Katie & Tony's Vegas Wedding PJ (4.1.09) - Las Vegas Scouting Trip Report

[Pezalicious]

After I got overwhelmed early on in planning my Disney wedding (which I'm so sad about changing, but it's for the best for many reasons, including that most of my guests would not be able to afford it), I've decided to take a completely new approach. This will be an itsy bitsy, teeny weeny, LOW STRESS wedding! The goal is to show up, have a good time, and not go crazy in the months leading up to our big day. We're inviting immediate family only, which means there will be 14 of us total.

Just say no to stress idea #1 - Screw the fancy schmancy invites that I like so much! I'm going to find and send some sort of e-vite. That's right, with a couple clicks of my mouse and a few moments of typing, that process will be done! Save the dates? Not gonna happen! I'll just nag my sweety and make him call people with the info. 2 steps towards my wedding can be completed on my end in less than 5 minutes!

Just say no to stress idea #2 - Do a site visit! I haven't picked my location yet, but I've got a list of several places I'd like to check out and I'm leaning towards the Flamingo, Venetian, or Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay. Making the final decision might be a little tough, but who doesn't have a good time in Vegas?! First stop in Vegas will be the margarita stand where I'll grab a yard o' spiked, frozen goodness to keep me company as I tour ceremony locations.

Here are some pics of the places I'm considering (I'm not a chapel kind of gal, so all of those were immediately DISQUALIFIED!):

The Flamingo -

There are PENGUINS THERE!!

The Venetian -

This would be my top choice, but pretty much anyone would be able to watch as it would be in a public area. But, after we get married, we could take a Gondola ride and have a few minutes together before going to celebrate.

Another option would be at Mandalay Bay, down with the fishes.. well, with the mean ol' sharks that would like to eat me. My boyfriend loves sharks, so he would love this option. When we looked into it, we thought it was 10 people max, but I recently found out it's 15. I'm going to secretly check it out and see if I like it. If we have it there, it'll be a nice surprise for him. And if not, he'll never know it became an option again. He's not really picky about the location anyway (in other words, he won't give me a darn opinion because 'all he wants is for me too be happy.' Awww!)

There are other locations, too, but I'm going to take my own pics. These are the ones that look best to me so far with all the internet research I've done. I also plan on doing a strip tour photo shoot so I can get pics of me and my honey everywhere we like. =)


My next stress was -

What do we go after the wedding?! This isn't exactly a traditional wedding, so there won't be dancing and a DJ and toasts and all that. Our guests will include our parents (3 adults), our siblings and their partners (6 adults, ranging in age from 20 to mid-30s) and 3 children - 2, 7, and 11. So how in the world do I make sure everyone has a good time and everyone likes their meal?

Just say no to stress idea # 3 - That's when the good ol' Vegas buffet entered the picture. I plan to sample a few during my Vegas trip, and I've already researched reviews. I think food won't be a problem. But entertainment.. that one took me a while. I thought about a show, but it's hard to find ones I haven't seen that would be good for the entire group. Plus the timing was off, as they all start much later than I need. So I came up with an idea I hope I don't regret when I'm older - mini golf, followed by gocarts (I love the idea of zipping around in my wedding dress!), bumper boats, and batting cages or mini golf followed by bowling. There are 3 places for mini-golf in Vegas and I really liked this one:

So I guess that's all I've got this time. I think this will be the shortest planning journal ever! But I might include my pre-honeymoon plans to WDW in here, too (we're taking my mom with us!), and my honeymoon plans as well (Japan & Tokyo Disney!!!)!

 

[caryndisneydiva]

i vote for manadlay bay because it looks super cool.

 

[Lynn5700]

I am all for stress free wedding planning,been there done that that is why we are having an escape wedding in Disney!!

I love the Venitian,it reminds me of the Italy pavillion in Epcot,I also love Mandalay Bay,it look's so cool and I love fish.

Anywhere is going to be gorgeous.Good for you about wanting a stress free wedding!!

