Nevada-Las Vegas

Wedding Reviews - Part 1 - Pre-Wedding Reviews

Time for me to give back to all my Vegas knotties! Let me just start by saying that the Vegas girls know what they are talking about. I would not have changed a SINGLE vendor. The entire experience was “near” flawless. Here we go! (I am going to start based on our schedule of events) And I only have candid photos right now!

 

Marriage License Bureau – registered online – we were in and out in minutes! We went straight from the airport via Presidential limousine.

 

Mandalay Bay: A+

We stayed in the 750 suite for our entire stay and it was fantastic. If you can swing it, you will really appreciate the extra room for all of your pre-wedding items. We completely used the space and felt like we were not on top of each other the entire time. It gave us room for our flower drop off, my dress, hair and makeup, RSVP rental items, favor boxes, etc.

 


The Vista Suite: A++++++: (more pics to come) View http://flic.kr/p/9swWge

Simply breathtaking! We had room 60135. Ask for this one! It had the most amazing view of the strip I have ever seen. It blew everyone away. We were begging for our room number to give to our vendors. They gave us the keys, and said they would call us with the room number when it was ready. We received the call a little after 3 pm. They made a point of making sure we had one of their best Vista Suites – I can’t imagine there is a better one than what we had.

Presidential Limousine: A+

We used Presidential for our airport transport and the driver even hung around to take our crew downtown for our Wednesday night dinner at Binions. We also used Presidential for our strip tour before the wedding for our pictures. We had the white stretch SUV and it was beautiful.

 

Harmony Medina: A++++++  http://flic.kr/p/9szVjf

What can I say besides I LOVE HER. She was booked for my wedding day so I decided to use her for my bachelorette party. She was so excited to “glam” me up and wow did she do an amzing job. Not only is she incredibly talented (and self-taught by the way!) – but she is so sweet. I could have chatted with her for hours.

 

Koi (Planet Hollywood): A+ (the picture from my Harmony above was inside Koi)

We hosted happy hour for our bachelor and bachelorette crew at Koi from 5 to 7. We had 21 guests. It was out of this world. We love Koi and knew it was the perfect fit for our group. They sectioned off an area for our group in the lounge and I left the ordering to our cocktail waitress who did a FANTASTIC job. It was amazing. The atmosphere, the food and drinks – all were a great kick off to our night.

    Friends inside Koi: http://flic.kr/p/9sx21t boys inside Koi http://flic.kr/p/9sx22X


The Light Group: A+

I booked the bachelorette special with the Light Group for Caramel Lounge and Bank. While I was getting my hair done, they called to tell me there was a snafoo with the Caramel. I slightly freaked, but she quickly got us moved to the Gold Lounge at Aria. Gold Lounge was gorgeous and actually probably a better fit for some girl time. Service at Gold was amazing. Even better, we were hooked up with the Nick from the light group who met us outside of Caramel after Gold, bought us all a round of drinks, and gave us VIP bracelets with free open bar inside Bank until midnight. We did not wait a second for anything! By this point I was a little on the drunk side and could not stop telling Nick how fabulous he was and how we all love Nick. :p Inside Gold Lounge: http://flic.kr/p/9szVk1

Double Decker Bus Company: A-

We hosted our meet and greet from 5 to 7. This was Day 3 for me and I was starting to feel a little run down. The guests really enjoyed the bus – however there were a few minor glitches and some serious wind! The iPod connection kept going out the first half. The breaker kept flipping. Seeing that I planned out all the music I was a little bummed. On the way back it was fixed. In regards to the route – I am sure everyone’s group is different, but ours really could have cared a less about the Vegas sign. Since the stop is so close to the Mandalay Bay it really felt like we just got on, and now were getting off. Only four people got off for a picture. Next – downtown Vegas warning. I am sure your future in-laws will totally NOT do this, but my father-in-law thought it would be a great idea if they stayed downtown since they wanted to go there anyway! So we lost about 10 people at his suggestion. I almost died. It was VERY hard to keep everyone organized with the downtown stop and we lost a LOT of time. Also a word to the wise – our brains were really fried on Day 3 from too much partying. We went to drop off the liquor at the DDB Company and used the address on the receipt. Mistake. It was a mail stop. This was not a highlight of our trip. We ended up scrapping the pre drop off and used the coolers that we picked up from RSVP Rental Company for the vista suite. Bus Photos: http://flic.kr/p/9swWfB  http://flic.kr/p/9swWcB


Liquor store across from the Mandalay Bay: F-

The guy working here was a giant jerk. I am refraining from profanity. Mean. Horrible. I saw a much larger location when we went to RSVP, so I would avoid the one across from MB. It is small. They had a very limited selection. They were sold out of a good portion of the beer. And we are positive we were overcharged. He was ringing up everything so fast and was being so ignorant that I do not trust that he was charging us correctly. The receipt does not show item names, etc and was very hard to read. Please let me know if you want details on how much we bought for the Vista Suite, what we bought, etc.

