For all the other Vegas Brides & Grooms, here are reviews for vendors we used.
Vegas Vendors
Ceremony/Reception Venue: The Platinum Hotel, Misora Room.
Pre-wedding. Nicole showed us around the space and was very helpful. She was willing to negotiate prices and work within our budget. I really didn't get the sense the price was negotiable at other venues. Nicole seems very busy and when we were working out the details of the contract, it seemed like she had forgotten previous conversations we had. Still, she has always been helpful, and we got all of the prices and fees that we waived in the contract (so no forgetting). Since we've booked, they've hired Marie (to assist Nicole I think?), and she is now our contact. Marie always returned my emails and calls quickly. Like Nicole, she seems very busy. But she’s been great. My mom had all of the decorations with her and drove in from Phoenix. She let my mom drop everything off on Monday and stored it until we arrived. Marie also accommodated my last minute requests like switching one of the appetizers to brie en croute (which is no longer on the menu) and adding a sliders station. All in all both Marie and Nicole were easy to work with.
Post-wedding. For the most part everything was great. I loved the how big the hotel rooms were and that they all had kitchens. It was especially great for the day of the wedding. There were so many people in and out of the room but it wasn’t cramped. The kitchen was a great space for hair and makeup too.
Marie did a final walk through with us when we arrived on Wednesday. We were debating over the ceremony and bar location. She encouraged us to do the ceremony on the North Terrace and have the dance floor and bar on the South Terrace. Her reasoning was that most guests head to the bar right after the ceremony, so by doing this they could pack up the chairs out of sight, and this would help the flow of everything. Are you following? It really does make sense, but I felt like the North Terrace felt kinda cramped. So instead, we had the dance floor set up under the ceremony chairs. She had wine passed inside right after the ceremony so that guests would move in there and they could more easily pack up the chairs. I thought that worked out well. And I was glad that she was willing to “make it work” for us instead of just insisting we do it her way.
The rehearsal with Marie went well. We had very specific wishes for the ceremony music. We played one song for the whole processional, and then Erik and I walked out at a specific point in the music (dramatic pause and swell of music). She really was helpful planning that out and timing it right.
In terms of the Platinum’s involvement with the ceremony, Marie again did a great job. There was another wedding going on at the same time on the pool deck (ours started at 6:00, the other started at 5:00). I was so concerned that we’d hear dance music during the ceremony, but it worked out fine. Didn’t hear a peep. And Marie confirmed twice that the other DJ knew to perhaps turn it down at 5:00. We were “upgraded” to white chairs for the ceremony…probably because they ran out of banquet chairs downstairs. LOL.
A few hiccups at the reception. First, we only had one server for 45 people. Maybe that’s standard? But I suspect that the other wedding was bigger, so they got more staff. I didn’t really notice that it was an issue (because I barely ate, boo). But I heard that some guests were complaining. Second, I do not think sparkling cider was provided for the toasts. I wanted my pregnant bridesmaid and junior bridesmaid to have something to toast with. Finally, when the DJ called us in to cut the cake, there was nothing there to cut it with. Annoying. The DJ played our song twice, and then moved on to another song, and then our one server finally brought it out. No big deal, but annoying/awkward to have all your guests staring at you with nothing to do. I consider all of these things to be fairly minor. We all still had a great time!
I heard the food was awesome. I told myself that I would eat. And I would eat A LOT. But I was just too busy having fun. I asked Marie to make Erik and me a plate (since everything was passed or stations). That was really helpful in terms of being able to get some food. But, most of the food was cold by the time I ate it (my fault). Here’s what we served…Passed: Tenderloin Sliced on Herb Toast, Brie en Croute. Displayed: Lollipop Lamb Chops, Mini Crab Cakes, Grilled Cheese. Stations: Antipasta, flatbread pizzas, and sliders.
Still kicking myself that I didn’t eat more!
Even with the small issues, I would whole-heartedly recommend the Platinum! So many people said “best wedding ever.” Everyone was just in awe of the view and the food.