I can't wait to see how your PJ comes together

 

[noochez]

Katie, 1st Congrats on your wedding!!

When we were deciding on our location (we knew we wanted destination), it was between Las Vegas and Disney (we love both). I had really looked at Vegas b/c I didn't want to get my hopes up for a Disney Wedding. Needless to say, Vegas is out and Disney is in (we are getting married in just over 2 months).

If you don't necessarily need/want something on the strip, Lake Las Vegas is about 15-20 mins from the strip and is absolutely gorgeous. We also looked into Lakeside Weddings & Events, again off the strip, but it looked very nice.

As far as a buffet, we love the Seafood Buffet at the Rio, when we were there in December they were closed for renovations. I think they are reopening in early 08.

The Flamingo and Venetian were both in the running for locations.

Good luck with your planning and I hope you keep us updated!

 

[Pezalicious]

I appologize in advance for how long this is going to be.. and for the lack of photos in most cases.

At the end of last month, I went to Vegas with my mom to check out some potential ceremony and reception sites, as well as to start my cake hunt. The original plan was to go with my fiance (Tony), but he had an opportunity to go home to Philadelphia and see his family, so I told him to go for it (no way did I expect him to pass up a free flight all the way to the east coast!). The flight times matched up well, and Tony left out of the same airport a half hour after our flight. On the way back, he had a layover in Vegas at the same time we would be there for our return flight, and it was supposed to land a half hour after we did. So it was really perfect.

My mom and I caught our flight and it was short and uneventful. My older brother, future sister in law (he better propose to her!!!), and my younger brother met us at the airport and took us back to their home. It was my first time seeing it and it was absolutely gorgeous! I'll never have such a nice home.

Day 1:

I really liked the Venetian the most, so we decided to start there and look at places near it. We got to the hotel and it was absolutely gorgeous! I'm totally in love with it. In Vegas, there's a ton of walking no matter where you're going, so it took us quite a while before we found the Wedding Bridge. Here's where reality differs quite a bit from the pictures shown on the internet.

Venetian internet pic of the Wedding Bridge:

Now the reality is... the Wedding Bridge is in the middle of a mall! You walk down one side of the stairs and you can go directly into a store! Down the other side of the stairs, there's a restaurant so that you can hear forks clattering on plates while you say your vows. And that's not even the worst of it.. I didn't think to take a picture of it, but at the bottom of the stairs, just a few feet to the side, there are

(cue Psycho music)



TIMESHARE SALES PEOPLE!! Not the Disney kind, but the aggressive, grab every person they can kind!

I was soooooo disappointed with this location, but I was so fearful about finding the right place that I couldn't eliminate it. We could still take some pretty pics, and I could give all my guests bats as wedding favors, so they could beat off the timeshare people.

Pic of Wedding stairs. On the far left, you can see the evil, guest-snatching time share people's computer monitor.

View of store from Wedding Bridge:

View of noisy restaurant from Wedding Bridge:

After this, we met with one of the Venetian Wedding Coordinaters, who were quite snooty. We were shown a garden area that was very pretty. The ceremony would take place in front of the NOISEST FOUNTAIN IN THE WORLD! It was so noisy that we were told they mic us, even though the guest would be only a few feet away. This one was veto'd instantly.

By now, we were hungry, so we went across the way to the Mirage, for a buffet that was rated #1 according to my research. For our reception, I wanted a buffet just so there would be something for everyone. My whole goal is to get married with minimal stress, and this idea seemed to fit my theme. My 2 brothers were with me and had a field day at the buffet. My mom and I decided we couldn't just grab what we wanted. In order to guage the quality of the food, we had to try everything we could eat (so no icky seafood for me). If any of you have ever been to a Vegas buffet before, you know this is quite a feat. It seems like the food choices goes on for miles and miles. We only took a bite or two of each item and were beyond stuffed by the time we left. Flatbreads, pasta, chicken, prime rib, breads, potstickers, asian dishes, shrimp, soups, salads, and it goes on and on and on. And then there's dessert! This was so not diet approved. The verdict - my mom and I really liked it, but my brothers thought it was just ok, plus it might have made them sick. So we had to continue our search.



