I just want to talk about my upcoming wedding.

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Hi y’all,

I’m mostly a lurker so you guys don’t know me. But I just want to talk about the awesome wedding that my husband-to-be and I are planning. (I hate the word “fiance”, it sounds pretentious, like when you’re at the bar chatting with someone and they’re all like “My fiancee is over there” and you’re like, “Oooh, sor-ry.”)

You know how most little girls dream about their wedding day? Well it’s always been my dream to elope to Las Vegas. No church, no flowers, no matching outfits, no organ music, no headaches, hassles, politics or tons of money spent. Gotta be Vegas though, I can’t bring myself to get married at City Hall. Ugh. And even though I’m a Christian I don’t belong to a church so I feel uncomfortable getting married in one. Plus the husband-to-be calls himself an atheist. I have a very, very small family and few close friends so I in no way want the whole “big white wedding” thing. My Mom totally agrees with me and my Dad couldn’t care less.

So when my husband-to-be and I decided to get married, he agreed to Vegas. I really wanted to elope, just me & him, but he really wants his family and best friend there so I said fine, our parents and 2 friends each. I had given my best friend a “heads-up” last year so she could start saving (she lives in Texas, I live in Ontario) and my parents (divorced, since remarried, so I have 2 sets) also knew it might happen. We were officially engaged on May 20 and set the date for August 8-11 in Vegas. Travel & get the license on the 8th, go to some random chapel on the 9th, then run around Vegas having fun for the day, recover on the 10th, home on the 11th. There will be my parents, his parents, his 2 best friends and my 2 best friends.

I have an awesome ivory-coloured dress from Le Chateau - long with a beaded halter neck - and I don’t care what anybody else wears. It’s going to be over +40C there so I just want people to be comfortable. We’re going to get our pictures taken with the “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas” sign, go the Gun Store and shoot guns (in my wedding dress - haha), to the Stratosphere and to the Hard Rock Cafe. (I collect Hard Rock Cafe stuff so that’s important.) It’s going to be fun, stress-free and awesome. We will throw a big backyard “reception” the following weekend after we get back for all our family and friends.

No parents are being expected to pay for anything for us, we didn’t have a “buck and doe” party, I’m not getting a bridal shower (but I am having a “bachelorette party” - just a night out drinkin’ and dancin’ the week before), no gifts are expected, and nobody has to anything except get to Vegas and enjoy themselves.

If you want I’ll update after and let you guys know how it turns out.

2

Post pictures! Have fun! :slight_smile:

3

Sounds like a plan! There should be more weddings tailored to the couple’s lifestyle and interests. Best wishes!

4

Are you staying in the Hard Rock Hotel? We stayed there, and it is very nice - two thumbs up!

Sounds like a fun, reasonable wedding. Good for you! :slight_smile:

5

We stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel last January when we went to Vegas for the first time. :cool: Everyone is staying at The Flamingo for our wedding, because they have a great deal on rooms and it’s kind of in the middle of The Strip so within walking distance to the casinos and stuff. We’re hoping that everyone will pitch in and we’ll get a big SUV limo for The Big Day. I’m hoping to get hitched while hanging out the sunroof of a limo at a drive-up, but I think the husband-to-be wants it in a little chapel. Of course, you can shut your eyes, turn around and point and you’re pointing at a little chapel there. :wink:

6

Congratulations! When it comes to weddings, my rules are: 1. Do exactly what you want to do. 2. Don’t do anything you don’t want to do. Otherwise you end up with your hateful cousin Myrtle as a maid of honor and country and western band at your reception.
So enjoy your wedding. :slight_smile:

7

Darn right. I read too many horror stories about weddings on the forum I belonged to a few years ago that made me want no part of a “traditional” wedding. It’s the most important day of our lives so it’s going to be all about us!

There are a few things I’m worried about, but it’s probably just my Virgo-mind working overtime. I’m trying not to stress about hypothetical situations. :wink:

8

Sounds fun, you going to go plain or shell out for an Elvis impersonator to do the wedding?