Officiant: Rev. Linda.
Pre-wedding. We had a skype meeting with her to plan out our ceremony. She's very open to ideas and willing to let us write parts of the ceremony. She had some great ideas that we hadn't thought of. She came off as very kind and genuine.
Post-wedding. Sigh. I hate to write anything critical because I really like her personally. But I think she was having an off day and our ceremony just did not go as planned. She was late which was not really a big deal. She had planned to get there at 5:30 but showed up (I think) right before the scheduled ceremony time of 6:00. I didn’t have a problem with this…it actually gave me a bit more time to calm down. In retrospect, I wonder if this meant she didn’t really have a chance to review our ceremony beforehand?
So the ceremony starts off fine. She says very kind words. We exchange our vows. Then we go to exchange our rings. She’s flipping through her binder looking for something. She asks us if we have what we wrote for the ring exchange. I say, “no, you’re supposed to read what we wrote, and we’ll repeat it.” She looks some more, but obviously didn’t have it. Sad face. I’m sure most of you feel that the ceremony is the most important of the day. We wrote something for our ring exchange, but didn’t memorize it because she said she could read it and we would repeat it. So I was way bummed about that.
From there, I think she got flustered. She closed her binder (preparing to adlib), and she said “Erik take Erica’s hand…” Um. I’m Ann. Erica is Erik’s step-sister. Erik made a joke about it and pretended to go over to Erica…but I wasn’t really amused by it. She adlibbed something for the ring exchange and it was fine but again, not what we intended. Then she does closing words and starts with the pronouncement. Two things went wrong here. She said “I pray that God blesses this marriage.” Not a terrible thing to say, but we requested a civil ceremony. We were very specific about no God, no prayers. Second, the Best Man was supposed to do a reading right after the rings. So I interrupt in the middle of the pronouncement. It went something like this Linda “By the power yada yada yayda” Ann “uh, we have another reading.” Linda “yes, we have another reading by Matt.” Ann “oh okay.” Linda “I now pronounce you husband and wife. We’re going to delay the kiss for a reading from Matt.” How anticlimactic! I went back to our email exchange the next morning, and that definitely wasn’t the correct order (I thought I just might have been crazy).
After the ceremony she apologized to me about the ring exchange. She said she gave my brother Tim a copy of his reading and it had the ring exchange on there too. I told her not to worry about it…I mean, what’s done is done, right? It wouldn’t change anything if I made her feel bad.
Looking back, I just wish I would have run through the ceremony one more time with her while we were waiting for everything to start. I think if I would have reviewed the program with her, it would have been fine.
All of this being said, I would still recommend Rev. Linda. She really is kind and I felt like she was genuinely touched by our vows and our ceremony. Just confirm, confirm, confirm!
Photographer: Chelsea Nicole.
Pre-wedding. Chelsea was so much fun to work with at our engagement shoot. You can read more about our shoot here. Her work is way awesome and speaks for itself. :)
Post-wedding. Haven’t seen the pictures yet, but I’m confident they’ll look great. I had such a good time taking pictures with Chelsea. I’m also so glad we did a first look and pictures before the ceremony. It really calmed my nerves.
Hair & Makeup: Lori White. Hair and makeup with Lori was one of the highlights of the wedding. I’ve never looked so good! I gave her a little bit of direction; a few photos…and she took it from there. I loved the fake eyelashes she used too. I wasn’t planning on wearing them, but she said they would look pretty natural and we could take them off if I didn’t like them. Well, I loved them! I was obsessed with them…and I want to wear them all the time! LOL.
Personally, I found Lori to be quiet, calm, nice, and accommodating. After the trial, I wanted a few changes, and she made them with no complaints. She kept saying, “No problem. No worries.” I was super nervous the day of the wedding and her calm demeanor was appreciated! She kept passing me my mimosa to sip on to try to calm me down. I was practicing my vows while she was working on my hair, and she was crying as I read them! I thought that was so sweet.