After lunch, we had to get to our cake appointment, which was at 1pm. My older brother had a job interview at 2, and my younger brother had to be at his job by 1:30. Time was a little tight. The bakery had 2 locations, so we called to get the right location and we were off. It was much further than my brother thought, but we finally made it and were dumped off in the correct general area. He couldn't take the time to find the actual store, which was fine by us. But it turns out that it was actually at the other location, which was around 30 blocks away! My mom and I tried hailing a cab, but after 15 or so minutes, we realized cabs stick to the strip. I called a cab company and asked for one to come, but it was still quite a while before we got it. We were late to our appointment, but they were understanding, since part of the reason was their fault anyway. We finally got there, but they were kind of unprofessional. I told them about my cake idea, but the woman didn't really know what she was talking about and couldn't really tell me how my design ideas could be transferred to cake. It was kind of a useless appointment, which ended with her saying she'd have to talk to the cake designers sometime later. Uh, thanks... I have no idea why they put her in charge of specialty cakes. We also tasted some cake, but it was too sweet for us. Neither of us liked it much.

After our cake appointment, we had a 3pm appointment at Mandalay Bay to check out the shark reef. Of course we were behind schedule because of the ordeal getting here, but it seemed like we would get there on time. We called a cab and stood outside to wait. We waited and waited and waited.. no cab. We waited some more and started getting worried. No cab. After more than a half hour, we started walking down the street, hoping we could get somewhere busier so we could just hail one. We cross the street and make it a ways down this GIGANTIC block when we see an empty cab and try to hail it. It passes us by, so we look back and see it turning into where we were. It was OUR cab!!! So we haul buns back there, and thankfully he waited for us. Mandalay Bay, here we come!

We ended up being only 10 minutes late after running an insane distance through the hotel. We got there and spoke with my wedding planner, who said it was no problem at all that we were late. She went to get us some water and said she would be right back to take us to see the shark reef. We sat down and caught our breath and waited for her to come out. We waited and waited... and 15-20 minutes later, another girl came out and told us she was sorry, the other girl had to go home and we couldn't be shown the shark reef today. We were exhausted from all the running around and stress from the day and were not in the mood to hear that our appointment had just been canceled. I felt really bad about being late, but it was only 10 minutes and she said it was no problem and that she would be right with us! Plus, the place is open til 5 or 6, and we had asked specifically about the shark reef.It made no sense. The girl said she could show us some pictures, but the pictures were all terrible closeups of wedding parties, not of the actual ceremony or of anything that would be helpful to me in making my decision. That's when I lost it. I was angry about it being canceled the way it was and had a bridezilla moment.This cute little kitty demonstrates it for me here:

And this cute little kitty demonstrates my mom waiting in the sidelines, ready to pounce when she didn't think I'd said enough:

Actually, I was only mildly bridezilla. I'm shy and quiet and feel bad when I get angry at people. I was very frustrated and started to tell them that I didn't think it was very professional to cancel the way they did and that I was no longer interested. But I had really liked the location, so I became more rational and scheduled a new appointment for 9:30 the next morning. They assured me it wouldn't be canceled again and told me this was the first time something like this had ever happened. It turns out the problem was two-fold. Something happend to wedding planner #1 and she had to leave in a rush. The other thing that happened was a huge convention had ended, and there were a ton of people at the shark reef, so it was too busy for them to show the area for the wedding planners.

After this, my mom and I are frustrated and exhaused. We start making the trek towards the front of the hotel. Our plan was to go to the Tropicana because they have an outdoor garden wedding area. We walk to the Luxor, grabbing a yard of daquaris along the way (with 2 extra shots each), and walk from there to the Tropicana, which was so much farther than we realized. The wedding area of the Tropicana is all the way at the back, so we rush back there, hoping to make it by 6 so we can talk to the wedding planners. We barely make it, but man oh man, was that place ghetto! It needs a major overhaul, and my mom and I had trouble not laughing at the site of it.

