Hello, fellow Vegas Knotties! We recently returned home after our Vegas wedding and
honeymoon in Hawaii. We were
married on Saturday, August 17th at the Bellagio. Our ceremony was on the Grand Patio
(outside, at 7pm) and the reception was in the Bellagio’s Monet Ballrooms. We had an amazing time! I know I could not have planned my
Vegas wedding without the help of prior reviews, so I thought I would pay it
forward and write some reviews. My
apologizes in advance if I get too long winded here…. So much to talk about!
Fit for a Bride: A
I shipped out my dress, my husband’s suit (wow, that is the
first time I have written that!), my father’s suit, and two dresses (Mother of
Groom and Sister of Groom) about a week before the wedding to Fit for a Bride. I didn’t want to fly with my dress and
just wanted to send it out in advance for steaming and delivery to me at the
hotel. I shipped everything
in one box via UPS (insured and with tracking). I used our UPS account at work so that I could get a discounted
rate through my firm, as we ship a lot of stuff (it ended up being $25 for
overnight delivery, which is a really good price). Otherwise, shipping via overnight can be really
expensive. Donna at Fit for a
Bride called me as soon as she got the box, which was a great relief. They worked fast, and all of the
dresses and suits were delivered to the Bell Desk at the Bellagio on Thurs.,
prior to our Sat. wedding.
Everything looked great - - suits looked great and my chiffon dress was
steamed perfectly. My dress and
the Mother of the Groom dress both had appliqués that we did not want overly
steamed, and everything came back looking great. They were very responsive and easy to work with (I added and
deleted garments from my order right up until I shipped them out there, without
any trouble). I would
definitely recommend Fit for a Bride.
Scheme Events:
A+++
Where would I be without Rissa from Scheme? Well, probably married, but I guarantee
the day would have been FAR more stressful if we didn’t have her to run the
show. We hired Scheme Events to
provide “day of” coordination for our wedding. The package included 2 Scheme planners on site the day of
the wedding for 10 hours. We
worked primarily with Rissa from Scheme and she was amazing. Her involvement started well
before the day of the wedding.
About 3 weeks prior, I sent her copies of all of our vendor
contracts. She made an organized
binder, a timeline of events (including vendor deliveries, photography
schedule, etc.) and she called all
of the vendors to make sure they knew where they needed to be and when they
needed to be there. This was a
HUGE help, as the weeks leading up to my wedding where crazy at work (getting
stuff done so I could be gone for 2.5 weeks for our honeymoon). I simply would not have had the time or
sanity to do all that. In
addition, I shipped out 2 boxes of wedding “décor” to Scheme, including wedding
favors, fans for the ceremony, some aisle runners, etc., which Rissa brought to
the Bellagio and set up. It was such
a relief not to have to worry about any of that stuff - - once it shipped, I
knew it would end up in the right place come the day of the wedding, and it
did.
Rissa also worked with Karin, who was our contact at the
Bellagio’s catering department.
She made sure that all of our vendors were on the various security lists
to drop stuff off and pick stuff up at the Bellagio. Prior to the wedding, she reviewed all of the Bellagio’s
documentation and caught a few discrepancies (we had changes in our guest numbers
leading right up to the day of the wedding). She was on it and made sure everyone was on the same page as
these changes occurred.
On the day of the wedding, she was there by 2:30 pm for our
7pm wedding. She brought Tara from
Scheme to assist. Tara immediately
went to work in the ballroom and ceremony space to make sure everything was set
up as planned. Rissa came up to my
suite, and assisted by letting in the various vendors into the suite, so I
didn’t have to run down stairs to meet them (you needed a room key card to
access our elevator bank, so people had to be escorted up to my suite). She brought my bouquet up, worked with
the florist to attach our little bouquet charms, and was in contact with our
photographer when he got there.
All of the vendors were calling HER, and not me, on my wedding day. It was SO NICE to just sit back and
enjoy the day, relax during hair and make up, etc. I didn’t have to worry about setting up favors, escort
cards, or anything else. It was
fabulous.
Rissa also coordinated our first look and our entrance into
the ceremony. She made sure that
the groom and best man were where they were supposed to be and that I didn’t
see them (and vice versa) before our first look. Everything went smoothly, it was great. She made sure we entered into the
ceremony at the EXACT cue in the music that we were supposed to enter (this was
important to my husband, and it all worked out perfectly). During the reception, she made sure we
had drinks in our hands and a plate full of the passed appetizers, as it was
hard to get over to the food when you are so busy greeting guests. She organized our “grand entrance,” and
generally made sure everything went according to plan. Towards the end of the night,
Rissa and Tara made sure that all of the wedding stuff (cake topper, guest
book, card box, etc.) all made it back safely to our suite. We didn’t carry a thing or impose on
any guests… it was awesome.
I am sure the ladies from Scheme also did a thousand other things that I
don’t even know about, which is exactly why you should hire them. You can just sit back and be the
guest of honor, so to speak, at your own wedding!
As a result of all of Rissa’s (and Tara’s) hard work, I was
completely relaxed and just sat back and had an amazing time at our ceremony
and reception. Honestly, it was
the best money we spent on our wedding.
I cannot recommend them enough, particularly if you have a larger
wedding with various vendors.
Rissa, if you read this, THANK YOU. You rock.
Officiant -
Angie Kelly from Peachy Keen Weddings: A+++
Angie was amazing.
When we first contacted her, we had a Skype interview with her so we
could “meet” each other from across the country. She got us right away and is totally comfortable customizing
the ceremony to what you want. For
example, we are not religious and we did not want our ceremony to mention God
or anything religious, and she was totally fine with that. She sent us some “homework,” which was
a worksheet that my husband and I each had to fill out separately which had
basic questions so she could get to know you better - - basic questions like,
“what does marriage mean to you,” etc. Based upon this, and your Skype meeting, she then drafts
a ceremony for your review and editing.
You have total editorial control over everything, which was important to
us. But honestly, her first draft
for us was nearly perfect. We only
had a few small changes, but otherwise, it was amazing and really summed up how
we feel about the commitment of marriage and how we feel about each other. The first time I read the draft, I will
confess I got a bit choked up. We
got a LOT of compliments on our ceremony. Angie was professional, polished, and
you would think she had known us for years. I would highly recommend Angie Kelly if you are
looking for an officiant for you wedding.