Our Vegas Wedding

Faithful readers, once again, I apologize for my lack of posts, but as many of you brides (and grooms) know, the few months leading up to the wedding can be stressful and time consuming! As much time as I spent making sure that our family and friends had a fabulous time, the Chef and I could not have pulled it off without the fabulous time and dedication from our vendors.


Our wedding party at the Bellagio chapel.

Of course, most of the wedding was organized by the Bellagio, but there were a few outside vendors that made my vision of my old school vintage vegas wedding possible...

We were fortunate that our good friend Chris is a trained classical musician, based in San Fransisco. He provided the wedding music for the ceremony. Not only were we thrilled that he could attend our wedding, but that he gave us such a wonderful gift... Check out his blog post featuring our wedding! (Yes, is available to do destination weddings!)

I have alot of photos throughout the years of my dad and I laughing. But I never remember what we're laughing about!

Now, I didn't want to wear a veil. Ever since I chopped my hair off back in May, my vision of wearing a veil with long flowing hair went out the window. But my mother won that battle, so I searched high and low for the perfect veil and found Emily of Rohm on Etsy. Her creations are breathtaking and the lace used for the mantilla veil matched the lace on my dress perfectly. Because I procrastinated, I had to have my veil rushed (Emily creates veils to order)...Emily was an angel and didn't hesitate when I told her how fast I needed it!

I wish I had a better picture of my hair up close, but I had two gorgeous vintage rhinestone hair clips in my hair. They used to be earrings, but Helen of Pinsnsins (Etsy) made them into clips. So after I took my veil off for the reception, I still had some pretty fancy hair jewelry (I didn't even bother changing my everyday diamond studs).

The programs and unity candle were one of the cheapest wedding items. I made the programs with cheap card stock from Staples and a $1 spool of ribbon! The candles I bought at Michael's and printed the monogram on vellum paper and glued and pinned it to the unity candle with ribbon. (The candles sticks from the dollar store)

Chuck E. Bumps and the Crocodiles

We had an awesome band play at our wedding, Chuck E. Bumps and the Crocodiles, courtesy of Las Vegas Wedding Music.

Even our Bellagio wedding coordinator was impressed with the band (they had their doubts at first, since they were not on their preferred vendor list...but she quickly assured me they would be added).

Our first dance as a married couple, to Dean Martin's "Ain't That a Kick in the Head."

Elvis did actually die...but was resurrected by the talented pastry staff at Bellagio.

Ah, my cake topper. I had an awesome cake topper made for me, but then it got lost in the mail (see my earlier post for pictures of the original one). For the second one, the Chef wanted the groom to look like Elvis. Once again, the wonderful folks as USPS failed me and no matter how much I bubble wrapped the topper, when I got to the hotel, his legs had completely broken from the waist down. When we got to the reception, the pastry chefs had worked their magic and you couldn't even tell!!

I may have had cake on my face, but my hair looked fabulous!!

I do my research. Nevermind that I was at a 5 star hotel, I just don't trust hotel salons. It is no offense to the great stylists, but I wanted someone that worked independently. So I went in search for the perfect stylist and found Amelia Cline. With little direction, she gave me (and my friends) the hairstyles we wanted. To coordinate with my wedding style I wanted fingerwaves with vintage flare. Amelia was truly one of the few stylists that left me with an updo I didn't have to (or want to) fix!

I do not regret for one second our decision to have our wedding in Las Vegas. Washington, DC is too pricey (not to mention I'd be stuck playing tour guide for out of towners), and Texas would have been a lodging nightmare (nearest hotel to my folks place - where I would have wanted the wedding - was a good 20 minutes away).

Instead we shared a decadent dinner at Le Cirque our first night, I had a fabulous bachelorette party at one of the Bellagio clubs, won $100 in blackjack (initial investment $10), an awesome rehearsal dinner at Hard Rock Cafe (thanks Diana...another post on that) complete with Elvis, a beautiful suite, a beautiful wedding, and a super chic penthouse suite post-wedding brunch.

We won't mention the other stuff, because A) this is a family website, and B) whatever happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas!!