Getting married in Vegas-

[Nephythys]

Bouncing off my other thread about my thrift store wedding dress-

It seems several people here may have some tips about getting married in Vegas?

Share?

[Alex]

Invite two people.
Book a cheap chapel.
Walk in get your license.
Get married.
Go home.

That's how we did it (though in Reno). In retrospect we could have done without the cheap chapel, that just rang of gaudy excess.

[Nephythys]

Why the invite? Witnesses?

[innerSpaceman]

I performed a wedding ceremony in Las Vegas last October. It was likely the coolest ceremony ever done in that town, involving a custom-made wheel of fortune with slices for 10 Vegas Strip hotels. The bride and groom took spins of the wheel, and I performed wedding rituals based on the theme of any hotel they landed on.


Not much of a tip, as it was a one-of-a-kind ceremony that will never be repeated or, I daresay, topped.

[BarTopDancer]

Drive thru!

I went to a wedding there - it was done at a resort off the strip (Emerald something). Full ceremony and buffet linner. It was really nice (not fancy nice, nice nice).

It all depends what you want.

[Alex]

Originally Posted by Nephythys

Why the invite? Witnesses?

You do need witnesses but I'm sure the chapel or whomever you use can provide those.

No, these were two friends that just happened to be passing through Reno that weekend. So we let them come and they paid for our "reception" at the Atlantis breakfast buffet (I believe we were married at 9:30 a.m. or something like that because we had to drive home that day).

Of course the drawback to issuing invitations is the possibility of crashers. Our two friends brought an unexpected third person. At 50%, I think ours was the most over attended wedding ever by non-famous people.

[madmonkeygirl]

Ok CM and I were married in Vegas 10/13/2001 at Treasure Island about the HMS Britania ship. There are so many wedding chapels and every hotel on the strip seems like has a wedding chapel to get married in. We were doing research online and it was either Treasure Island or the Graceland Wedding Chapel (where Jon Bon Jovi) got married in but the chapel was aways down the strip and my mom felt thought that would be a ways for guests who were staying in town so Treasure Island it was.

We had 50 guests (there was a guest limit) which was perfect. We only wanted friends and close family who meant alot to us there. No long lost cousins, aunts, uncles etc who we see maybe 1 time every 5 years there...nope not with a guest limit...

Our fee included ceremony, photographs, flowers (boquet for me and my maid of honor) and the groom and best man's crosages (spelling)...and a night in the a suite that let me tell you was over the top (never had a jacuzzi in the bathroom before). The suite was never could afford land so that was kinda nice..oh yeah and bathrobes and champange glasses and dom peringoin champagne...(which we got to keep the robes too)

So anyways we had a nice ceremony performed maybe half an hour with whistles and applause from passersby (even videotaping the ceremony so who knows how many videos and pictures of vacationers we are in)...

The pictures were taken after the ceremony and love them (better than having a regular ceremony with a regular photographer). Have our marriage license come in a frame booklet of sorts.

Our reception at first we weren't gonna have one and just go to a resteraunt to eat but my mom made calls to the hotel and ended up booking a room at the Mirage and had a nice buffet lunch reception. The food was actually yummy (what little i got to eat). They worked with us faxing us menus and then we choose the final one...wasn't too hard to choose.

Everyone had the best of time at the wedding because of the guest limit small number of guests...we put disposable cameras at each table and told everyone to take as many pictures as they wanted to of us and the reception and others attending then to leave the cameras at the table when they left. So my mom went around and picked up the cameras and then had the pictures developed.

One thing we didn't do is have a DJ but that was ok too. We did do the father daughter mother son dance, the money dance and the husband wife dance so that was ok in itself since we had limited time.

I think the thing that made it all the more surreal was we had to go from Treasure Island over to the Mirage and i kept getting comments like "awww congrats" and one little girl and her mom said "she's just like Cinderella" I felt just like Cinderella. I had a dress with a train yes it wasn't easy to walk in to the reception and back to Treasure Island but well worth it. Just the whole walking thru the casinos was just wow at the people saying congrats to us both.

If i had to do it all over again i wouldn't have changed anything. I'm hoping that someday i can renew our wedding vows at the chapel that Jon Bon Jovi got married in. Hmmm going in April wonder if i can convince hubby to do a renewal of vows then....we'll see...

Whatever you choose it's your day so in the end it's what will make you happy. We have no regrets...

[Not Afraid]

I know nothing about Vegas or weddings there, but I do know about intimate weddings and I can't recommend them enough. We were married under a giant cedar tree at the Awahnee Hotel with just 10 people in attendance. It was a supremely lovely day.

[Alex]

Whatever you want from a wedding in Vegas can be had (after all a lot of people who just happen to live in Vegas get married there all the tame in completely "normal" ways).

What are you looking for from a wedding, even if it is in Vegas? Is the goal to just have it done quickly? If so, then Vegas may not even be necessary for that. True, you can't so easily run the lifecycle of a marriage from license to divorce finalization so quickly as in Nevada but the hoops are mostly gone from other locations as well.

Do you want to invite friends and family and the ceremony is still very important? While all of the strip hotels have full chapels there are also lots of off strip places that can handle a more traditional wedding environment and generally a lot cheaper.

I have friends that got married in Vegas at an off strip chapel where they bought the full package on eBay from a woman whose marriage had been called off. It had a tinge of Vegas tackiness but was mostly a pretty standard affair with about 75 in attendance.

The one big tip: if you are inviting guests, don't get married in July or August if you want them to continue liking you.

[BarTopDancer]

Also don't book rooms at the HOJO by the airport. That place is a total dive.