9

Hopefully just a basic quick ceremony, but somewhere in those 3 days I want to get my picture taken with an Elvis impersonator. :smiley:

10

It sounds like you know what makes you happy.

Go for it. Best wishes.

11

I was married at The Little Chapel of the Flowers a few years ago. I do not recommend it.

Hope your wedding is fun and fabulous!

(ETA: Err, the chapel. I don’t recommend the chapel. I do recommend marriage!)

12

Our first visit to Vegas included meeting a friend of my husband’s from his online poker site who just happens to be related to an Elvis impersonator. The Elvis impersonator we met is also one of the world’s leading authorities on piranha. Vegas is a strange and wonderful place. :smiley:

13

Well? What happened at the chapel?

14

Sending good thoughts for a great wedding your way.

15

Well, we got married in the gazebo, which turned out to be attached to the driveway. Limos for other weddings came and went during our ceremony. It’s located on the iffy part of the strip, past Stratosphere, and there was a lot of traffic and tons of sirens going by. Lots of drunk, yelling people walking by too. There’s a giant neon Burger King sign directly overhead. The pastor went with a “friends and family” theme for our vows, mentioning friends and family no less than 10 times during the short ceremony - we eloped and had no friends nor any family with us. He lost his place during the vows. When we got into the limo after the ceremony was done, the driver was blaring the radio. “You Oughta Know” was playing. We joke that that’s now our song, and Burger King is our restaurant. There was some mild confusion about the paperwork, and until we went back this year and picked up a copy of our marriage license from city hall we weren’t 100% sure we were actually married. 99.999%, but there was a tiny seed of doubt.

It’s also the place where that 51 year old actor recently married the 16 year old, so it has that going for it.

Not getting married in the gazebo would have mitigated most of the problems we had. It was a terrible, terrible wedding, but it makes for a pretty good story now.

OP - don’t let this scare you off! I’m sure my wedding was an anomaly, and it really was ridiculous enough to be fun in a very surreal way. And the marriage itself is wonderful, and that’s the part that matters. I’m sure you’ll have a wonderful time!

16

And here’s the story. Sorry it took me so long to sit my ass down and type it. (Actually, I typed it for something else and just copy/pasted here, which is why you’re getting some info twice.)

We got engaged on May 21, 2011 and set the date for August 9, 2011. It was my dream since I was a little kid to get married in Las Vegas, and while I’d hoped to elope my now-husband really wanted his family and best friend there so we agreed to have all our parents and two best friends each. We’d throw a big backyard party after for our family and friends here at home (Ontario, Canada.)

I had a hell of a time finding a dress because I knew it would be like 40C out and I didn’t want to a) spend a bazillion $ on a dress and b) sweat to death. I found the perfect dress online at Le Chateau for $250 and my co-worker hemmed it for me. It was long, light and flowy with a beaded halter top. Another co-worker’s wife lent me her tiara, and I found some second-hand gold heels (luckily I only paid $26 for them because my dog chewed them up as soon as I got home.) The guys (my husband and his two best men) rented tuxes. I told everyone that I didn’t care what anyone wore, all I cared about was that they be in Vegas for 10 am on August 9. I wanted our parents and friends to be comfortable in that heat! Since we weren’t having an actual wedding & reception here we didn’t have a Buck & Doe party (common in this area) and I didn’t have any showers. I did have a “Bachelorette Party” but it was more of a “I’m going out for the last time as a single woman, please join me!” at a bar.

There were 13 people in total in Vegas: Bride & Groom, my Mom & Stepdad, my Dad and Stepmom, Groom’s parents, Groom’s 2 best friends, my best friend and her husband, and my other best friend. We bought a package where you get a 14-person limo that picks everyone up at the hotel and takes you to the “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas” sign and the minister and photographer meet you there. Ceremony done in like 5 minutes, photos, then you get the limo for the rest of 2 hours and it drops you off wherever you want.

