Nevada-Las Vegas

Help in organising from UK

Hi,

After toying with New York for a while, we have finally settled on getting married in Las Vegas, April 2017. I know this is a long time away, but I'd rather do a little research now - plus I'm quite excited!

We will be inviting around 40-50 guests but I imagine we will have around 30 come.

I was just looking for some advice on when to book - is there anyone else on here from the UK getting married there?

My concern is that I won't be able to book anything until I have my flights booked, which I believe can't be booked until a year in advance (I think..)

I would ideally like a private room somewhere for a dinner and drinks, a photo tour.. and am worried that my choice will be booked further in advance - any tips?

Thanks.
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Re: Help in organising from UK

  • Congratulations!

    I would say that 2 years is a bit far out to start planning in detail as Vegas changes so much. We went in Oct 2013 (before we got engaged so not a prep trip!) and then back in Oct 2014 for our wedding and there was loads of different things. Something you like now may close before 2017, or you may book something and then some place even better for what you want opens!

    You sound like you have about the same number as us - we ended up with 39 and are also from the UK. We booked in Jan 2014 for Oct that year and did Wynn ceremony and Maggianos reception (private room). It was a Weds though so things weren't as booked up as they may get on a weekend.

    Hope that helps - let me know if you have any questions! I had the best week of my life - getting married in Vegas is amazing!!
  • Thanks, Nicolajane!

    Yeah, I don't really want to start planning yet, I just want to have a little look at different places to get a feel for pricing etc then I thought about how and when I would go about booking things.

    I didn't think about a weekday wedding being quieter, being a destination wedding that's a good idea! More of a chance of getting first pick then too I'm guessing.

    Maggiano's looks brill and everything I've read about makes it sound amazing - did you just have dinner or a proper reception? I want to keep it quite casual as I don't think we're planning speeches or anything.
  • I'm going to book my venue first and then as soon as the flights become available book them afterwards. I have a specific date and time I want and the Aria chapel are already taking bookings for August 2016 now. I'm in contact with Virgin airlines for info on their flights and hotel packages, someone will email me once they are on sale. I'm fairly certain that booking the flights shouldn't be too much of an issue.
  • Hi @frenchie13 - I'm from the UK and got married in Vegas almost a year ago. The Virgin Atlantic flights for our trip were not released until 10 months before the wedding, but we booked our ceremony 12.5 months in advance (I got in touch to ask them a question about flowers and found out that they'd already filled some of their slots for the day we wanted so we just booked there and then!). Everything else we booked gradually over the course of the 12 months leading up to the wedding. We got married on a Monday which helped with cheaper prices and availability, however as I discovered two other Vegas brides on this forum who had the same date as me, I ended up booking some things earlier than planned to ensure I'd got them secured before anyone else booked them! The things I wanted to secure in particular were my photographer of choice (Joey Allen), my hair and make-up artists of choice (Make-Up in the 702) and the Double Decker Bus. Of course there will be brides who don't post on here but I have a feeling a lot of those booking well in advance will be on here discussing their dates! But I'd say as a rule, wait til at least 18 months out :)


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

    I guess regrading flights, they go fairly often so I could probably get away with booking a date and arranging flights around that.

    I think I'm just a little nervous as it's all overseas planning and I want my guests to have a good time.

    I may look into flight days (obviously not yet!) for the airlines that go there, Virgin seems like a good starting point!

  • Also, Jiimanie - I just peeked at your wedding photos and they are gorgeous! It looks like you had an amazing day and your dress is similar to what I would like.

    When you had drinks in your suite did you hire a bartender or anyone, or did you just buy the drinks and let everyone help themselves? It looks like a great idea.
  • I booked our flights with Virgin Atlantic 13 months in advance, flights were already online. I booked Aria chapel a year in advance and happy I did that because they put their prices up since. I didn't want to book anything before I book the flights, because we changed our mind about different destinations about 4 times, so once the flights were booked then it was certain. Maybe just do research for now, 2 years is a long time :)



    Wedding Countdown Ticker
  • Hi Frenchie - I am from the UK and we are getting married at Caesars Palace on the 1st December. We booked only 14 months out so can't help too much with how far in advance you can book sorry :)

    If you don't book a whole package with Virgin, flights will be come available 11 months in advance or around 15 - 18 months in advance if booking flight and hotel or other package.

