We just got home from Vegas after our 3/14 wedding at the Venus Garden! With the exception of a rather large hiccup with Travis Allen (courtesy of GK, Travis was amazing), and our officiant going on a ridiculous rant about lawyers in the middle of our ceremony at Caesars, our wedding was perfect! Can't say enough good things about the Elara (PH Towers were taken over by Hilton at the beginning of March), Todd, Lori White, Pick Your Poison, Masterpiece, Jason's Deli, The Buffet, Presidential Limos, Earth Limos, and Double Decker Co. I worked on some reviews on the plane home and will post them here as soon as I'm finished!
Reviews!
Elara / PH Towers Westgate - A
Our hotel was amazing! We booked a two bedroom suite to host our in-suite reception, and were provided with SIX keys at check-in despite the fact it was only my fiancee and I. We had read several reviews complaining about the housekeeping, but our experience was great! The suite was bigger than our apartment, and we enjoyed having space for friends and family visit with us over the course of our stay.
We received a noise complaint when we came back from our bus tour at 12:30am, but were just told to keep it down rather than having the party broken up altogether. Our only complaint is that the morning after the wedding, housekeeping took away our ridiculous pile of garbage, but neglected the rest of the suite despite leaving a nice tip on the counter. We surived without new towels and made beds, but it would have been appreciated.
Earth Limos - A
We used Earth Limos 22 passenger party bus to pick us and our families up at the airport, and again to deliver us from our hotel to Caesars. I opted to use Earth because they didn't have 2 hour minimums for their large vehicles like other transportation companies in Vegas have.
When our driver picked us up at the airport, he was very friendly and eager to carry our bags. He encouraged us to play our music louder when we were on the bus. My only complaints were that there were leftover beer cans from previous clients, and the A/C wasn't working.
Our second experience with Earth was perfect! Our driver picked us up right on time and got us over to Caesars very quickly. We didn't know which drop-off would be best for getting us closest to the gardens, so he stopped and asked someone in valet. We still ended up getting completely lost trying to find our way, but that's another story.
Lori White - A+
Lori was so lovely! She showed up on time for our trial the day before the wedding and got started right away. I showed her a few pictures of what I had in mind, but the end result wasn't quite right. She was super receptive to my feedback and assured me we'd get it right for the big day.
The day of the wedding, she completely nailed what I wanted. I didn't even cry when I found my wedding dress, but my hair and make-up was so perfect that it just about had me in tears. Lori was easy to talk to and kept my nerves in check the entire time. She brought an assistant with her (whose name I have completely forgotten, ack!), who did an amazing job with my bridesmaids. Neither of them do much with their hair or make-up, and were both VERY happy with the end result.
The Buffet - A+
Our guests really wanted to get together for dinner the night before the wedding, so The Buffet was an entirely last minute decision. They were able to accomodate a group of 17 without a reservation AND allowed us to pay separately. We had a table within 15 minutes of reaching the front of the line, we were all amazed at the service! Our server's name was EZ, she remembered all of our drinks, and made sure we never had empty plates on the table. Great dining experience!
Jason's Deli - B
We had Jason's Deli provide brunch for our families the morning of the wedding. Shortly before they were scheduled to deliver, they called and expected my fiancee to provide them with detailed directions on how to get to our hotel. We'd given them the address weeks previously, and didn't feel it was our responsibility to direct them. In the end, they figured it out and arrived in the half hour delivery window. Apparently the driver tried to leave the ginormous bag of food with my fiancee in the lobby, but agreed to bring it up to the room when she hesitated.
We had 12 people in our suite the morning of, and ordered for 12... we had so many leftovers! Be sure to underestimate a little when using these guys! We ordered the deluxe sandwich tray, a fruit tray, and coffee service, and everyone was very happy with their food. I had time to eat a chicken salad sandwich on a croissant and it was amazing! (I'm already researching the recipe online.) I was told the coffee was a little cold, so if you have a coffee maker in your suite, it might be a better idea to go that route instead.
Caesar's Palace - C+
When we arrived at Caesar's, we had the hardest time finding the gardens. I really wish we had printed the map our co-ordinator sent us, but I thought it would be straightforward enough. When we realized we couldn't find it, we decided to ask someone. Apparenly none of the staff at Caesars know where the Venus Garden is either, because we were sent on a wild goose chase around the hotel. We had half a dozen people tell us half a dozen different things, pretty stressful! Finally someone agreed to walk us there, but by that time, we'd run into the majority of our guests, and the surprise of seeing the brides walk down the aisle was kind of ruined. Oh well.
