Hello All!
Finally sitting down to doing a wedding report, the post honeymoon blues are wearing off now so ready to get cracking with it. I love reading other people’s wedding reports and I got lots of ideas and inspiration from this forum so thank you!
We both LOVE Vegas and having got engaged there while staying at the Bellagio
meant choosing the 'where' part of the wedding quite easy. We mulled over the
pros and cons and still Vegas came up a winner. Much to the delight of our
closest family and friends! Phew!
We decided on a ceremony at the Bellagio, on their 'Terrazza Di Sogno' which is
a terrace overlooking the lake and fountains. What sold it to us was the
fountains going off to the song of our choice on our kiss as man and wife!
Us in Vegas August 2010, just before the proposal
Given that we were together 5 years before getting engaged and the fact we are both quite
impatient we decided on April 2012 giving ourselves 9 months to plan the
wedding.
We had 26 guests, closest family and friends, all staying at various hotels and
flying out on different days. It was a lovely number of guests and we had a
great group out there with us.
My engagement ring
Our wedding wasn’t until 5pm (as we didn't want to marry anytime around the
hottest part of the day) so the morning was quite leisurely. Me, my mum and dad
all went to the Bellagio buffet for breakfast where I scoffed down pancakes,
bacon and egg! Honestly I couldn’t believe it! I was sure I would be a nervous
wreck and look like death from no sleep but here I was with a good night’s
sleep and stuffing my face!
We finished breakfast at 10am and I wasn’t due in the Salon til 12 noon so off
I went and did some gambling on my own for a couple of hours. Ahh it was so
relaxing!
Back in the room with hair done me and my sister did our own makeup using MAC
products. We both had a lesson or two before Vegas and were happy doing our
own. We had a lovely time getting ready. We had iPod tunes blaring and
champagne on the go, it was a lovely girlie afternoon…meanwhile…
The best man made a call to the room to deliver my card from Mr H (we got each
other our wedding presents before Vegas as I said - we are a bit impatient. We
got fancy ‘wedding watches’ each). He said he wanted to get ready with us in
our chilled out room as apparently it was quite stressful in the Groom’s
quarters. Mr H had not slept a wink with nerves and was on the hunt for
emergency Imodium (eww). Mr H being nervous is unheard of! I wonder if we had
personality transplants in the night!?
Then it was time for the photographers to arrive for getting ready shots.
My dress was the Pronovias Jennifer with Pink Paradox shoes (£1200). My
bridesmaid wore a Kelsey Rose evening dress (£180) with Vivienne Westwood
shoes. The Groom and best man wore a Hugo boss slim fit suit (£550 each) with
skinny ties and Oliver Sweeney Shoes.
In my hair I wore 4 Glitzy Secrets Petal hair clips. I borrowed a pair of diamond
earrings and a diamond cocktail ring from Mr H's nan which also doubled as
something old/borrowed. My something blue was a Agent Provocateur garter which
quickly proceeded to roll down my leg on the way to the ceremony and very
quickly got shoved in a handbag! What a waste of time lol. Fast forward through
the saga of getting into my dress and me, my sister, mum and dad all made the
longest walk down to the Terrace for the ceremony.
The ceremony was beautiful and the fountains going off to ‘Fly me to the Moon’
by Sinatra on our kiss was just perfect, people were literally ‘oohhing and
ahhing’. The Rev was so warm and friendly it was a lovely ceremony. All the
nerves just melted away and I had jaw ache from grinning like a Cheshire Cat.
We finished it off with champagne and cake on the Terrace, not the norm to have
the cake before dinner but we figured it would be a like a snack as dinner was
a couple of hours off and meant we could have some lovely cake cutting pics!
After the ceremony we carried on the photography around the Bellagio in the
casino and botanical gardens and out the front. People were shouting congrats
and clapping as we went past, it was like being a celeb for the day, well sort
of!
Then we hopped onto a 'party bus' complete with disco lights, stripper pole and bar, where we handed out champagne and Coronas and did a tour of the strip with a stop at the Vegas Sign for more photos.
Then it was off to our wedding meal at Mon Ami Gabi French Steakhouse @ Paris
Hotel which was amazing! The service was great and we picked up the tab so
everyones drinks were flowing all night there was champagne, cocktails, beers
and brandy on the go which went down well with everyone. We offered Warm brie,
Scallops Gratinee or Soup to start, followed by Filet Mignon, Roquefort Steak,
Salmon or Herbed Chicken for mains and Creme brulee or Chocolate Mousse with
Cheeseboard for dessert. Think that was enough to stuff everyone with!
As favours we hired 2 characture artists to draw everyone while dinner was
being served. This provided lots of laughs and we also bought casino gaming
vouchers with a $50, a few $25, some $10s and the rest $5 and $3 which we put
into a lucky dip for people to pick to keep in with the gambling theme!
We ended the night in the Lily Lounge bar at Bellagio who reserved us tables
and sofas, where we carried on the drinking til the small hours and it was the
perfect end to a perfect day.
After all that excitement we topped it off with a wonderful honeymoon in Hawaii
at the Royal Hawaiian, Oahu, bliss!
Our Vegas wedding was absolutely perfect! Everything went exactly to plan and
to say it was all arranged by phone and email and we had to keep our fingers
crossed it would all come together - it was perfect! I can't recommend it
enough. We want to go back and do it all again!
If you are getting married soon please just enjoy every minute because it will
fly by!
If there are any Vegas brides out there reading this feel free to give me a
shout if you want any advice! xx