We sat down for a few, finished our drinks, and caught a cab to the Flamingo so we could check out their outdoor gardens. It was another long walk, but we found it and it was gorgeous. I loved their grounds, but there were a couple things keeping it from being perfect. The area where we could be married had a waterfall background, but it had one major EYESORE shown here:

Who's the dummy who thought it would be good to add the Flamingo logo to the wedding site?! Did they think couples would forget where they were married? It made it tacky, imo. The other drawback is it's a public area, just like the Venetian, so anybody could watch the wedding. From a distance, that's okay, but I'd like to have a sense of privacy, and neither location offered that.

After this, my brothers met back up with me. My younger brother had made a $200 mistake in cashing someone's check and was fired. The other one had come back from a job interview because he had walked our on his job the day before. I think everyone was stressing in their own way.

We went across the street to see Caesar's Palace, since they also have a garden wedding. I was told that the wedding planners don't show you the location, but it was near the pools. There was the Venus Garden and the Intimate Garden. We walked and walked and walked (are you sensing a theme?) and never found the Venus Garden. Construction was being done all over, and the pool was actually shut down. I finally found a sign for the Intimate Garden and followed the path to... a dead end! They didn't update their website to let me know it was shut down. We never found the one that wasn't, but were so exhausted by this time that we gave up. Since buffet #1 didn't work out, we had to pick buffet #2. This one was at the Planet Hollywood hotel. We got there and had to wait an hour for my brother's girlfriend to get out of work. It turns out I had a fever, so I curled up in a chair at Starbucks and rested til she arrived. We got to the buffet, and my mom and I once again loaded up our plates and shared food, to try each and every thing. It was good, but we didn't like it as much as the previous buffet. My brothers, however, liked it more. Looks like the search would have to go on.

We got home that night and crashed. I told my brothers that our appointment was at 9am so that we wouldn't be late and fell asleep.

 

[MadamMim]

I hope to heck your wedding is a million times more stress-free than your planning day! Holy smoke! Well done for keeping your composure and not just going nuts all over everybody. I think you deserve a couple more shots in your drink after just writing that down!

 

[Pezalicious]

It was such a disaster of a day!! And you're right, I feel like I need a couple of shots just thinking about it! I just felt so defeated, and the thought of a Disney wedding kept coming back to me, making it even worse. Perfection at Disney or a disaster in Vegas... it was hard. But day 2 gets better, then worse, then better again. By the end, I was happy and excited, so that makes it all worthwhile.

 

[lov2b@disney]

looking forward to hearing the good stuff!! Sorry for an awful 1st day!

 

[mla1977]

Yay! Pez is back! (okay, now I know what your real name is, but I like calling you Pez). I was at Walmart yesterday and saw some really cool Disney Pez. They had old-school Mickeys on them.

I have considered a Vegas wedding, but DBF tends to like gambling too much. I would have to confiscate all of the joint account cards and checks before we left for the wedding!

 

[Starr W.]

I looked at a couple of Vegas locations for a VR. MGMGrand and I want to say the Bellagio and Wynn.

I think the Wynn chapels were decorated like "houses of ill repute" , outside location was much nicer from the pictures.

The Bellagio looked the nicest from the pictures on line.

Prices I thought were rather reasonable(compared to an Escape VR) ie get more bang for your buck.

We might do Vegas, beach, mountain or DCL, and skip WDW.


Don't need to tell me about other than DVC timeshare sales people. I was in Williamsburg(stayed at the Marriott timeshare) shopping at the outlet mall and Wyndham had about 3 stands of pushy sales people. Then Starwood kept calling me(I have resale ski season 2br in Beaver Creek,CO) until I finally got a supervisor who took me off their call list.

 

[tamijoy514]

I'm planning on getting married in Vegas too, at Paris!!