Our coordinator changed about a month before our date, but Melissa was very lovely to work with. She was always quick to respond to e-mails and made sure that our requests were honoured the day of. She brought us into a holding area so we could discuss final details, have some water, (and get away from our guests for a few minutes before the craziness started). Her personality put us at ease, which was much appreciated after the run around we got inside the hotel. After the ceremony, she gave us a gift from Caesar's, which we thought was a nice touch.
Our officiant was Peter... Apparently he is responsible for committment ceremonies at Caesar's, so I'm not sure if he does ceremonies for heterosexual couples as well. Anyway. He arrived a few minutes after we spoke with Melissa in the holding area and said he wanted to customize our ceremony. We felt really put on the spot about little details. It would have been nice to get an e-mail in advance indicating the areas of the ceremony that we could customize so that we could have talked about it beforehand. We weren't exactly in the best state to be making these decisions 10 minutes before the wedding.
Peter remembered that we wanted our own vows, and he turned his microphone to make sure that all our guests would be able to hear them. He also made a point of thanking one of our bridesmaids for introducing us in the ceremony, which we thought was sweet. In our meeting before the ceremony, he asked if we wanted him to take a moment to allow our married guests to hold hands and renew their vows in their heads during our ceremony, which we thought was a beautiful idea... but then he didn't do it? Instead, he went off on a tangent about how we are the only ones who matter in determining our committment to eachother, and how the world would be a better place if lawyers weren't trying to be involved with everything. He also asked us in a very... dramatic, pause-for-effect kind of way if we "were ready to be... Shauna and Colleen?" We were under the impression that we already ARE Shauna and Colleen, and both answered with waivering "...yes?"s. We were a little mortified with our ceremony, but apparently our guests thought that it was funny. If it weren't for the fact that we're having a legally recognized ceremony at our at home reception in May, I'd probably have been pretty devastated, to be honest.
Todd Wilson - A+
Todd seriously made our day. We booked Todd even before we had booked our ceremony, and he was, without a doubt, the best decision we made for our wedding. He showed up right on time and started taking pictures right away. It didn't take long at all before I forgot that he was even there. He worked with our driver from Presidential to organize drop-offs and pick-ups while on our photo tour. In two hours (amidst March Madness traffic), we managed to cover the Bellagio, Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas sign, Paris, and Planet Hollywood. We never felt rushed and were completely at ease the entire time.
At our reception, Todd fit right in with our guests. Everyone commented that even though we had an intimate reception with 23 guests, it didn't feel awkward with him being there. He was very intuitive, and was always close by to capture little moments throughout the day. He'd go from taking wide shots over his head, to portraits of guests talking, to on the floor taking pictures of our niece, and by the time I'd turn around, he'd be back with the camera over his head again. Todd was also very open to my suggestions, and was extremely appreciative when we insisted that he sit down and eat something. We cannot wait to see his pictures!
Presidential Limo - A+
We booked an Escalade through Presidential for our 2 hour photo tour between the ceremony and reception. Our driver was Kyle, and he was awesome! He and Todd worked very well together, our only job was posing for pictures. He was great about helping us in and out of the car, and was always close by and ready to head to our next location. The car was in immaculate condition, and the A/C was much appreciated. I don't know why we ever considered doing our strip tour without a driver.
Pick Your Poison - A
Taryn and Robyn were lovely to work with! My only complaint about our entire experience with PYP was the delivery. The cellphone reception in our hotel wasn't so great, so I received a few very frantic voicemails from Robyn in the time it took to see that I had a voicemail, and the time my fiancee was in the lobby to meet her. Once we got her to the suite, she was super friendly and high energy. She set-up the cupcakes for us, and refused to take a tip when we offered her one. On her way out the door she looked at both of us and said, "I was married once, just remember that a happy wife means a happy life and you'll do great!" which we thought were some good parting words of wisdom.
The cupcakes were AMAZING. We decided to go with a dozen mini cupcakes in 10 different flavors so that our guests would have the opportunity to try 5-6 cupcakes each. Three cupcakes each would have been a better estimate, we had so many leftovers! It was nice having a full-sized fridge in our suite to keep our leftovers in, we ate cupcakes with our guests for the rest of the trip, and still brought a few home with us.