Anyway, we all looked great. I was impressed with everything. Her assistant (ack! I don’t remember her name) did a really great job on my mom and bridesmaid with short hair. She gave my mom the “illusion” of an updo… she has a really short bob. One of my bridesmaid’s hair did start to come undone after the ceremony…but her hair is super thick. If I was thinking properly before the wedding, I would have requested extra pins for her.
DJ: Lantz from All Night Long. Lantz was so great! I was mostly concerned about getting the ceremony music right. We played one song for the whole processional, and then Erik and I wanted to walk out at a specific point in the music. I was flippin’ out a bit waiting to walk out. I could tell that everyone was actually walking too slow. So it got to the point where we wanted to walk and we still had one bridesmaid that needed to walk. Lantz seemed to start the music over, which almost gave me a panic attack. But really he was just doing that instead of having dead silence (we told him to just cut the music if people walked too slow). After the last bridesmaid took her place, he resumed the song at the spot where we wanted to walk. So that was awesome! He also did a great job on the recessional. We wanted the music to start right as we kissed and he made that happen.
Reception music was awesome. We tried to avoid making too many requests so he could just do his thing. And he did it! He totally read the crowd. If there was a song that we obviously weren’t very into (and he didn’t play too many of those), he’d fade it out and play something new. So many people said he was the best wedding DJ they’ve ever seen. And he obviously has a great time doing it. He was dancing and singing along. :)He was super nice every time I requested something or asked him to make an announcement.
I think my Uncle tipped him to keep playing after the reception ended. We danced for another 30 minutes.
Florist: Pam @ The Palette. I was a little disappointed in the bouquets (that was all we ordered). Well, let me start with the positives. I made a few changes and additions (I asked her to change the Jr Bridesmaid from a posy to a regular bouquet and I asked for a single rose) she did this without charging me extra. So that was really nice of her.
Flowers were not high on my priority list. So I simply told her the theme was peacock. I wanted blues, greens, and purples. And I sent her some pictures of bouquets that I liked. She initially included some orange flowers in the worksheet and I asked her not to include orange. I think she must have been working off of that original worksheet and not the updated one, because there were orange flowers in the bouquets. The colors were more pastel and tropical than jewel tone peacock colors. So that’s why I was a bit disappointed. Still, they were beautiful even if they didn’t totally go with my color scheme. Plus, I didn’t really say “I want x, y, and z flowers.” I kinda feel like I don’t have much room to complain if I wasn’t very specific in my request, you know? Vendors aren’t mind readers! (Although…I’d say the bouquets were obviously not peacocky).
Cake and cupcakes: Retro Bakery. Um…super awesome! We ordered a small cake and 10 dozen mini cupcakes (chocolate fountain, coffee and donuts, hopscotch, pink lemonade, milk and cookies). Erik sent them some of our paper designs and asked them to put swirls and dots on the cake that would coordinate. It looked awesome! A perfect match. The cupcakes were amazing. Pink lemonade was my favorite. I didn’t get to try coffee and donuts or milk and cookies…they were all gone by the time I got to them! (I tried coffee and donuts later when we went to the bakery…I’d say it’s a tie between that and pink lemonade). Least favorite was hopscotch. It wasn’t bad, just not as great as the others. We only got it because it’s supposedly their most popular flavor…probably wouldn’t get it again.
The only thing that sucked was returning the cupcake stand. It took about 2 hours round trip. So that was a big pain in the ass. I would recommend either purchasing their disposable stand or buying your own. That cut in to precious vacation time!
Dress/Suit Pressing: Debi @ Fit For a Bride. Everything went fine. They ended up delivering Friday night instead of Saturday morning. I actually would have preferred Saturday…we weren’t around Friday night to pickup the dress from the bell desk, so I wonder if it would have been better to have it arrive on Saturday.
