We have returned from fabulous Las Vegas and our Lake Tahoe honeymoon! Let's continue the reviews...
The Palette-A+: the flowers from Pam were beautiful. I chose my favorite flowers...light pink gerbera daisies and hydrangeas. They were even prettier than I ever could have imagined. She's also very reasonably priced. I believe the flowers were a little over $300 for 2 centerpieces, 2 boutonnieres, 1 corsage, and my bouquet.
Freed's bakery-A+: The cake was really pretty and it was also tasty. The color of the daisies were not as light as I wanted but I knew that was a risk. The board the cake was delivered on was bigger than I expected (based on the size of the cake it should've ben 10" and it was 12") so the cake stand I made had some overhang. If I would've been around when the cake was delivered I would have not used the cake stand and opted to just put the cakeboard on the table. The bottom layer was chocolate with raspberry puree and the top two layers were lemon with raspberry mousse. We had a ton of cake left over and we ended up eating wedding cake for breakfast the day we left...it was still delicious!
Firefly-A++: A week before the wedding I received an email from my DOC about a bad inspection Firefly had. I had a meltdown, we found another caterer but ultimately stayed with Firefly. I am so glad we did! I did not try everything, in fact I only ate a few bites my BIL put on a plate for me. The food was amazing! When we go back to Vegas we are going to eat in the restaurant so we can try everything we had at the wedding. There was a ton of left over food which unfortunately got skipped and never properly placed in the fridge that evening. Faith stressed to them the importance of not waltzing through the main lobby with the order and they were more than happy to comply. My husband and Faith met the delivery drivers on the third level of the garage to help bring them up to the room and the delivery went flawlessly. I knew it was their first time delivering to the Cosmopolitan and they were pleasantly surprised at easy the delivery went. We ordered: artichoke toasts, stuffed dates, chicken tinga empanadas, veggie empanadas, shrimp diablo, chicken skewers, steak and mushroom skewers, banana nutella sandwiches, and lemon berry tarts.
Beauty by Bri-A-: I have mixed feelings about Bri. I loved the look of my hair and makeup. She was a true pleasure to work with. My sister did not like her hair but I did. I did a tattoo coverup on my neck that we ended up wiping off before the ceremony. When I got my pictures back from the photographer I could see the makeup line on my jaw. I am very very unhappy about that. Fortunately I have a photographer friend who is going to work with the images when I get the disc next week. I am incredibly fair skinned and normally do not wear much makeup so I do not know how much that influences the visible line but I feel the makeup should have been tapered a bit more.
Dale S-B: We had photography booked with Keith Kaplan. Faith received a call from him that morning stating he was sick and Dale was filling in. Dale was on time and immediately started working. He had the master list of pictures I wanted but I think there was some communication issues with what my vision was. Overall I am happy with the quality of the pictures but I will be happier when my friend edits them (goodbye double chin and makeup lines!) In the Paris pictures my husband's jacket is pulled up a little high exposing too much of his shirt. I wish Dale would have mentioned it because the husband does not want that picture in the photo album! The more I look at other brides pictures the more disappointed I am with mine. Some are great, most are just okay. The Paris pictures were not at the right angle and the Bellagio pictures are just off. If you book with Keith I would try to ensure you get him instead of Dale. He was incredibly friendly and lots of fun to work with however.
Travis Allen-A+: Travis is a great Elvis!! Our guests were very surprised when he walked in and started singing. We have some great pictures of my mom dancing with Elvis.
Presidential Limousines-A+: We were an hour late getting on the party bus. The driver, Steve, was great about it. He found a place to park at the hotel and waited. The husband lost his wallet in the taxi on the way back from pictures at the Mirage which delayed the party. I was going to go on the bus with our guests while he stayed and brooded but we had a couple of drunks lost in the hotel. An hour later we finally had everyone rounded up and on the bus. We drove by the sign and then went to Fremont. The driver was great but I wish we would've skipped this part of the party. You will also need the credit card you booked with so they can get an imprint of the card. This was not communicated to me when we booked the party bus.
Wicked Spoon-A+: We did a morning after brunch at Wicked Spoon. The food was great!! Everyone enjoyed the experience and it was fantastic to have a reservation and skip the long Easter brunch line.
So on the wedding night the husband lost his wallet on the way back from taking pictures on the strip. The person who found it actually tried to call me within 15 minutes of us getting out of the cab but I missed the call. She called early the next morning and we got the wallet back! Yay!! He had both of our driver's licenses in his wallet so we were a bit freaked out about how to get out of Vegas but it worked out perfectly. A few things to consider: Please future brides I beg you do not make a really tasty wedding cake punch. We had three incredibly drunk people on the party bus, courtesy of the punch. Unfortunately the three included the groom and the maid of honor. Needless to say the night did not have the fantastic ending we all anticipated. At one point in the evening as we were getting back on the bus and one of intoxicated guests fell and could not right himself to get on the bus. My husband (obviously the driver didn't realize who the drunks were) was told it was at this point in the evening he had to inform us if someone threw up on the bus it was a $250 cleaning fee. That seems more than reasonable to me!! When we departed the bus the driver told me I had a very interesting family...if he only knew!
In retrospect I would have eliminated the party bus and opted to dance the night away in the suite. As it was we did not have time to dance at all. I'm happy to be married and very pleased everything turned out wonderful but I could've lived without drunk drama on my wedding night and wish I would've had better communication with the photographer. I didn't get individual pictures of all of the couples nor did I get pictures of myself with my best friends or pictures of me in my dress without anyone else. Also if you opt for an a reception in our suite I strongly suggest having it more than one night and taking contractor trash bags with you.
