Our wedding was Thursday 15th October and we’ve
spent the last 2 years planning it from the UK! We had 26 guests with us, an
awesome mix of family and friends. We used a lot of advice from these boards
while planning so thank you all!!
Wynn Wedding Salons / Primrose Court – A+
Wow. I had forgotten just how beautiful the Primrose Court
was until we visited a few days before our wedding. It’s just gorgeous and so
intimate! It had such a wow factor for all our guests, I don’t think any of
them expected somewhere like this in Vegas. The entire Wedding Salon has been
redecorated within the last year and looks very fresh and bright, so I’m sure
if you chose to get married indoors the Chapel rooms would be gorgeous too.
I worked with Kabbie as our co-ordinator and Monte-Ray as
her assistant. Both were lovely to work with and always quick to reply to
emails, although I don’t think we asked much! Around 3 months from the wedding
date they send a large email with all your options for flowers, music, décor,
etc. so it was very easy to decide what we wanted and get it all locked in. We
chose to go with no additional décor for the Primrose Court, and I really don’t
think it would’ve added anything to the day! The venue looked stunning without.
I upgraded my bouquet to seasonal white flowers with white roses and greenery
and it was beautiful! On the day of the wedding Kabbie was there to ensure we
had no last minute questions and to make sure everything ran smoothly. There
were a few nice touches that I loved, such as the glasses of champagne waiting
for my husband and I straight after the ceremony – it gave us such a memorable
few minutes to soak it all in!
Rev Richard Walter was allocated to us by Wynn and we were
so happy with the ceremony he carried out for us. His email contact in the run
up to the wedding was fantastic and he gave us good advice to help write our
own vows. The ceremony was beautiful and it was very moving without any
religious emphasis (as we had requested). On the day of the wedding he was a
very calming presence, which was much appreciated!
We had selected our own music to play throughout the
ceremony and that all went smoothly. We opted out of having a videographer as
it’s something we’re not interested in, and we also brought our own
photographer rather than use Wynn’s. More detail on that below and in my FAQs
review!
If I had one complaint about the whole ceremony it would be
that in Primrose Court they always set up the chairs for the largest wedding they
have on that day, so although we only had 26 guests they had set out around 80
chairs. It made our ceremony look a little empty. But overall that obviously
didn’t affect the day at all!
I would 100% recommend the Wynn to anyone, especially all
you lovely brides looking for an outdoor ceremony. It was everything we’d hoped
for and so so beautiful. I’m happy to answer any questions, I know there’s not
a lot of Wynn information on these boards!
Wynn Restaurant Events – C
We decided to also have our wedding meal at Wynn to avoid
travelling to a different location, so after looking at all their options we
decided on the Private Dining room at Lakeside. We reserved the room last
August (so over a year in advance) and we were working with Crystal in
Restaurant Events to arrange all the details. There is a $4k minimum for use of
the room, but for 30 guests we knew we’d meet that as we were providing an open
bar too. Food was one of the most important things to my hubby for the day so
we wanted to get it right, but it became the biggest source of stress in the
run up to the wedding.
We had a lot of issues confirming the menu, particularly the
vegetarian options which were needed for me and my mum. There were also a few
issues agreeing the bar package as Crystal wanted us to pay the full amount for
my 14-year-old brother who obviously wouldn’t be drinking. The communication
wasn’t great throughout all the planning and sometimes we would go a full week
before getting a reply.
In the weeks before the wedding we were really beginning to
doubt our decision to go with Wynn and we felt that Crystal was just making
every one of our requests seem impossible to do. Luckily we kept pushing her
and the reason this review is a “C” and not a total “F” is because she
miraculously managed to pull everything together in the days before the
wedding. I just think with the amount of money we spent with Wynn for that meal
she shouldn’t have put us through so much stress and uncertainty.
Wynn Lakeside Restaurant – A+
I wanted to keep the review for our experience with Lakeside
Restaurant on the wedding day separate from the Restaurant Event issues above,
because the staff and experience at Lakeside could not have been better!
Everything here was absolutely perfect and the service was amazing.
We hosted a cocktail hour for our guests from 5pm - 6pm
while my husband and I had photos on the Lakeside Terrace and in the Wynn
lobby. The staff kept everyone’s drinks topped up and by the time we arrived around
5.40 all our guests looked pretty happy! We then had the private dining room
from 6pm - 8.30pm for our meal. The tables were set up exactly as we asked and
I’d say the room was the perfect size for 30 people. Any more and it might
start to feel tight especially with the round tables.
The food was AMAZING. Ultimately, this is the main reason we
were happy with our choice of restaurant and it justifies how expensive the
meal was. Several of our guests told us afterwards that the steak was the best
they’ve ever had, and people are even still talking about the arancini and
crabcakes for appetizers! And the staff kept the drinks flowing the whole time,
even going slightly over our time-limit for the open bar. There was good food,
good service and an amazing atmosphere. Everything was exactly as we’d wanted
it J
Overall I’m still so glad we chose this as the venue for the
meal because the service on the day outweighed the problems we’d had in the
planning stages. I just wish we could’ve dealt with the Lakeside staff directly
from the beginning! To us it was definitely worth the money and I hope we can
go back for an anniversary meal one day.
AWG Limos – C
This was the only disappointment on our wedding day!
We had a 26 seat party-bus booked to pick up at Wynn and
take us back Cosmopolitan for the reception at 8.45pm. We were hanging about
outside for what felt like too long, so my husband (who luckily had his phone
with him!) called AWG. After a lot of delay they told us our driver was waiting
for us outside Cosmopolitan! They’d got the hotels mixed up. So we were left
waiting outside Wynn until 9.15pm for him to finally show up. Our plan was to
stop outside the Mirage volcanos for 9pm, so we missed that.