Welcome Reception Venue: THE Hotel, E Suite. Our wedding was off-strip, so we thought it would be fun to have a get together Friday night on the strip. THEhotel has 5 different large suites (H O T E and L) that increase in size with E and L being the largest. These are not listed on the website, so you have to call to make a reservation. We were able to use a 20% off promo code (even though they tried to tell us at first it didn't apply to the "big" suites...ask for a supervisor) which makes a pretty big difference in the price. The E suite is 2000 square feet (a little bigger than our house!). I've heard of a bride having a reception there with 85 people. We had 40 and there was plenty of room.
The room was great. I was a little annoyed with check in. Erik called to see if we could check in early. They told him just show up and request to check in. Well he gets there at 11:00, and they say that all of the E suites are booked, and the people using our suite had not checked out yet. That’s understandable…but why couldn’t they tell us on the phone? Just ended up being a big waste of time. Anyway with our rehearsal at 3:00 and vendors showing up at 5:00, it was a bit stressful. I wish I would have scheduled rehearsal earlier in the day (but I think I was worried about being hungover from the bachelor and bachelorette parties).
Anyway, the suite was great. Everyone loved it. We had so much fun staying there that night too. Just me and Erik relaxing. :)
Welcome Reception Catering: Magianno's. Here's what we ended up deciding on: 3 orders Garlic Bread Focaccia, 2 orders Italian Tossed Salad, 1 1/2 orders Fresh Grilled Asparagus, 1 1/2 Broccolini with Lemon and Garlic, 2 orders Rigatoni "D,” 2 orders Taylor Street Baked Ziti, 1 1/2 orders Chicken Parmesan, and 1 1/2 orders Seared Pork Scaloppine.
The food was great. My only complaint was that it was WAY WAY too much food. And they kept telling us it wasn’t enough. I think we had like a tray of everything leftover. I wish we would have brought to-go containers for our guests!
Welcome Reception Bartender/Busing: Culinary Pros. I didn’t catch the guys name (I was so stressed running last minute errands). I think we stressed him out because we were “late” with the ice. Culinary pros suggested we have two people instead of one. But I think it worked out fine. I actually don’t think we really needed him since we only had about 40 people and we only served beer and wine. But Erik and his Dad decided it was a good idea. He did a great job though.
Bachelorette Dinner: Yolos. Meh. Food was just okay (at least my dish) and service was pretty slow. One of my bridesmaids coordinated this event (with Gita, concierge at the Platinum) and my mom paid for a 2-hour bar for everyone. My bridesmaid reported that they originally wanted to charge my 11 year old Jr. Bridesmaid for the open bar, but she eventually talked them out of that charge. But Yolos insisted that she (BM booking the dinner) be charged even though she said she was pregnant. When we showed up she said she was pregnant, and the staff said, no problem, we won’t charge you. Well they did. Service was so slow that we ended up not arguing about it though.
It bugged me that the drinks were so incredibly slow to come out. My mom paid per-person, and it was difficult to get our money’s worth! Toward the end of the dinner we started ordering two drinks at a time to attempt to get our buzz on!
Bachelorette Party: Haze. We had so much fun! My bridesmaid got in touch with the club promoter through Gita (concierge at the Platinum). We arrived at Aria before the club was open, so he escorted us to some lounge (don’t remember what it was called) where we got tickets for free drinks, free shots, and 2 for 1 drinks. Then we went to the club where we got free cover and more free drink tickets! It was so much fun. Felt like a VIP.
Misc. Paper: Vistaprint.Additional paper included: programs, welcome brochures, signs and posters for the reception, stickers for the welcome bags, sticky notes, and thank you cards. This round with Vistaprint sucked. The quality of the printing on most everything sucked. The cuts in the paper were not straight. They refunded us our money and we didn’t ask them to reprint since it most likely would not arrive in time. We reprinted the worst stuff at kinkos and sucked it up with the rest.
Ann's shoes: Zappos. I ordered about $700 worth of shoes and was able to find a comfortable pair. As always, returns were easy.
Manzanita centerpieces: Blooms and branches. We made a few Manzanita centerpieces and ordered all of the supplies from them. Seemed to be relatively good prices. I ordered 6 branches, 3 big vases, river rock, and hanging votives. Good quality and the centerpieces turned out super cute.
