Nevada-Las Vegas

Reviews Pt 1: Little Church of the West / Joey Allen / Make-up in the 702

Little Church of the West (Forever True package $1520 incl tax) – A++

Our decision for where to tie the knot was an easy one, this place is so cute and so unlike any of the other options on the strip. Most of the other chapels we looked at had décor that we just didn’t like whereas the simplistic beauty of this wooden chapel is right up our street. We booked online, choosing a package that allowed guests (including our professional photographer) to take photos from their seats, as some of the cheaper packages don’t permit this. All email communication I had with the chapel was through Lisa, she always replied quickly and was very helpful, especially when I changed the colours of my bouquet a couple of weeks out from the wedding, and then again one week before! On the day the two six-seater limos included in our package arrived early, and the one that I was in left a couple of minutes after the first to ensure I was the last to arrive at the chapel. Lisa greeted me on my arrival and explained everything, introducing me to the two photographers. The minister (Paul Graham) was great, we had the standard ceremony, vows and music that comes with the package, and it was all brilliant – a lot of people have commented on how nice Paul’s words were (despite knowing how well rehearsed they are), it did feel really personal. My bouquet was beautiful, I was so sad to leave it in Vegas when we moved on for our honeymoon, I left it in my mom’s room for her last two days there and she said it still looked amazing on the day they left (5 days after the ceremony). The photographers were very nice and friendly, the photos are a mixed bag but there are some really good ones in there, we’ve seen all the poses they make you do from looking at other weddings on the website so we knew what to expect, although they gave us a bit of choice and I’m sure if we’d requested certain things they would have obliged. Whilst we got all of the ceremony photos included in our package we decided to also purchase a CD containing the posed photos too as the ones of our family groups are great and we know our guests would have ended up buying them online themselves so we were happy to save them the money and splash out ourselves. They had told me to book the DDB to pick us up at 3.45 and we were finished right on time. Whilst we had our photos taken and were viewing them, our photographer took photos of our guests in and around the garden chapel as there was not a ceremony there at the time, it was really nice that they were able to sit down and chill out there in the shade. (NB: I wouldn’t recommend the garden chapel as it is parking lot adjacent and I’d imagine would be quite noisy if there are guests milling about from an indoor wedding that has just let out – although maybe they don’t schedule indoor and outdoor ceremonies at the same time).  

Joey Allen (8 hours $1175) – A+++++++

We loved Joey’s photographic style from the moment we saw his portfolio and had seen very good reviews for him so we were pretty confident with this booking but our experience with him far outweighs our good expectations. This guy is AMAZING. He is such a hard worker - he arrived early, stayed late, worked through his dinner break and wouldn’t accept any extra fees (regardless to say we tipped big!). I had sent him quite a large list of my photo ideas, which I think had stressed him a little as he thought I expected us to take all of those shots in our 8 hour booking, and despite me assuring him they were simply ideas he worked tirelessly to try and get as many as possible whilst also throwing in his own artistic inspiration to capture things we would never have thought of. Within two days he sent us 20 sample photos and then at our request he sent another 70 within two weeks for us to showcase at our home reception. Two days after that the whole lot were in the post on their way to us (he normally works to a 3-4 week timescale). You can see his awesome style and his knack for capturing ‘moments’ rather than loads of cheesy posed photos on his portfolio at joeyallenphoto.com but I have included a couple of ours here too.

Make-up in the 702 ($770) – A++

I had Keira, Deb and Karen booked from here (I requested Keira and Deb specifically after reading several good reviews about their work). I had a trial with Keira and Deb the day before the wedding and then they did my hair and make-up on the wedding day, Keira also did make-up for my mom and sister, Deb did my sister’s hair, and Karen did my mom’s hair and my other sister’s hair. These girls are all fantastic, I LOVED them. Keira and Deb made my time with them so much fun – they are so friendly and funny and are fantastic at what they do as well. Whilst their work on my trial was amazing, I decided afterwards that it wasn’t quite what I wanted, decided to do something different on the wedding day and they listened and nailed it. My sister and mom loved their make-up (one of my sisters did her own make-up and Keira copied it perfectly on my other sister), and their hair was great also. I had loads of bruises on my legs (and my dress was knee length) so Keira applied concealer and airbrush make-up to them for me – no need for tights! They arrived early for the trial as well as on the big day and finished way before the scheduled time. Their communication on the day was great (Keira was texting me) and the communication from Megan from the time of my original enquiry through booking up to the big day was fantastic. Yes she has an overly cheesy style but she replies within 24 hours every time without fail.

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Wedding Countdown Ticker
   UK based bride, getting married in Vegas on 14th April 2014!

Re: Reviews Pt 1: Little Church of the West / Joey Allen / Make-up in the 702

  • A couple more of Joey's fab pics:

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    Wedding Countdown Ticker
       UK based bride, getting married in Vegas on 14th April 2014!
  • fablovefablove member
    First Anniversary 5 Love Its Name Dropper First Comment
    Ohhh so so pretty! I love your bouquet as well :)
  • Beautiful pics! Congrats!
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  • nixymnixym member
    First Comment 5 Love Its Name Dropper
    Great pics :)  Congratulations again date triplet!
  • Thanks all! :)


    Wedding Countdown Ticker
       UK based bride, getting married in Vegas on 14th April 2014!
  • Love it-only 48 days till I get wed in the little church of the west too! Huge congrats x
  • Thanks @manchester21 ! So close for you now!