 


RSVP Rental Company: B+
http://flic.kr/p/9swW8v
 (more pics to come)

We rented wine glasses, Collins glasses, china, white table linen, and coolers for the Vista Suite. Total bill was about $55. Pick up was a breeze. I knocked off a grade because they initially said they would pick up the items from MB for us for $30.00 and switched it to $60 when we called the day we were checking out. A positive side though is that we had several Collins glasses break during the move from the Vista suite to our regular suite, and they only charged us $13.00. I felt like that was incredibly fair. Do I think the China was necessary? Probably not. Did it look great – yes. Would I do it again – maybe not. The barware however – 100% yes. That being said – I *think* Mandalay Bay room service will bring up wine and Collins glasses for you. We called for several items and had them in our room in no time.

Next up - Wedding Day Reviews!

Re: Wedding Reviews - Part 1 - Pre-Wedding Reviews

  • edited December 2011
    Sorry this looks so funky! I started on my reviews today!
  • Sara191431Sara191431 member
    1000 Comments
    edited December 2011

    Congrats!  Awesome reviews!  Can't wait for the others:)  You looked beautiful, your makeup and hair on the wedding day was fantastic, bach party night too.  Can't wait to see  more pics!

    What was the name of the liquor store??

  • edited December 2011
    Thanks Sara! We thought we were going to Lee's - but I dont think that is where we were. Neither of us can remember the name. It is RIGHT across the street from MB. I saw a huge Lee's a few miles aways that probably would have been great. This place was a dump! High prices for mediocre bottles of wine, horrible beer selection, and really the topper was the grumpy old man working there. He was so mean and kept cursing about everything. We spent a LOT of money there too.
  • Sara191431Sara191431 member
    1000 Comments
    edited December 2011
    Good I was hoping it wasn't Lee's, not good for you though:(  Sucky.  Isn't that nice when you spend a bunch of money and they are total A-holes, makes you want to walk out sometimes.

    Would you mind sharing what you got/spent in alcohol?  Even though I know you had less people than us, it will still help:)  You can just PM me if you want, and no rush at all, just whenever you get a sec.  Thanks!

    Congrats again:)
  • wallacjewallacje member
    2500 Comments Fifth Anniversary 5 Love Its First Answer
    edited December 2011
  • edited December 2011

    MOLLYTN75- you look fabulous! Congrats on your wedding!

    like Sara191431 i am interested in the amount of alcohol you bought for your group. How much bottle wise, and how much money was spent??

    How many did you have at your reception in the Vista suite?


    TIA!!

  • hstaples4hstaples4 member
    100 Comments
    edited December 2011
    Congratulations!
    I was curious of your time line on your wedding day, what time was your ceremony and when did you start your reception? I'm getting married at valley of the Falls and having my reception in the vista suite but I'm still trying to get timing figured out. We are also doing the photo strip tour with Todd before the ceremony, what time did you start this and how long did it take? Did you feel rushed or do you feel like you had plenty of time?
    TIA!
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  • lsvenssonlsvensson member
    500 Comments
    edited December 2011
    Thank you SO much for these reviews, they are fantastic!  About to read your others now.  Congratulations on your wedding!
  • edited December 2011
    In regards to liquor store bill. I am going to ask "my husband" :) to check his statement for the amount. I know our first bill was around $450 and he made another trip the next day for more beer because they had such a bad selection when we went the first time. Keep in mind that we were purchasing alcohol for the double decker bus as well! Our wine bottles averaged $12 to $15. There are items that I would eliminate:

    Double Decker Bus - stick to beer! It is SO hard to do anything else and I serisouly flushed about $30 down the drain in my attempt to have a wine offering. Skip it! Also we went through beer FAST!!! We had 32 guests. I would easily average 3 beers a guest because you will have people who drink more. We ran out by the time we got Downtown!