I’m telling you it was the greatest wedding ever. We all piled out of the limo and the first thing my one friend and I did was get our picture taken with Big Bird - or as my friend put it, “This is Juicy’s last photo as a single woman!” The ceremony took just a few minutes, simple generic vows, and the funny parts were when my husband gave me his wrong hand and the ring wouldn’t fit so the minister goes, “What, y’all don’t wear the ring on the LEFT hand up in Canada?” and the photographer actually caught me busting out laughing. As soon as the rings were on my husband kissed me and my friend yelled “NO KISSIN’ YET!” and the minister was all, “Yeah! I’m not finished!” It was a perfect, fun and laughter filled ceremony and totally “us.”

Back to the limo for champagne and a cruise up & down the strip, then we dropped some people off at the hotel and the rest of us went to The Gun Store. That’s an indoor shooting range where you get to choose guns and shoot 'em. So you can imagine the fun when a Bride, Groom and 2 best men in tuxes walked in! We had a ball shooting different guns and getting our pictures taken.

My husband and I collect Hard Rock Cafes (we actually plan vacations around going to them) so dinner was at the Hard Rock Cafe on The Strip. Our official wedding photo is the touristy one you can get with the backdrop and they put “Just Married” graphics on it. The staff were wonderful and accommodating and gave us each a free shooter and dessert. They even played Billy Idol’s “White Wedding” for us, LOL. Afterwards in the gift shop an Asian couple asked to pose for a picture with us.

Then the Bride, Groom, best men and bridesmaids just walked around. It was SO MUCH FUN to see heads turn in the casinos and people would clap and cheer and say “Congratulations!” Random guys would shake my husband’s hand and random ladies would hug me or fix my dress if needed. It was neat when those guys who hand out the “naked lady cards” would put their hands behind their backs when we walked by as a show of respect. All told, it was the perfect wedding day for us.

About a week later we had a backyard reception but unfortunately it pretty much got rained out. Like as soon as we fired up the barbeques it started raining. We had canopies all over the yard and deck so it wasn’t that bad, but still. I think many people didn’t show up due to the weather and nearly everyone left around 4 pm when the rain got worse. It was my husband’s idea that we ask $10 per person to cover the food & kegs, which bothered me a little, but since we didn’t have a Buck & Doe I felt better about it. I also had NO IDEA that people would give us cards with money inside! I wasn’t expecting ANY gifts so I was honestly surprised when I’d open a card and there’d be cash in it! The $10’s plus gifts ended up paying for our entire reception. My old neighbour is a musician and he played (until he got rained out) for 1/2 his usual rate. Even with the rain many people dropped by and a good time was had by all.

The only etiquette breach I knew I was making was that it took me until October to get the Thank-You cards mailed but that was because I wanted to include one of the professional wedding photos and they didn’t arrive until October. I apologized in each card for the late thank-you and explained that it was because I wanted to include a professional photo.

So that was my wedding, in a nutshell. Thanks for letting me share it with you, The Teeming Millions.

17

Seriously, the naked lady card guys respect anything?

When we went to see Blue Man Group in Vegas, a bride and groom were late to the show - if you’re late, they turn up all the lights and sing a “You’re LAAAAATE” song, but everybody went “awwww” when they saw the dress.

It sounds like a great wedding. Mine is going to be completely different and include everybody my mom has ever met - I’m sure it will be lovely but I’m jealous. :slight_smile:

18

Great story, Soylent Juicy. Some of the best weddings I’ve been two were small, intimate affairs. I remember one in Key West that was a bit bigger than yours, but the ceremony was all of 10 minutes…the reception maybe an hour. Then the core group of 15 or so of us just wandered around Duval Street all day, and got absolutely wasted.

I’m glad your wedding was exactly what you wanted… Congrats!

-D/a

19

Awesome! Congratulations!

20

Not an etiquette breach at all. According to Miss Manners you have a year from the wedding date.

Sounds like the perfect wedding to me :slight_smile: Glad you both enjoyed your day.