Congratulations on the impending nuptials!

Now you can't just leave it at that! We want to know everything - where you are staying, where you are getting married, is Elvis going to be in attendance, where you are eating afterwards, etc?

luci

Congratulations SP!

Congratulations!

You can't leave us in suspense like that. We NEED pre-nuptial details.
Where?
When?
How long is the trip?
Where are you staying?
Anything else to keep us from going nuts. (I have 51 days to go and it's killing me!)

Okay, okay.........

As some of you will know we have family in Vegas (well, Henderson, actually) We fly out on Sunday 5th October, return Sunday 19th, with Virgin out of Gatwick. We drive down to Gatwick on the Saturday before, stay at the Moat House, where I can also leave the car, and take the hotel shuttle to the airport on Sunday morning.

We have car hire prebooked and prepaid on arrival in Vegas.

We are staying - as we always do - at Circus Circus. they have upgraded their Tower rooms (have a look on their website, they seem to have made a great job of the upgrade) so we'rer staying in one of the upgraded rooms.

We planned for the wedding on Saturday 11th October, so that our American kin didn't have to take time off work, or take the kids out of school.

Although there are loads of places to marry in Vegas, a surprisingly large number of them actually stop ceremonies mid-afternoon on Saturdays, and the Chapel we originally wanted (The Special Memories Chapel) holds their last ceremony at 12.30. We wanted later so that we could go straight from the ceremony to a restaurant, with no hanging about for hours.

In the end, we went for the Chapel of the Fountain which is within Circus Circus itself. Its a pretty "English Garden" setting, and they can perform ceremonies up to 8pm. We've booked 6.30pm, and then we go on to The Steakhouse in CC for the meal (CC's Steakhouse has won "Best Steakhouse in Vegas for the last 28 years running)

No, no Elvis - just a local minister!

We have attending:

Our two Adult American family members; their 6 children
My fiancee's mother
My fiancee's grandson (aged not-quite 3)
My fiancee's other daughter and husband (flying in from Holland)
A friend who flies in the Friday before and flies on the Monday after
Two distant relations driving from Colorado ( he's not in the best of health, so also attending is his nurse and her husband!)

so with us, that's 19, which ain't bad for half way round the world!

She's decided to buy her dress out there, so the Thursday before, all the girlies go shopping!

I'm in always-in-fashion tux etc.

The 'package' with the chapel includes a bouquet for the bride, buttonholes for me and my best man and a posy for the bridesmaid.

I think everything's organised - we have the rings ordered (our sizes not in stock, but we are promised them a week before we go!) Invitations have gone out to those attending (and to a few who can't - No 1 son is in China for 3 months and won't be there) the chapel is booked and wil be paid for next week, the restuarant is booked, we have the forms filled in for the court where we have to go to buy the licence...........

Sancho Proudfoot wrote:

She's decided to buy her dress out there, so the Thursday before, all the girlies go shopping!

Ooo that will be fun!

Oooo excellent! All systems go then!

That is a good turn out for being so far away.

I'm just a bit worried about your rings supposed to be being ready a WEEK before you go. I would have told the jeweller that the wedding was a couple of weeks earlier than it was to give you a bit of leeway.

luci

Thanks for the details. I'm really excited for you both.

I'm just a bit worried about your rings supposed to be being ready a WEEK before you go. I would have told the jeweller that the wedding was a couple of weeks earlier than it was to give you a bit of leeway.

Good idea, but we actually only ordered them last Thursday

I'm sure it'll be fine, but it might be an idea to tell the jeweller that a condition of purchase is that they arrived when they said they would. Being a worrier I have visions of them not arriving and you having to buy them in Vegas. That wouldn't be a problem as there are loads of jewellers, but just make sure the jeweller you have ordered them from doesn't hold to you still having to take them should they arrive after the event.

luci

We got married in the Luxor on the 10th of October last year!! It was all fabulous - from the bouquet to the photos to the hair and make up girl. Hope it all goes as well for you.

Suzy x

rings.................arrived today, Yippee!

Yey!