Once we finally got on the bus the driver asked if we wanted
to go the Strip route and we said yes…but didn’t realise that meant he wasn’t
going to take us to Cosmopolitan! He drove straight past the Harmon turn off
and continued down the Strip, then having to make a big detour off Strip back
to Cosmo. To top it off the music player in the bus didn’t work so we were
stuck listening to radio the whole time – not exactly the party atmosphere we
wanted to kick-off the reception!
Not worth the hassle, wish we’d found a better company to
use who actually show up where and when they’re meant to.
Masterpiece Cuisine – A
We were planning on just buying all our own alcohol and
doing our own bar for the in-suite reception, but with about a month to go to
the wedding we decided it might be too much hassle and contacted Masterpiece
for a quote. I thought the prices were very reasonable and Chris was excellent
to deal with via email, his replies were always quick and helpful.
Our bartender was Eddie and he was amazing! Very friendly
and efficient service, all our guests loved him. Not much more to say other
than he was excellent! And it was so nice to have someone there to tidy up and
take all the trash away at the end of the night J
I’d 100% recommend using Masterpiece for your event, there’s
a reason they’re so popular on these boards!
Cosmopolitan Wraparound Terrace Suite – A
My biggest fear for the wedding was that we wouldn’t get
allocated the fountain-view suite we hoped for. Turns out that you don’t just
have to be in the East Tower for the good view, the view from the West Tower is
just as good! We were in suite 2701 which is the north-east corner of the west
tower, aka fountain view. The photos show just how good the view was!
The suite definitely has a “wow” factor, all our guests
loved the balcony and spent most of the night out there chatting and watching
the fountains. We had music on through the in-house system but just at a low
volume.
We had 31 people (26 guests, plus us, our photographer &
assistant, and a bartender) in this suite comfortably! I’d say that it could
easily hold up to 40, the only worry with that many people would be noise. But
as far as size goes, if people are out on the balcony as well as inside then
there is tonnes of space! We had a drinks reception only so the kitchen was
easily set up as a bar and we used the dining table for our wedding cakes.
Since there are Wraparound Terrace suites on every floor
there is no special elevator access required so getting guests up to the suite
was easy. You don’t even need a keycard to access the lifts in Cosmopolitan.
Eddie our bartender had no problems bringing all his drink and equipment up
either, he wasn’t stopped once.
This is the ideal suite for what we wanted, super happy we
chose it and I’d recommend to anyone doing an in-suite reception!
Cosmopolitan Hotel (in general) – A
Don’t think we’ll stay anywhere else in Vegas now, I love it
here!
We stayed in Cosmopolitan for 9 nights while in Vegas for
the wedding. The first 6 we had booked a Terrace Studio suite, then we were due
to move into the Wraparound Terrace Suite for the final 3. At check-in we got
upgraded for our first 6 nights to a One Bedroom Terrace Suite with fountain
view in the West Tower (room 2703). I absolutely loved it, the room was
gorgeous and the view was so much better than I’d expected from the West Tower!
When we went down to reception midweek to switch rooms my
husband made a comment to the guy about how good our current room location was,
so he just gave us the Wraparound suite that was right next door!! It was so
amazing, they gave us the key to the new room without making us check-out the
old one so we could just open the adjoining doors and move all our stuff
through. We also got given an extra fridge for our room free of charge. They
really did everything they could to make our stay easier and our experience with
them more memorable.
If I had to be super-critical, the housekeeping wasn’t
perfect and there were a few times that they didn’t replace dirty towels or
took away used glasses etc. but didn’t leave any new ones. You could also see
signs of wear-and-tear in both our suites, especially with the carpets. Nothing
major that would ruin your stay though!
We booked with Virgin Holidays in the UK so had a few extra
perks thrown in such as free breakfast in Wicked Spoon EVERY DAY which was
beyond amazing (we did the math, that saved us about $600!), two free cocktails
in Chandelier Bar, and we didn’t have to pay resort fee. You also get into
Marquee nightclub for free as a guest of the hotel which fun for a night.
My mum and step-dad were also staying at Cosmo and got
upgraded from a Terrace Studio suite to a Wraparound Terrace suite (no fountain
view) for no extra cost! They were over-the-moon and it really made them feel
special at my wedding.
Overall, Cosmopolitan just has it all. Great location,
restaurants, pools, bars and suites. I’ll be back J
Janelle Elise Photography – A+
Photography was the most important thing for me to get right
on the wedding day and for various reasons I wasn’t willing to risk that on
Cashman. As soon as we started looking at venues we made sure that the first
question we asked was regarding their policy on outside vendors / photographers,
and the only place that was willing to allow that without jumping through any
hurdles was Mandarin Oriental. When we fell in love with Wynn as a venue we
made it clear that we would only book if we could bring our own photographer
and have no-one from Cashman present on our wedding day. After a few emails we
managed to get it agreed in writing, and we were free to search for our own
photographer!!
Having the freedom to choose a photographer that you are
happy with & comfortable working with is so important and my least
favourite thing about the wedding industry in Vegas is the Cashman monopoly on
the Strip.
This isn’t a full review for Janelle because she doesn’t
work in Vegas regularly (she lives in Nashville) but booking her was one of the
best wedding-decisions we made! She is amazing and made all the hassle of
bringing in an outside vendor worth it!! Here’s a selection of my wedding
photos, hopefully you can see why we chose her - http://www.janelleelise.com/las-vegas-martin-sarah/
Overall I had a fabulous wedding day, but the only thing I’d
have done differently? There’s still a small part of me that wishes we’d done
it just the two of us. We love our friends & family very much, but all my
favourite memories of the day were when my husband & I had special moments
alone and could really focus on what the day was all about J