And if you have a chance to go back, check out the buffet at the Rio.. it is freakin amazing! Last time I was there we ate there two or three times

Good luck

 

[Pezalicious]

looking forward to hearing the good stuff!! Sorry for an awful 1st day!

Thanks! I'm ust glad it got better. There were a few more bumps, but they made me laugh more than anything. Day 1 was by far the worst of it.

Yay! Pez is back! (okay, now I know what your real name is, but I like calling you Pez). I was at Walmart yesterday and saw some really cool Disney Pez. They had old-school Mickeys on them.

I have considered a Vegas wedding, but DBF tends to like gambling too much. I would have to confiscate all of the joint account cards and checks before we left for the wedding!

My real life nickname is Pez and has been for years, so it works for me! I have lots of Mickey and Disney Pez. 2 of my favorite things combined into one.

Tony likes to gamble, too, and he thinks he's good at it! But he knows we need our money for our honeymoon, and he wouldn't want to face my wrath!! I told him I'd let him sign up for one Texas Hold 'Em tourney, but that would pretty much be it. We'll only be there a few days, though, and we want to spend time with our families.

I looked at a couple of Vegas locations for a VR. MGMGrand and I want to say the Bellagio and Wynn.

I think the Wynn chapels were decorated like "houses of ill repute" , outside location was much nicer from the pictures.

The Bellagio looked the nicest from the pictures on line.

Prices I thought were rather reasonable(compared to an Escape VR) ie get more bang for your buck.

We might do Vegas, beach, mountain or DCL, and skip WDW.


Don't need to tell me about other than DVC timeshare sales people. I was in Williamsburg(stayed at the Marriott timeshare) shopping at the outlet mall and Wyndham had about 3 stands of pushy sales people. Then Starwood kept calling me(I have resale ski season 2br in Beaver Creek,CO) until I finally got a supervisor who took me off their call list.

So far I'm finding Vegas to be a pretty good alternative to the Disney wedding. It's cheaper, which is nice, but mostly it's so low stress, and I'm not getting any 'haters.' Maybe that's because Vegas is known for weddings and Disney isn't.

The only requirement for me though, was no chapel wedding. I always envisioned something outside, but that's not what I ended up choosing!

I feel bad for Timeshare sale people.. it must be a really hard job. But at the same time, I want to club them in the head for how aggressive they can be!! I actually passed by 2 groups of them at the Venetian. GRRR!! Good for you for getting off that call list. That can be pretty hard to do, and those calls must have been so annoying!

I'm planning on getting married in Vegas too, at Paris!!

And if you have a chance to go back, check out the buffet at the Rio.. it is freakin amazing! Last time I was there we ate there two or three times

Good luck

I was actually considering Paris for a while. It's gorgeous there! You'll get so many great photos! When is your wedding? Are you doing the chapel or the Eiffel Tower? Maybe I'll include vendor reviews in my planning journal/trip report, just in case it comes in handy to someone. I've already found who I want for photography and makeup, and I have a good amount of info on cake.

 

[Pezalicious]

Day 2:

So much for not being late. They didn't wake up, and when we told them we wanted to leave in 10 minutes, they said ok... but took more like a half hour. We were late again to our appointment. I really hate having to rely on others to get me somewhere on time. On the one hand, they're doing me a favor, so I can't get mad. On the other.. it was making me stress, and I don't think it was okay to be late a second time. The first time, we were up against a lot with not being able to get a cab. The 2nd, we had no excuse.

Fortunately, we weren't too late. Both wedding planners from the previous day greeted us and took us straight to the Shark Reef with absolutely no problems. Because it was before 10, it wasn't open yet, so we had the place to ourselves. From the moment I stepped foot inside the place, I was in love!