Masterpiece Cuisine - A+
The team at Masterpiece was probably the easiest to communicate with out of all of our vendors. We had the ahi tuna, crabcakes, lobster pot pie, satay chicken, beef sliders, spinach and artichoke dip, and roasted red pepper hummus (favorites were the crabcakes and spinach and artichoke dip). I was surprised that they only sent one guy to set-up, but he was very efficient and utilized our limited table/counter space very well. While disposable, all of the equipment was very good quality. We bought extra plates, cutlery, and napkins to make sure we'd have enough, but we shouldn't have. Masterpiece provided way more than enough!
The food was great! I didn't have time to each much during the reception, but we, again, had tons of leftovers. We overestimated our headcount by 5 to make sure that we'd have plenty of food, but you really shouldn't do that. After our reception, we had a breakfast for 2, lunch for 5, breakfast for 4, and lunch for 4 out of the leftovers, and still had to throw some food away at the end. To be honest, I'd recommend ordering for a few less than you have coming unless you want leftovers.
Travis Allen - A+ for Travis, D for GK
Travis was the biggest hiccup in our wedding. When I first started planning, I communicated with all of our vendors by e-mail. GK was good at responding for awhile, but I found that he stopped responding about 3 months before the wedding. I opted to switch to phone communication at that point. Around the same time, we shuffled our reception, and changed Travis' performance from 8pm to 7pm. I confirmed this change with GK on three separate occasions, all on the phone, prior to our big day (including the day before).
Despite my efforts, Travis had our initial time of 8pm. Around 6:50 or so, we began rounding up guests and making sure that no one was smoking off the lobby, we wanted Travis to be a complete surprise for our guests. At 7:05, we stopped my fiancee's dad from starting his (very long) toast out of fear that it would be interrupted. At 7:10, I slipped out to phone GK to ask about Travis' ETA. At that point, GK didn't mention anything about the 8pm start, and forwarded me Travis' number. I got ahold of Travis, and he was completely apologetic and said he'd get there as fast as he could.
We booked Travis for an hour (7-8 songs instead of 4) because we opted not to hire a DJ. We had scheduled our reception to be dinner from 6pm to 7pm, Travis from 7pm to 8:15pm or so after pictures with guests, and then Double Decker bus from 9:00pm (leaving our suite about 8:45 to make sure we got there on time) to 12:00am. Travis got to our hotel just before 8, and was spotted by a large group of our guests who were downstairs smoking. I went to the lobby to let him upstairs and was practically in tears out of frustration. Travis was very sweet and spent the entire ride in the elevator reassuring me that he'd told everyone that he was supposed to be a suprise, to not tell anyone else, and that he'd make sure he got in our 8 songs and had time for photos with all of our guests in the 45 minutes we were left with.
He hid in the hall while I plugged in his amp, and then busted through the door singing Viva Las Vegas. Our guests were immediately on their feet singing and clapping. His performance was amazing, and he was very efficient getting pictures with all of our guests, and out the door before we had to leave at 8:45. Some of our guests were disappointed that all he was there to do was sing. ;D
To add insult to injury, GK texted me later in the evening to say that he had no e-mails indicating the change in time. My advice? GET IT IN WRITING. Anything you touch on by phone, get him to send you a confirmation by e-mail. We lost out on, essentially, half of our time with Travis, and because we don't have it in writing, we're SOL. Don't make the same mistake I did!
Double Decker Bus Co - A+
We planned a double decker tour as an "afterparty" for our guests. Our driver was very quick to help us bring our alcohol to the upper level of the bus, and we were quickly on our way to the Vegas sign. We had a couple of guests who needed to go back to their hotel shortly before the tour, and we were able to arrange to pick them up at one of the Deuce stops on our way up to Fremont Street. Their flexibility was much appreciated!
They staffed a driver and one "supervisor" to make sure the rules were being followed on the upper level of the bus. Our supervisor seemed to enjoy our red light/green light game that we played each time the bus stopped. Many of our guests would stand up and dance, and would then scramble to find a new seat as soon as the light turned green. It was a great way to spend time with everyone, and our guests had a great time!
When they dropped us off at Fremont, they stopped at a casino slightly off Fremont with a readily available washroom - our guests appreciated not having to look for one themselves! We spent an hour on Fremont Street, and then another hour driving back down the strip to the hotel. One of our guests got a little carried away over the course of the evening, and our driver offered to help us get her off the bus safely.
I really can't recommend these guys enough! It has been three days since our big day, and my throat is still in rough shape from singing so loudly on the bus. Our guests ranged in age from 21 to 70, and the bus tour was definitely the most talked about part of our day. I'd absolutely recommend working Double Decker into your timeline, you won't regret it!
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