    Vista Suite - we kept it fairly simple: (Guests: 32)
    Beer - we did a variety of beers (I will find out how much - we had a LOT)
    Red Wine - 3 Bottles
    White Wine - 3 Bottles
    Vodka - 2 LARGE (the really big bottles) Aboslut and Sky make these
    Red Bull and Cranberry and Sprite
    Sweet Tea Vodka

    Beer we had about a 12 pack left.
    Wine - I cant believe how popular the wine was. I think by the time our wedding rolled around people were ready for a switch. I went through our guest list to come up with our "drink menu" and we did not have a ton of wine drinkers. We went through all of the red and two of the white.
    Vodka - We finished one large bottle and broke into the next but that was it.
    Mixers - We went through 12 cans of red bull quickly. We ordered cranberry and sprite from room service and had plenty of both.
    Sweet Tea Vodka - a huge hit with my grandmother and parents
  • edited December 2011
    In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_nevada-las-vegas_wedding-reviews-part-1-pre-wedding-reviews?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local Wedding BoardsForum:91Discussion:c4846d4f-6202-4989-b0f9-56e0842a06c4Post:cc43f696-4cef-49c2-853f-241b51013fce">Re: Wedding Reviews - Part 1 - Pre-Wedding Reviews</a>:
    [QUOTE]Congratulations! I was curious of your time line on your wedding day, what time was your ceremony and when did you start your reception? I'm getting married at valley of the Falls and having my reception in the vista suite but I'm still trying to get timing figured out. We are also doing the photo strip tour with Todd before the ceremony, what time did you start this and how long did it take? Did you feel rushed or do you feel like you had plenty of time? TIA!
    Posted by hstaples4[/QUOTE]

    Here is our timeline:

    11:30 - Francesca showed up to do hair and makeup for me and MOH. She showed up a little late but we did finish in time thankfully!
    2:30 - Todd showed up in the suite
    2:45 - First Look and Limo Arrival
    2:45-4:45 Strip Tour
    Bellagio
    Planet Hollywood
    Paris
    Ending at the Flamingo at 4:45
    5 pm Ceremony
    6:30 Reception Starts

    I was very happy to give myself some wiggle room with the start of the reception. I wanted to do a suite walk through before the guests arrived to give myself peace of mind. Our guests had a drink downstairs and all headed up together. It made for some great pictures outside the suite doors! We did one big grand entrance for everyone!
  • edited December 2011
    You definitely had the best view of any Vista Suite I've seen--I have seen some you tube videos of Vista Suites that had mostly an airport view.  How did you get such a great view?  When booking or checking in, did you let them know it was for a wedding?

    BTW, that timeline is awesome! 
    76 invited image 35 ready to partyimage 41 staying homeimageWedding Countdown Ticker
  • edited December 2011
    See if you can request 60135. My hubby is a good negotiatior and let the front desk know it was our wedding and that we were really stressing over not having our room number for our vendors. They gave us the key - but no room number. He basically asked them to hook us up - and they did! The view was seriously FABULOUS!

    It is a long walk down the hall - i mean the very last room, smack in the middle - which makes sense with the view.
  • ginamarie1985ginamarie1985 member
    10 Comments
    edited December 2011
    @Molly:  How difficult was it to bring up all the china and glasses?? I am considering oing this as well, but concerned with how much work it may be to bring it all up to the suite.  We will have about double the amount of guests you had.  And how far of a drive was it to RSVP?
    "That's what you get for waking up in Vegas." ***My Wedding Bio!***
  • edited December 2011
    Are you already renting a car and/or have access to one? If you do - it is super easy. They are very close the MB. The bellmen were are BEST friends. They brought everything up for us - liquor, dishes. you name it! And RSVP is so cheap. Where it gets expensive is the pickup/dropoff. We ended up paying to have them pick up on Monday just so we didnt have to deal with it.

    I really loved having the barware. In regards to the china. It does not have to be cleaned. You just need to scrape the plates and return them. We stored the crates in the master closet in the suite and as dishes surfaced they were scraped and popped into a crate. My sister and her husband swooped into action and quickly cleared the plates for me.

    I would check with MB and see if room service can bring glassware up for you though. If they can - I would go that route. Since you are already paying for the suite I dont see why they would have an issue bringing up barware. We called them several times for items throughout the night.

    Also RSVP only charged us for one night and we picked up on Friday and returned Monday.
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