This is a picture of where the guests come from. They walk through a path of lush greenery before they get to the aquarium part:

This is the background for the ceremony:

And this is the aisle I'll walk down:

The aisle connects to a room with a sting ray thing where you can touch them:

And a super cool jelly fish tank:

The view down the aisle into the room where we'll be married:

Other random photos (excuse the quality, I'm still learning my camera, and it was dark down there):

I loved it, so my search stopped here! The drawbacks - the ceremony has to start at 9, and the bride and groom have to be there by 8:20. Ouch! I'll also probably look pasty in the 'aisle', as I'm rather pale and it's not the best background color for me. I'm hoping my makeup artist will help with that problem, though.Here's a cute little bunny applauding my decision:

Since I found a ceremony location, we decided we would try the Mandalay Bay buffet. It was so close, if we liked it, it would be perfect. It was still early, so we hung out until 10:45, then went in to eat. We got to pay the breakfast price, but get both breakfast and lunch options. Now my mom and I really had our work cut out for us. That's like 2 buffets for the price of one! We started our tasting and everything was SOOOO GOOD! I was really amazed at the quality and selection. Everything I love was there and more. All 5 of us gave it a thumbs up, and my brothers said it was the best buffet they'd been to. Coming from locals, that's pretty high praise. And to top it all off, it was a really cute place for a buffet. Most just have tons of chairs and tables.. no real ambiance. But this place was sectioned off so it felt more intimate, and it overlooked the pool area with pretty trees right by the window. Perfect!! It also wasn't crowded or noisy, and we there on the day and at the same time as it will be for the wedding.

Here's my skinny little brother giving me the thumbs up as he eats.. count them... NINE desserts!!!

Feeling relieved about how well this 2nd day is going, compared to the 1st, we go home to rest up a bit. My brother has to take a drug test for his new job, so he needed to drink some water and get info on where he had to go. After our break, we head on out to the drug test. After this, we plan to go check out the black light mini-golf place, and if that doesn't work out, we were going to check out Scandia's mini-golf. I want something to do after our wedding buffet that would be good for all ages, so mini-golf was what I came up with.

It takes forever to get to the mini-golf place and tempers are a bit short by the time we made it. We walk into the place, and the area where we would have my cake was the junkiest kids area I've seen in my life. I look at my mom and say something about cutting our cake here and she starts laughing and laughing and can't get control. It was nothing like we expected!! I wasn't brave enough to take pictures while we were there because it was just so sad, but this is another case of false advertising. Someone comes out to greet us and lets us walk through the mini-golf place to check it out. We did, and it looked like the place was shoved into a mini-box. I think the owner was in there playing golf with his kids. There weren't any customers at all. And the courses were so small, I think I could have stood in the middle of one of them and completely hidden the whole thing under a poofy wedding gown. It was terrible!

Pic that made it look much cooler than it really was:

I left feeling pretty disappointed and we decide to find Scandia. We program the address into the GPS and are on our way. Everywhere in Vegas seems to take forever to get there. It's so spread out and I really hate that part of it. I could never live there, no matter how cheap and nice the houses are. Anyway, we finally make it to our freeway exit and follow the directions to our destination. We get there and I start laughing my head off... we're right next to a big empty lot!!! We reprogram the GPS and try again.. Nope, it finds the same big empty dirt-ridden lot. Scandia has been torn down and they didn't bother updating the website! GRRRRRRR!! Feeling defeated, we go back home and all try to think of something else we can do. I search the internet, the locals think of stuff they've seen, etc. On my own, a few weeks later, I even scour Las Vegas travel books that are meant for families, and I come up with nothing. So it looks like I'll be bowling in a wedding dress. That was the best solution we could come up with. It keeps everyone busy and entertained and will be a laid back way for the 2 families to get to know each other.

We kick back that night and watch a movie before bed.

