Double Decker Bus A : Our guests really enjoyed the tour. We had lots of compliments on what a good idea it was. Michael arrived about 20 mins early which was great because our booze wasn’t really cold and it gave us time to chill it in the coolers. We headed off to Fremont to catch the 8pm light show and we got downtown at about 7:50pm. Michael dropped us off and told us to be back at the bus for 8:30pm. Everyone really enjoyed the Fremont Street Experience. Even those who had been to Vegas before hadn’t seen the light show. They played American Pie for the show and all our guests were dancing and singing along. It was great. We then headed back on the bus and up the strip to the Welcome sign. There was a bachelorette party hogging the sign when we got there, but I told their photographer to give others a turn so he told them they were finished. Seriously girls no one want to see another shot of your asses – you are not Beyonce. Anyway, after that we took a couple group shots and a few of our guests did their own pics. We then piled back in the bus and went back to NYNY. The traffic was crazy, it was a Saturday night, so I’m so glad we booked the 3 hrs. I took us about 2hrs 45mins to make the 2 stops.
Planet Hollywood Wedding Chapel A+ : I started off dealing with Erin for the most part, and she was wonderful and was the reason I chose PH in the first place – she just made me feel so comfortable. I had dealt with Ail a few times over the course of my planning (I’m pretty sure they tag team to make sure emails are answered quickly when they have days off) and about 2 months before hand she told me she would be my coordinator on the day of our wedding, so after that I exclusively dealt with her. Ali was just fantastic. She was so sweet, and so helpful. We had originally booked the Sleepless in Seattle package, but decided to upgrade to the Somewhere in Time package. Ali answered all my “what if” scenario questions and drew up all the new paperwork in no time. On the day of the wedding she rallied all my guests who were lingering in the hallway and had the flowers for our wedding party ready to go. My MIL had on a strapless dress and requested her corsage be put on her wrist and not pinned on (as there was nowhere to pin it!) and Ali hopped all over that and fixed her up no problems. Jaime was also present at our ceremony and the day we showed up to drop off the marriage license. I had only dealt with her once or twice before that, but she was also super nice. Pastor Nathan was our officiant and I was a little leary of him due to a recent review by another PH bride who said he looked like a Ken doll (He did!) and was kind of weird and cheesy. I actually found him very nice, and didn’t get a cheesy vibe from him at all. I had edited his ceremony script to include a thank you to our guests and our parents and I think he made it sound quite genuine and warm. That made me really happy, as it was very important to me to thank everyone for travelling for our wedding. We also chose to have a pianist play our ceremony music and it sounded just beautiful. I have zero regrets on choosing PH Chapel.
Cashman Videography B+: We paid the outside vendor fee of $150 to have Tyler Freear shot our entire day, including the ceremony. We forfeited the Cashman photography that came along with our package, but I haven’t lost any sleep over that decision. However we did go ahead with the ceremony DVD. The intro to the DVD is generic and cheesy – I don’t love that part. But the ceremony part is actually pretty good. It’s not fancy with lots of cuts and fades and montages – it’s just straight up what happened during our ceremony and I’m really glad to have it as, like everyone says, everything is kind of a blur and surreal, so it’s nice to be able to sit down and watch the DVD.
Planet Hollywood Hotel : B Our package came with 2 nights in a Hollywood Hip room and we paid $336 to upgrade to a Strip Suite. I’m happy we did this because having 4 of us get ready, plus Harmony and Tyler it would have been pretty tight in a regular room. Our view was more of the pool than the Strip because we were only on the 10th floor, but that’s no big deal. The room had a king size bed, 2 tvs, 2 arms chairs in a sitting area, a desk and a huge bathroom which was great for Harmony and while getting ready. The bed was super comfy and the bell desk was prompt with delivering the luggage. The front desk staff was fine, not overly friendly. The one thing I hated about PH – the internet fee. OK so they don’t charge a daily resort fee. Fine. Their website says wireless “available for a nominal fee”. Nominal my hiney! They charge $13.99 for 24 hrs of internet service PER DEVICE!!! Holy highway robbery Batman! I have an iPHONE, my husband has one, my mother has one, my sister has one, we have an iPAD and had our laptop. We only connected my phone as it would have cost $84 to connect them all for 1 day. Give me a resort fee any day if I can connect multiple devices. Overall the hotel was fine, but I wouldn’t stay here again. Don’t get me wrong, it was very convenient to get ready there and just take the elevator down to the chapel, and I’d recommend staying there if you are getting married there, but I will definitely stay elsewhere next time.