eloping for a 12.12.12 vegas wedding from the UK

helenandroger

hi there, well as the title says, we are running away to vegas to get married....not even the children know, we are taking the baby and leaving on a jet plane so tired of my older children bitching about what they will and won't wear, our parents can't be bothered and ask no question or anything about our planned date so we are keeping quiet, pretending we are popping over the europe for a tour of the christmas markets or something and will come back as mr and mrs...we met on facebook (well we knew each other 20 yrs before friend of a friend kind of thing) so the first that anyone will know is when we change our status to 'married' and I change my name lol

anyway....I have noticed that the wedding chapels seem to charge stupid money for prints of your photos and packages may only give you 4 or 6 or so. I have found the la bella chapel in the what was hilton...they seem to do one where they take lots of photos and you get them all on a cd so I am thinking of going for that. They do a vegas sign one too and that appeals to us, always thinking of our wedding whenever we see the sign.

as it is just us I just want something that does not look too tacky and yucky in the photos, somewhere friendly and somewhere that does nice photos, we want to spend as little as possible as although we want to get married it really is not about something massive as it is only us and to be honest I rather spend the money shopping  

so any experiences of la bella chapel? any other good small chapel places with good photo packages I have missed? My head hurts

many thanks from a very stressy bride to be from london

oh and if anyone knows of anywhere where we could have a nice meal, not to expensive with a possible nice view where a 2 yr old with cerebral palsy would be welcome? this will be my 7th trip to vegas but things move so quickly over there. We are staying at the Vdara so were thinking of after some photos around vegas (I have a good camera just going to get passersby to take some pics) to go back to our suite, put little Julian to bed and then have a nice room service meal enjoying our view.

Knottie1450123632

http://www.vegasgroom.com/  i would check this out.  hes got a lot of reviews and what have you

vegasgroom

If you are considering a marriage at the vegas sign, I'd recommend hiring an independent photographer and officiant and not even involve a chapel who will just mark everything up.  There are numerous options, then you could do a photo tour of the strip afterward for all kinds of great pictures.  My site has several options for both vendors.

helenandroger

many thanks, that looks full of info....will read through that over this weekend

helenandroger

thank you, I did consider that but it is $299 which includes the officiant cost and a photographer, the photographers I have seen are more than that. I did consider a photo tour but with our little boy he gets tired and a bit stressed out easy at times as he has cerebral palsy and sensory processing dissorder so we may have to stop and spend some time out from it so if we were on a time scale chances are and sods law he would be having a bad hour or so....but then he could be happy posing and smiling big cheesy grins...he runs the show these days lol

vegasgroom

Got it.  Did you check that day with the chapel and it's still $299?  I know a lot of places jack the prices up on unusual days like 12/12/12 and holidays, etc.

petitmonstree

I was considering La Bella but I really didn't like their photos at all, they just didn't impress me and photos are a HUGE part for me personally and the fact that they don't let you use outside photographers at all really turned me away. But that's just my personal opinion. Otherwise we probably would have went with them. I mean some of the photos are ok but they aren't what I like in a photo.

We decided on Caesars as our venue so I'm not much help outside of learning about La Bella's outside vendor polocies. And btw they don't allow ANY outside vendors from what I read back in January. It might have changed though.

helenandroger

we won't have anyone else to take photos for us anyways, yes photos are important to me but then when you are only having a small package with the essentially the two of you then the photos elsewhere will work out like $50 each. I can always play with the pictures to make them ok'ish...this is my third (and final ever wedding) and it is his 2nd wedding....I guess some things aren't as important to us lol...just want to flipping do it as we have been talking about it for so long, we went to vegas for 10.10.10 but his ex wife was playing up with the divorce.

PhoneCardLady

You might want to order this book:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0929712803/sonya

This is Neon Nuptials, which was published in 2005.  I just ordered a copy and I love it.  This is a good place to start and then you can look at the websites for what they offer.

ctrenholm

Just wanted to say hi to a fellow 12/12/12 bride! I'm getting married at The Little Chapel and reception dinner is at Canaletto

helenandroger

hi we still haven't decided lol I think I may go with something from scenic las vegas weddings, the seem really lovely and friendly....so confused lol

misskimvegas

Scenic weddings is nice.  The La Bella is ok but don't expect any fancy photos.  They are basically just a point and shoot type.  No creativity with the photos.  If that's not a bad thing for you that's fine.  I just want you to know what to expect.  The sign is going to be very, VERY busy that day.  There are no permits required for the sign (regardless of what the chapels say).  It will be busy and you will be waiting for a while there.  It may be too much for the little guy. 

I would say to check with a few of the nicer small chapels.  Yes, you don't get very many photos but you can buy the additional ones later.

Another suggestion is photos are important, try putting an ad on craigslist offering a few hundred dollars and see who makes you an offer.

I'm renewing my vows on 12-12-12 in the Little white wedding chapel drive through for $50.  A DVD would be an additional $75.  I found a photographer for after for $300 that will do the ceremony and Fremont and we are having a few afternoon shots with a different photographer for only $100 for 2 hours. 

UNLV probably has some students looking to expand a portfolio, too, if you want to go that route.

helenandroger

hi thanks for that....well since the first post we finally made some decisions and everything is all booked and paid for.

we were going to go with scenic weddings but they only had an 8pm, so we went with la bella that had one during the day. We have quite a good package that includes internet and dvd and flowers etc...we are now taking two more of the children, the 17 yr old and the 9yr old the other two work full time, were told about it etc but have other plans for vacations etc so timem from work is already taken etc they are ok with it all.

so it is good we get the flowers for the bridesmaid by 9 yr old and all the other bits etc, with the package my son can take photos with our camera so he can grab some more...but they take them during the ceremony and i am a bit of a whizz with photo editing so hopefully can make them look lovely and be creative as we get them all on a disk.

we then aim to go out and about for the rest of the day at our leisure getting the pictures we want in our time scale so if the little one gets stressed or tired we can stop and snack etc as with scenic it was of course a 2 hr time to get the photos and it worried me he would get tired etc and we would be stressed. I have a DSLR so we can get some good pictures with that and edit them as well if needed.....then this way as well we can get to go for a nice romantic meal that evening whilst my older child babysits...so we are all happy with the choices we have made, we are so excited to be coming back to LV and counting down the days now many thanks to all who replied xx