Day 3:

The only thing we had to do was go to another cake place. My original cake idea was to have it themed to Halo, my fiance's favorite game in the whole world and a minor obsession of his. The original idea was because we were going to have a Disney Wedding, which is my thing, so at least he could have a cool cake. It was going to be a surprise, but it's an idea that never got pulled together. We found a 3rd cake place and went to talk with the owner. He'd done cake competitions and had some really impressive work. But he couldn't really work with me on my ideas. He'd just tell me it was really complicated and he's not sure what could be done, then he'd say anything was possible. So I was confused and threw the idea out the window. I figured.. Disney was my thing, so if we did that, he could have the cake. BUT, Tony LOVES sharks, and since that's his thing, *I* get the cake!! I pulled out my Nightmare Before Christmas cake photos (this was the original theme for our wedding, anyway, before it was tossed out because of the season), but once again, the guy was less than helpful. So we left there and went to the 2nd cake place, where we had an appointment. I showed her my NBC pics and she really helped me refine my ideas. After just a little bit, we had a sketch of what I wanted. Since then, it's changed quite a bit, but she let me know what was possible and was just so helpful in it all coming together. The place also smelled SOOOOOO GOOD! It was seriously the best smelling bakery I've been in in my life! We tried some cake and it was really tasty, too. She said that next time we come, we can do a tasting of any flavors we want (I want to go back with my fiance, so he can help me with the choices). All this good stuff comes with a drawback, though... some of their cakes are absolutely gorgeous. Fondant looks perfect, great swirls, etc. However,they had some cake design books for us to look at, and some of their specialty cakes were hideous. Like... so awful, I can't believe they took a photo, let alone admit it was their work. At first, all I wanted was Tim Burton style swirls, with Jack and Sally on top with the moon behind them. I was confident they could do that. But now I'm thinking bats and spider webs and tombstones and skulls.. I'm worried about their work with that. I'll post more about my cake later, but the current plan is to go back for a tasting order 2 small cakes with the design elements I want, so I can see first hand whether or not I like them.

After cake, we hang out with my family some more and then go to catch our flight. We get there and our plane has something wrong with it, so the flight is delayed. My fiance is there in a USAir flight, but his is delayed because of weather. We're stuck in different parts of the airport and because of security checks, we can't see each other. After more delays, I call him and remind him he has a Southwest ticket on our flight, and it's worth wasting the $50-something we paid for it for him to come see me and wait out all the delays together. The gate was crowded because there were people for 2 different flights there. We went to the next gate over and grabbed some seats. We kept checking in, but they would tell us nothing new. Then we went over and they told us the gate had been changed and they were boarding now. We all ran for the flight, thinking of how lucky we were to make it. I can't believe we didn't hear the announcement (we were all listening), and we had just checked 15 minutes earlier, so we were shocked they didn't tell us then! We ended up getting on the plane, though, and it all worked out fine.

We finally made it home, so happy to see our little love Tuki. Isn't he so cute!! His actual name is Tuki-Tuki, but he also goes by Tukers, Poopers, and his Indian name is Backwards Knees. We love him so much! Here are some random pics, just cuz he's so cute and special!

Tuki & daddy, sleeping together:

Tuki sleeping under the covers on mommy's comfy ****s (it's his favorite place to sleep):

 

[tamijoy514]

I was actually considering Paris for a while. It's gorgeous there! You'll get so many great photos! When is your wedding? Are you doing the chapel or the Eiffel Tower? Maybe I'll include vendor reviews in my planning journal/trip report, just in case it comes in handy to someone. I've already found who I want for photography and makeup, and I have a good amount of info on cake.

Not til next March and we're going with the chapel. We have too much family to do the Eiffel Tower, and it's expensive to do it up there.

What cake bakery are you using?

 

[lisamulls]

Hi, I wanted to jump in on this thread because I was married in Vegas on December 1st. I notice that you were interested in Mandalay Bay and I have some recent experience. I had picked THEchapel at Mandalay Bay because it was too cold to have an outdoor wedding (which I would have loved) and THEchapel has floor to ceiling windows that open up to the pool and palm trees so it was the best of both worlds. The Shark Reef is an awesome location! Our original planner was Ariel but after a major hiccup with our travel plans we were switched to Maricella who was wonderful. We used Cashman photography and they were awesome. We had a luncheon reception at the Border Grille and bought our cake at the Chocolate Swan. If you have any questions about the service at Mandalay, please let me know : )