Other decorations: I ordered decorations from all over the place and sent my Mom out shopping quite a bit. The rest of everything came from: CB2, Z gallerie, Target, Michael’s, Hobby Lobby, World Market, Amazon, and Old Navy (flip flops). Good experience with all of these products!
Online Vendors
Save the Dates: Vistaprint. If you order anything through vistaprint, you definitely want to wait until you get an email offer for "free" products. I say "free" cause they end up not being free with shipping and additional fees. But it's still a good deal. We ordered oversized postcards (pictured here) and they turned out great.
Invitations: Vistaprint. Invitations were not so free because we started a bit late and had to do expedited shipping. Still, it cost less than ordering traditional invitations. We ordered oversized postcards for the invite, regular sized postcards for RSVP, and business cards for the info card. There was some inconsistency in the color and some that were streaked. (We ordered 100 and only need 50, so we were able to pick out the "bests" to send out). Erik felt that the business cards we're a bit off center. So they were not 100% perfect. But again, for the price, I was okay with that. Also, they initially sent us someone else's order.
Invitation Envelopes: LCI Paper. At the last minute, I decided I wanted fancy envelopes. We bought 50 lined A9 envelopes for about $25. Good price and good quality.
Misc. Paper: Vistaprint. Additional paper included: programs, welcome brochures, signs and posters for the reception, stickers for the welcome bags, sticky notes, and thank you cards. This round with Vistaprint sucked. The quality of the printing on most everything sucked. The cuts in the paper were not straight. They refunded us our money and we didn’t ask them to reprint since it most likely would not arrive in time. We reprinted the worst stuff at kinkos and sucked it up with the rest.
Manzanita centerpieces: Blooms and branches. We made a few Manzanita centerpieces and ordered all of the supplies from them. Seemed to be relatively good prices. I ordered 6 branches, 3 big vases, river rock, and hanging votives. Good quality and the centerpieces turned out super cute.
Other decorations: I ordered decorations from all over the place and sent my Mom out shopping quite a bit. The rest of everything came from: CB2, Z gallerie, Target, Michael’s, Hobby Lobby, World Market, Amazon, and Old Navy (flip flops). Good experience with all of these products!
Etsy Vendors
Jr. Bridesmaid’s necklace: cvennel. I thought it turned out really cute. Fast shipping.
Bridesmaids’ clutches: Good Marvin. Cute. Well made. Fast shipping.
Ann's Jewelry: Pretty By Susan. Loved my jewelry! And it would have been a bargain if I didn’t have to pay for overnight shipping. But that was my fault…I couldn’t make up my mind on what I wanted. I upgraded to the Express shipping because it was coming from Canada and I was nervous it would make it in time.
Ann's Bolero: Alex Bridal. It’s a a tinnie tiny bit cheapy looking…but you get what you pay for. I still think it was cute. I just wish I would have remembered to put it on during photos! I finally remembered at some point on the dance floor. Ships from Hawaii so it can take a little longer.
All things Peacock: The Headband Shoppe. I ordered a total of 7 boutonnieres, 3 corsages, a pair of shoe clips, and peacock feathers for decorations. Everything looked so great! She was so easy to work with and responded to all of my inquiries and customizations quickly.
Custom hanger: LynnClaire. It was cute, but didn’t last past the wedding day. The wire is all messed up. That’s probably an issue with any of these custom hangers though.
Fascinator: Ice Green Eyes . LOVED IT! And it’s such a good price. Shipped super quickly.
Other Vendors
Dress: Filene's Basement, Running of the Brides, Atlanta. Read about that crazy experience here. You can certainly find a bargain here. Dresses are priced $249, $499, and $699. If you go, don't bother getting in line super early like we did (unless you just really want to get the full, crazy, experience). Show up around 10 or 11 when the crazies are gone and the dresses are back on the racks.
Reception Dress: Macy’s clearance rack, $50! Even though I loved my gown, I kinda wish this was my one and only dress. Would have saved a bunch of money. :)