Oooo great stuff!!! I can stop worrying now.

luci

Very many congratulations to you both, and here's to all happiness in your married life xxxxxx

So here's how it all went:

Firstly you need to go to the Courthouse ( in lovely (not) downtown Las Vegas) to get your formal licence. Parking nearby is a total nightmare ( especially as there are major roadworks around so even the carparks are restricted)

The court needs two forms completing; these are available at the Courthouse on the day - OR do as we did and download them from the Clark County website, and pre-complete them. The Marriage Licence bureau is surprisingly quiet, considering how many weddings happen in Vegas. You go to the window, hand over the two forms, and pay your fee, currently $55 - IN CASH ( and they don't give change, take the right money)

You get back the actual licence which the officiating minister needs and a very pretty souvenir marriage certificate (which actually has no legal validity)

Our wedding was timed for the Saturday, we went to the Court on the Monday before. All in all it took us under 45 minutes.

We went to the Chapel (within our hotel) during the week before the Ceremony but they didn't need to see/have the papers until the day itself.

On the day ( don't ask about my fiancee trying to buy a dress!!) we all met in the casino (!) about an hour before before trooping upstairs to the Chapel. On earlier visits I had been struck by how UNhappy all the other couples seemed. You're getting married frevvens sake! Enjoy it! The couple leaving the chapel before us were no exception..........beautifully dressed and looking glum. I don't get it.

We saw the wedding co-ordinator, who took the licence from us, and then brought out the lovely ivory flowers...a bouquet for my bride, a posy for the bridesmaid, and buttonhole roses for us fellas, all in matching ivory. Delightful.

After a bit of milling around outside, the guests were invited into the Chapel. I had asked my 15 year old nephew to act as best man ( he was bursting with pride!) so when everyone was in, he and I walked down the aisle.

Then my lovely bride came down the aisle. (I had managed NOT to see THE DRESS, and what a delight it was!) Her niece was acting as bridesmaid, and the middle nephew (who sadly has Asperger's syndrome) was feeling left out, so ( bless her) she asked him to walk her down the aisle (another young man bursting with pride)

The minister was, simply,delightful. A friendly, sincere gentleman, we were proud to have had him marry us. The whole chapel is setup with automatic cameras to video-record everything from many angles, and the official photographer was busy snapping away throughout.

Suddenly, after 20 minutes it was over, and we were married. More photographs, and then the official photographer whisked us away to a proper studio tucked away behind the Chapel, for dozens and dozens of photos.

Then we rejoined our friends and family, to many kisses and handshakes and pats on the back. Off downstairs to the restuarant, for a simpy wonderful meal. We hadn't prebooked a menu, we just told everyone to order what they wanted in both food and drink, and - thankfully - they did. My (new) brother in law - who is notoriously hard to please, and has lived in las Vegas for 6 years - pronounced himself astounded by the quality of the food, drink, and surroundings, and wondered how he had never been here before (result!)

After the meal ( and a staggering large bill - gulp - the cheeky so-and-sos even charged us $2 a head for merely cutting the wedding cake) folk dispersed. We went into the casino and won a few hundred dollars (hurrah!).

Later in the week, we went back to the Courthouse ( a different building, so beware) to get certified copies of the marriage certificate - $10 each, and again cash only, exact money - we checked first on the phone with them to make sure the wedding had been registered. The chapel has 10 working days to register the wedding, so it's best to check first to save a journey. Good news is that this part of the Court buildings has a large free car park!

The wedding photographers had our proofs ready to see on the Tuesday after our wedding on the Saturday, as well as a very professional DVD of the ceremony (using all those cameras in the Chapel) and although we had a good choice of pictures included in the package we had bought we spent a few hundred dollars on still more photos.

Overall the whole experience was remarkably stress-free, went like a dream, gave everyone a brilliant day (especially us) and for weddings, if you choose your venue carefully, you can have a romantic (non-tacky, Elvis-free) Vegas wedding which I wholeheartedly recommend!!

Sounds absolutely wonderful, delighted that it all went so well.

That was really bad of the CC Steakhouse to charge per head for the cutting of the cake. With a group that size it would have been very difficult to check the bill and they could have added anything on.

luci

I've still got the bill......we actually went back and queried the $2 per head charge, on the bill as "speciality cake", which is when we learnt it was a charge for the cutting!

Additionally, as we were more than 8 persons, they added on a whopping 12% service charge! (Needless to say, no extra tipping!!!)

Sounds wonderful.
Not been in CC for years. Maybe I'll look in next visit.

A 12% service charge for a party of 8 people or more is pretty good. A lot of places will add 15% gratuity automatically. It's so that the server isn't out of pocket if the party doesn't tip.