Hi Everyone!
I used these boards a lot while trying to plan my Vegas wedding. I know the reviews helped me immensely so I'm going to try and return the favor. The actual ceremony part was a package deal, so I'll just touch briefly that. I'll individually rate vendors that I hired on my own, not inclusive of the ceremony package in this post. If anybody has any questions, please don't hesitate to ask me please!
Cactus and Lace Weddings - A+
I knew I wanted to get married at Valley of Fire. I did soooooo much research, but honestly could hardly find anything online that matched the vision I had for my wedding. I can't say enough about Rachel and Lory, they offer all inclusive packages
that are highly customizable. We planned together for almost a year to get all the details right. It was beyond my expectations and absolutely beautiful. I won't get into the details of the vendors that they used, but if you'd like more information on them, just google Cactus and Lace Weddings, check out their blog (our wedding was featured in there. Look for Marty and Isabel), and they list all the vendors they used by name with links. The cake was delicious, we had 2 different flavors (funfetti and chocolate), we had cookies as well, which showcased my crazy cat lady tendencies and my love of pandas. We also had a barista that my fiance went back and forth about, but ended up being a GREAT idea, the coffee was delicious and it was a bit chilly that day so everyone took advantage! The pastor was so fun and amicable, the set up of the location was everything I imagined and the photographs were amazing! All the guests loved riding in style in the party bus, and the limo I rode in was awesome! The makeup and hair artist made me look amazing. I loved the way I looked, I honestly felt so beautiful that day. I can honestly say that Cactus and Lace made my wedding day completely perfect and stress free. I can not praise them enough!
Bellagio - A+
Even though we spent the week in Vegas at the Flamingo, the day before the wedding, I checked into the Bellagio for 2 nights. My fiance didn't want to see me the day of the ceremony so I got ready there, and of course we spent our wedding night there.
The day before the wedding I discovered that my wedding dressed was extremely creased from the flight (we had flown in from Australia). It was about 11pm when I called the Bell Desk to see if there was anything I could do. The woman I spoke to
said that they send wedding dresses off site to be pressed and that they require a 24 hour turn around time. I was so devastated! I hung my dress in the bathroom hoping and praying that the steam would help! Well, the lady called me back about 20 minutes later, saying she spoke to her offsite laundry service and she said that if they could get the dress off of me right now, that they would have it back to me in a few hours! She sent someone up to get my dress and my dress was returned to me at around 2:30am. It only cost about $120. I called her manager the next day, and I'm hoping they gave her a promotion. LOL
Tuxedo Junction - A+ We used Tuxedo Junction to rent the suits for my fiance and his best man. Talk about fast, awesome service! We walked into the shop and put our name down on a list, then waited about 5 minutes for our name to be called.
We told the lady what we were looking for and she measured them and had them try on different sizes until they found the perfect fit. It was about $150 a suit and they delivered to the hotel the day before and picked up from the hotel the day after the wedding. Excellent service.
LuxLife Photography - A+Luxlife Photography photographed my girlfriends and I at the Bellagio as we were getting ready for the wedding. They were sort of a last minute addition since we went back and forth about whether or not we wanted "Getting Ready" pics. Brandy was very responsive to all my questions and e-mails. On the day of the wedding, her husband Mike came and took pictures for about 2 hours. He was so much fun! He took some beautiful pictures of my dress and accessories, very flattering pictures of me getting ready, and some fun pics of my friends and I. I never felt like he was in the way and I never felt uncomfortable. I am so glad we went with them for this. I know they do full wedding photography as well.
Il Fornaio Italian Restaurant, New York New York - A+I must've e-mailed 50 different restaurants and locations along the strip and just off the strip for information on dinner after the ceremony. We had 31 people come to our wedding between Australia and America. It was very important to my fiance and I to have an open bar with premium drinks. It was very important to my fiance to have a seated dinner (he DID NOT want a buffet) and he wanted a private space. It was important to me to have the dinner at a fun central location that would make it easy for everyone to do what they wanted to do afterwards. Il Fornaio has a bakery inside of New York New York that closes at 5pm, so you can actually hire out the entire bakery and it gets catered by the Italian restaurant! It's called "Sala Romantica" after hours. I worked with Andrea for about 8 months leading up to the wedding and she too was very responsive to all e-mails and questions. She sent pictures and helped with the layout. We even went a couple of days before the reception and dropped off our favors and some decorations and they set everything up for us. Again, absolutely stress and worry free. We opted for the 5 course meal, which included bread and antipasto (it sort of service as the cocktail hour for our guests while my husband and I were still taking some portraits along the strip), a salad, a portion of penne alla vodka. Then our guests got to choose between 3 different main dishes, and it ended with Tiramisu. WE WERE SO STUFFED. I got to eat from everything except for the antipasto. Everything was soooooooooo delicious. We had our own dedicated wait staff and they kept the drinks coming!
Picbots - BOne of the things I definitely wanted was a photo-booth. However, the reception/dinner location we chose was a bit tight on space, so I really had to do some serious research as to which ones could fit the space. I went with Picbots because they offered an open photo booth that was able to shrink way down, I think maybe 5 ft of space was all they needed, so that worked perfectly with our space. I also loved that it was a green screen so we were able to choose some silly backdrops that people really took advantage of. I honestly was very happy with the service and would totally recommend them. This is the reason I gave them a B: compared to the other vendors I dealt with that were very responsive to questioning and e-mails, it took Picbots a few days, sometimes upwards to a week to get back to me. You know how it is when you are planning a wedding, you want answers NOW. Another reason I gave them a B is because they come and set up the booth and then leave. There is no attendant, however the person who set up the booth would come into the venue every once in a while and hang around to make sure everything was ok. I guess I'm just thinking, if you are going to hang around anyway, why not "attend" the booth? Luckily the booth was very easy to use and no one had any issues. The photo-strips printed out without an issue and the pictures were very good quality. The props were fun and everyone definitely took advantage of it. It would have been nice to have someone "working" the booth to help people with the guest book and get people up and pumped to use it. I dunno, maybe I'm just being picky.
Now, I did hire a videographer for the ceremony, but I haven't received the video yet, so I will add a comment to this review to review them once I get the video.
Ok that is all I can think of for now, it's pretty late here. If I can think of anything else, I'll add it as a comment. If anybody has any questions, again, don't hesitate to ask!
Happy Planning to all the future brides!!!
Isabel