    Quick update: we got our photos through the post from Joey two days ago!! All 1599 of them! Can't believe they were in our hands just over 3 weeks after our wedding date, when we weren't expecting to have them until at least the 3rd/4th week of May. He didn't scrimp on the edits either, they are all fantastic. This man is amazing - we could not have asked for better service :)


    Wedding Countdown Ticker
       UK based bride, getting married in Vegas on 14th April 2014!
  • @Jiimanie I have a quick travel related question. I'm also coming from the UK and was just wondering who you booked your accommodation and travel with? I have just been quoted from Thomas Cook (were travelling to Florida after for our honeymoon) and it was a little steep. How far out did you book? Thanks again for all your great reviews and advice!! :)

    P.s. would love to see a few more pictures!! 

  • @MishMashPotato - You're welcome!

    Firstly, I'm in the process of uploading more photos to Facebook - I will share links to the albums on here when done, or if you'd like to add me as a friend then inbox me for my details :)

    We booked our travel and accommodation ourselves, we booked the flights direct with Virgin on their website as soon as they became available (which was 10 months out), we booked a flight out to Vegas and return from San Fran (our honeymoon was a roadtrip between the two). We then booked all of our accommodation in Vegas and along the road trip either direct with the hotels or through sites like expedia and ratestogo, wherever we could get the best price / best reward points etc. We had planned on staying with the same company (e.g. IHG = Holiday Inn, Intercontinental etc) all along so we could maximise reward points but we struggled to do that so ended up doing a mixture!

    Hope that helps, any other UK-specific stuff (or anything else) you want to know just ask! 


    Wedding Countdown Ticker
       UK based bride, getting married in Vegas on 14th April 2014!
  • Thank you, were considering booking Virgin flights but were not getting married until October 2015. Were just super eager to get stuff booked hehe. 

    Can I just check if you needed to declare intent to get marry or do anything here in the UK to make sure it was official here?

    Thanks again for all your help! Looks like you had an amazing day!!

  • Hi Jiimanie, your day sounded amazing, congrats! Your dress was so pretty too. I was wondering what you thought of San Francisco? I'm hoping to go back to Vegas next summer then drive to San Francisco. How many days did you have there?
  • sdg2502sdg2502 member
    First Anniversary First Answer 5 Love Its First Comment
    Great pictures, I love the one of you and your husband wearing sunglasses. Congratulations. I'd also love to hear more about the logistics of your road trip, it's an option we're debating!
  • @MishMashPotato - you don't have to do anything over here, your Nevada marriage certificate is legally recognised in the UK, you can deposit the certificate with the General Records Office when you return

    @spoon1984 - I thought San Fran was fab, although my experience was somewhat thwarted by food poisoning (I wasn't too ill but I had no desire to eat for two days and so was very low on energy). We didn't get to see as many of the sights as we'd wanted to as a result but what we did see we really enjoyed (Haight Ashbury, Ocean Beach, Fisherman's Wharf, Mission District & Delores Park are of note). We especially enjoyed riding the cable cars! Just steer clear of the tenderloin and 6th street south of market - very dodgy (a friend who used to live in SF warned us in advance). Feel free to inbox me if you want any more info, or to see our photos!). We were there for 3 days

    @sdg2502 - Thanks! We had two weeks driving from Vegas to San Fran, along the way we stayed (either one or two nights) in Death Valley, Bakersfield, Three Rivers (for Sequoia NP), Mariposa (for Yosemite NP), Monterey (with a day trip to Big Sur down PCH1), Napa, Calistoga, Santa Rosa and San Fran. We'll be uploading photos to facebook asap so can share them with you if you'd like or if you want to know anything more just inbox me :)


    Wedding Countdown Ticker
       UK based bride, getting married in Vegas on 14th April 2014!
  • Sorry for belated congrats; and thanks for the reviews.

    Married in Vegas - June 2011


  • Thanks @vegasgroom !


    Wedding Countdown Ticker
       UK based bride, getting married in Vegas on 14th April 2014!
  • Sort of related:

    I LOVE Virgin Airlines. I've never traveled them overseas, but I use them whenever possible while traveling in the States. You will not regret this. They're so modern and awesome, and I love the mood lighting. H calls them "Star Trek planes".

    Also, while we were in SF last summer, we did most of the stuff mentioned, along with Alcatraz. I can't wait to go back this fall! I love that city so much.
  • sdg2502sdg2502 member
    First Anniversary First Answer 5 Love Its First Comment
    @Jiimanie‌ We would love to see photos if you did share them!
  • We put them on Facebook @sdg2502 I will inbox you the links now!


    Wedding Countdown Ticker
       UK based bride, getting married in Vegas on 14th April 2014!
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