    We only booked our photographer 6 weeks ago and my hair and make up vendor last week and got my 1st choice with everything so I don't think you have too much to worry about with your chosen vendors becoming booked up too early. Maybe start looking at things like that now and have them ready to book when your flights and hotel are done?

    Is there any particular hotel you are looking at for your ceremony? They do look an awesome idea if you have a group of you going!

    Let me know if you have any other questions and as I go along with my planning I can maybe give you more advice :smile:
  • Hi Frenchie!

    We're looking at some time in 2016 (I'm in Canada, he's in the US), and even though we're around a year out for booking, it seems like we're still early for a lot of things. 

     If you book earlier than 18 months in advance, you're probably going to get dinged by some service charges by most venues & services for 'early booking fees.'

    A lot changes in Vegas very, very quickly. That's something to definitely keep in mind!
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  • Thank you everyone, it seems like a lot of us are in the same boat :)

    I guess I'll start looking properly around this time next year! As for now I'll just browse and ogle at other peoples weddings, hehe. Hope everyones planning is going well.
  • Welcome to my life, Frenchie. Welcome to my life.

    Be prepared to ogle. If you're anything like me, you'll probably go through 20 different ceremony and reception ideas, and possibly not even settle anything when you're a year out!
    image
  • @frenchie13 I booked photographer before anything because I loved my photographer (Gin and Sake), then booked the platinum hotel for wedding and reception. We didn't book our flights and hotel until about six months later. We are also from the UK. We booked our wedding for a Thursday since all our guests are travelling over there for a week anyway. Four weeks today! Eek!
  • Yay! I hope you post asap @sdg2502 as I am the Saturday after you at Platinum :) 
    Wedding Countdown Ticker
  • How exciting, @sdg2502

    And, xoeden I think I have already done that! To be honest I love looking at blogs and Pinterest so being engaged has just opened up more browsing opportunities, haha.
  • I am anticipating a huge hangover the day after so I imagine ill get a chance then to visit here and give you an update! We fly out three weeks today, I'm bouncing in my chair at work already!
  • Hi @frenchie13, we are getting married in Vegas next March, also from the uk. It's an elopement so less to organise, but we already have the flights, chapel and hotel booked. We're flying with BA. 
  • @nicemarmot did you just keep checking to see when flights became available?

    I have also been wondering - how has everyone from the UK paid? Just credit card as you would here? 
  • @frenchie13, I booked with a travel agent last week. The flight from London to Vegas is confirmed but we are waiting for the internal one and the one from Miami to London.
    Do you mean how I paid for the trip or the chapel? For the trip I had to leave a deposit, and have until end of November to settle the whole amount, so we'll be going every month to pay a bit off by card. Makes it so much easier! 
    The chapel I already paid for with my card as well.
  • I have just paid the deposit for our chapel on my credit card and it was all fine. Called the bank to warn them and they were like yeah whatever. I am going to try and pay everything on our credit card for extra piece of mind although we are getting insurance as well as a bit of extra cover. Virgin have my details to let me know when flights become available if not its roughly 12 months out that they are available. I also follow the major airlines on twitter and Facebook so they often announce when flights are available on there or when they are doing sales of certain flights.

    @nicemarmot did you find flights are cheaper if you book all your trip onto one ticket in like a multi city ticket? I have noted that those flights are like half the price of doing each part of the trip separately.

    Lots of the airlines are now coupled with american airlines so with virgin (if we book with them) you fly out with them and then the internal american flight from Las Vegas to LA is with Delta and then back with Virgin for San Fran to the UK but its all booked with Virgin on one ticket. Hope this is making sense (even I am getting confused).

    I find moneysavingexpert.com by Martin Lewis is really really helpful with advice and things to watch out for when you book things.

