I’m married!! We’ve been back from our honeymoon for about a week and I finally have had enough time to write out our reviews for our May 25th wedding at the Flamingo. Many thanks to all the other former Vegas brides (and vegasgroom) for all their reviews and input. All of our vendors were awesome, exceeded all of my high expectations and deserve A+’s!
Bently & Wilson (Photography) – Todd was about 20 minutes late, sending me into a very panicky quiet wedding day freak-out for said 20 minutes. When Todd arrived I found out it was due to the insane traffic and lack of parking which was verified by multiple people throughout our wedding day (one of our guests actually missed the ceremony because they were searching for parking for over an hour). That being said, he got to work right away. He was great and kept referring to my list of must-have pictures all day. He was able to direct us and put our bodies into picture-worthy poses that seemed natural. We got our pictures back 2 weeks after our wedding and they are spectacular!! I could not have asked for more! If you are on the fence about hiring a photographer (Todd or someone else) to capture your entire wedding day, try to make room in your budget for it. I was always on board with having one, but my husband didn't see the point. He reluctantly let me book Todd for a full 8 hours, and he is very thankful for it.
Imagine Studios (Ceremony Photography & Video) – The photography came out wonderful, and I absolutely love every single picture they took! We told our Wedding Coordinator that we had an outside photographer and would be using him for everything except the ceremony. When we were looking at the pictures, I looked at other people’s pictures and noticed that the High-Res Discs were priced considerably lower than ours was and yet they had way more pictures. I called Imagine to ask why and found out it was due to the Package we selected. When I complained and told them we only used Imagine for the ceremony they lowered our price. All in all, I was happy with the end price we paid for all the pictures (though if we had to do it again, we would pay the $150 outside photographer fee for Todd). As far as the video portion, I never wanted a videographer for our wedding, but the video came out great and I have absolutely no complaints save for the fact that my husband and I were sniffling throughout the entire video (through no fault of theirs).
Desert Glamour (Hair & Make-up) – Let me preface this with the fact that I never wear makeup, and the first time I had ever worn foundation was during my trial with Whitney the day before our wedding. I booked hair & makeup for myself and my sister-in-law and hair only for my sister and mother-in-law. They also touched up my Mom’s and my other sister’s hair. All came out awesome! I had a trial the salon (which was easy to find) the day before and also got my nails done there with my sister-in-law. Whitney talked me through the entire make-up process. She also took down my hair and made it look cute for our Welcome Dinner. Whitney really paid attention to what I wanted (which was as little make-up as possible) and adjusted the hair and makeup accordingly. I felt really pretty, but I thought that I still looked like myself (which was really important to me).
Flamingo (Ceremony) – We made a trip to Vegas the year before to scout out ceremony locations, and from the second I saw the Gazebo Chapel at the Flamingo, I knew that was the place we would be married. My coordinator was Iliana Gilbert, and I was very pleased with how things turned out. We didn’t have a bridal party, so she was able to convert the MOH bouquet in our package to three wrist corsages for our Mothers and Grandmother. I was very specific about my bouquet, and had to re-explain what I wanted a few times. Not a huge deal. I was a little peeved when I tried to convert our 1 hour of limo time into 2 hours in an Escalade SUV (and pay the difference), but she said that company did not have any SUVs at all. Turns out the company they use is Presidential Limo, and they do in fact have Escalade SUV since I booked it. I have no clue why she wouldn’t let me change the limo. We were rushed after the ceremony to get all of our formal pictures taken and I wish we could have spent more time on that.
Il Fornaio (Dinner Reception) – I never heard of anyone else here using Il Fornaio in the NY NY for their dinner reception, but I just loved the private dining room (we got a private entrance as it is a bakery during the day) and the coordinator (Oku Perez, then Kelly Quinnan) was so accommodating and really willing to work with us. I had specific instructions on how to set up the room and Kelly did a fantastic job following through with my vision. The food was great, and they didn’t mind that we stayed a little longer than we were supposed to. I highly recommend Il Fornaio!!
Presidential Limo (Strip Tour) – We booked an Escalade SUV for 2 hours for our Strip Photo tour with Todd, my husband and I. They were prompt (actually 15 minutes early!) and I really liked how the communication with the driver letting us know he was waiting was via text. The driver did a fantastic job navigating the crazy Memorial Weekend strip traffic.
Wicked Spoon (Welcome Dinner) – I told my guests we would be dining at the Wicked Spoon the night before, and would love if they could come and join for a little welcome dinner. I didn’t book a private room, but the staff was great and let us all sit at the “Captain’s Table” together, a high-top table that sits about 35. Everyone was very impressed with the tapas-style buffet, and raving all night (and the next day) about the food there. It was a little pricy ($50 on a Friday night), but well worth it.
Jason’s Deli (Day-of catering) – I ordered a breakfast platter for 5 people at 7am on the day of our wedding (for delivery at 12pm). They were 30 minutes early, and there was a ton of food! The food tasted great, and I could not be happier with their services.
Retro Bakery (Cake & Cupcakes) – I saw a design I liked on Retro’s flickr page and they modified it for me and were able to integrate our colors into it. I went with 9 dozen mini cupcakes for 33 people, and we had about 2 dozen left over. We had Milk & Cookies, Mint Chocolate Chip, Happy Birthday, Apple Cider and Glazed Donut and they were all delicious! They had no problems setting up in our private dining room in Il Fornaio and the coordinator at Il Fornaio was very impressed with how quickly and easily they set up.
Travis Allen (Elvis Impersonator) – Main communication was done via his father, GK. GK was easy to reach via email when I was booking him, but when we were about 2 weeks out I emailed to confirm details and I never got a response. I ended up calling him and all was fine. Travis called me the day before our wedding and told me to text him our song choices and what we wanted him to wear. There was a bit of miscommunication as GK informed me when I booked that Travis didn’t need any power source to sing, but lo and behold we ended up searching for an outlet when Travis showed up with his amp. The servers helped me find an outlet and all was fine. All of our guests loved Travis, and we all had a blast posing for pictures with him after he performed. It was the perfect addition to our low-key dinner reception.
I think that pretty much covers all of our Vegas vendors. I will try to post a few pictures later on. It was the best day ever!!! 