before spending my money. She insisted we needed to have champagne, even though I didn't think any of our crowd would care; no one drank any of it and we ended up ditching 4 full bottles. All in all it was OK but it was more headache than I wanted.
Las Vegas Custom Cakes: A
The only reason it's not A+ is because the price was high compared to other quotes I got. On the other hand, if you're the type who'd rather pay a little extra to be sure it's done right, go here and git 'er done. We sent reference photos with some notes for how we wanted the cakes to look, and they came out EXACTLY how we wanted. My cake was dark-rum-infused chocolate cake with spiced cream cheese frosting and a caramel drizzle, DH's cake was champagne-infused strawberry cake with Italian meringue frosting and fresh strawberries, and the taste was out of this WORLD. We slightly over-ordered and our guests still scarfed every crumb. The manager, Joe, was excellent with communication throughout. He called the afternoon before the wedding, and my heart jumped into my throat because I was afraid something was wrong -- he was actually calling because one of the decorators was planning out our cakes and had a suggestion for a change to the look. DH and I talked about it, liked it, told them to go ahead with it, and they were totally right. Really great work!
On to part 3...