    Which insurance companies are people using for the wedding part of their trip? We are insured for the travel bit with our bank its the cost of the chapel and reception I want to insure. (Sorry to hijack the post)
  • Ps I just tweeted Virgin they say their flights are released 336 days (or 11 months) in advance. I love tech. I am waiting for BA to get back to me.
  • If you can fly with Virgin America from LAS to LAX, I strongly recommend it. I love that airline!
    image
  • We are having our reception in a private room at Wicked Spoon. :)
  • @lauradeal89 I got a quote from the agent, and then went online and had a look myself at the same flights, hotels etc. It would have cost me a few extra grand to book it myself (!) so I went for the agency. First time ever, as I always do my own bookings online.
    As I said I am travelling with BA, but we upgraded to premium economy so we have that little extra luxury.
  • Ok cool. BA flights available at the same time as Virgins ones. Delta fly the internal ones with Virgin. I love them too though beat flights we have ever had have been with Virgin.
    Which travel agent did you use? Or was it an independent one?
  • @lauradean89 - definitely not hijacking! Everything said here will be useful to me at some point :)

    That's a good idea about following the airlines on twitter - off to do that now!

    We are also going into Vegas and leaving from San Fran - are you doing a road trip like we plan to?


  • Yeah we are going to fly from Vegas to LA then spend some time in LA for a few days. Then driving along route one along the coast up to San Fran and then going to spend a few days in San Fran seeing the sites the home. Its all very exciting. 
    I felt really stressed before I started making real plans. I have lists everywhere about everything. Guest list, financial approximations on a spreadsheet so I know what things are roughly going to cost (obviously it can only go so far as the exchange rate is changing and I am basing things on this years flight prices & accommodation prices). 

    I have itineraries for our road trip so what I would like to do with each day and where we will be driving to everyday so I know that its actually possible to do what we want to do. I feel a lot calmer now I have started to put my thoughts into a proper plan. Trip advisor is brilliant you can save the hotels you are interested in on there so you can look at reviews for dinner and hotel accommodation. They also have a feature where they will look on some of the travel websites and tell you the price for accommodation. They will email you as well when the price goes down which is awesome. There are lots of threads on trip advisor too about road trips etc. I have also asked how close certain things are ie we are getting married at Aria and will probably have our dinner at Wicked Spoon so I wanted to make sure I could walk it if I needed to (which apparently I can). Social media is literally my life saver. My family call me a 'keyboard warrior' at the moment because I am constantly finding out all this info. 

    We have bought some lonely planet guide books as well which have also been very helpful.

    Twitter is brilliant I have just had conversations with BA and Virgin over twitter and they respond almost immediately so its a lot easier then sending an email. Plus its advertising for them as well so they don't mind answering your questions.  

    Sorry this post has got really long with all my whittering on. Hope some of it is useful though :)
  • I love hearing about what everyone else is up to!

    How many guests are you inviting? 

    Have you priced car hire? I'm not sure if it'll cost lots to hire from Vegas and return to San Fran, something that I'll be looking into in the future!


  • Not from what I've looked at. It's quiet a common thing for you to hire a car and drop it off somewhere different. I thick as long as you are booking it that way it's fine it's only if you want to drop it off somewhere different at short notice that it costs the earth. I found car hire for 10 days for about £300 without fuel or anything else. But that is the price for this year so it's only an approximation.
    We have about 26 people who we are inviting and of those probably around 20ish will come.
    I have found most things I expected to cost loads are quiet a bit cheaper then I thought. It's probably because everything in the UK is so expensive! I did read that you should get an international drivers license as well which you can get from the post office and they last for a year.
    Money saving expert is also really helpful with advice about car hire too ☺️
  • Oh that's good :-)

    Yeah I think you do get more for your money away from the UK, I've found that anyway!

    I may head over to MSE - haven't got much work on this afternoon..

    Thanks for the tips!
  • Your welcome. 
    Here is the page I have been using http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-car-hire just did a quick search on the alimo website and they have cars for this august at £250ish with drop off at a different location.
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