My Vegas Wedding Review

[RayofSunshyne]

Hey Guys

 

I'm back from my fabulous Vegas wedding and wanted to share a review on my trip. I know when researching for my wedding how much help these forums were and cant thank everyone enough. So ok - my review:

 

Accommodation:

 

Sahara Hotel - we stayed here for a couple of days - pool was lovely, room was quite large, bathroom was a bit rubbish - problems draining but its an old hotel and its what you pay for - its cheap and cheerful. It is down the other end of the strip so can be a fair walk to places - but we didnt mind that, most family were staying close to our hotel.

 

The Venetian - this was a lovely hotel – Such a beautiful lobby. The decoration was great, the service was brilliant and the lovely front desk guy upgraded us - couldnt ask for better than that. The room was large, the bathroom was great - had a nice vanity table ready for when i got my make up done :-) and I fell in love with the bed, I wish I could bring it home with me. We didn’t use the pools unfortunately but we had a look around, and they looked great. I recommend this hotel – it felt luxurious.

 

Dress & Tux:

 

I actually rented my dress - this is probably not for everybody - it was my something borrowed i suppose. But i found the most beautiful dress at Jennaleighs Bridal. My husband and I were sorted in an hour. They have packages which include dress, shoes, veil and hair pieces + tux, shoes and vest. Alterations were done quickly and were perfect. Couldnt of asked for anything better. The people in the shop were so friendly and helpful. I highly recommend them.

 

Make-Up and Hair

 

I used Glamsquad (James) – and used air-brush make-up. I also organised a trial done. This is a bit of a 50/50. He is very punctual and focused both occasions. For my trial i felt it was quite rushed but I suppose they do come to your room and must rush from appointment to appointment. I showed him what accessories I was wearing and basically said i wanted loose curls. I didn’t show any pictures. What I ended up with was my hair just pinned up in a messy styled fashion and make up that was just caked on and looked like a showgirl. I was horrified and didn’t know what to say. My mum and MIL were also not happy with it. So I do admit to closely cancelling as I was so worried. On the actual day – I showed him a picture of what I wanted and told him not so thick on the make up. Make-up and hair ended up being beautiful. Couldnt be happier. So maybe he was having an off day on my trial. I don’t know.

 

Venue:

 

We got married in the Venus Garden @ Caesars Palace. My wedding coordinator was very prompt to emails - which was important as I was organising the event from London and I found them very professional in all that they do and a pleasure to deal with. Nothing was ever a problem.

The venue was beautiful and didnt make my guest list of 20 look too small at all. My bouquet looked how i wanted it and was very happy. We also had a videographer - he was very non-intrusive - we forgot he was there. I do have one complaint though – the 1st DVD didn’t have good sound, but they were prompt in organising us a replacement, but the replacement given stops half way and cant play, so we again need to get another copy. The photographer was brilliant. His photos turned out amazing we ended up buying the DVD. 90% of his shots were great. We particularly liked his direction. As it gets a bit nerve wracking doing posed shots and having constant pictures taken. So we ended up having many pictures with different style poses which was great.

 

Photography:

 

We also used Vintage Vegas Weddings to do a 2hr strip photography package. Trey was very pleasant. Was on his phone quite a bit, not really chatting just checking messages . Was late but thats forgiven as he jumps from different wedding venues and this didn’t really cut into our photography time at all. He also delivered our pictures to our hotel a few days later.

We had about 500 or so pictures given to us, I would have to say that about 20% of those are quite good. I found his style too laid back. We were pretty much left to do our own thing which can be quite good for awhile to get those natural shots but with 500 or so pictures you get, same stuff – different background. I think he could have been more directional. His shots are very straight point and shoot, with close ups here and there. He doesn’t seem to use any angling for shots. Framing of shots were a bit disappointing, such as cutting out some background. I think his shots were a bit on the boring side really, not alot of imagination or direction. I am a bit disappointed considering the amount of photos, the variety of the pics weren’t as good as I thought they would be – There were some time wasting moment, as he would be getting locations separately – we drove to 3 different locations, us in the limo and he would drive. So we would be constantly waiting at different locations for him so he can go get his car, then park it, I just didn’t understand why he couldn’t get in the front of the limo. Ah well - I could also have been edgy due to it being such a long process.

 

For what we paid it was good, Trey was well priced. We did get some lovely pictures out of it. I can probably fix another 5-10% of the pictures with some digital enhancements, its just probably finding the time now. I wouldn’t highly recommend him, I just think hes ok

 

Reception:

 

Del Torro Restorante (Palazzo Hotel) – Italian food – we had 15 dining – and booked an area outside. It was surrounded by a water feature and had a view of Treasure Island – we were hoping to catch the show there at the front but unfortunately it was quite a windy evening and it was cancelled. Otherwise – I thought it was nice, the staff were really attentive and the food was good. We decided to go for al la carte rather than one of their Wedding Reception menus as we wanted more choice for our guests.

 

Hope this is of help to some of you. Please feel free to email if you have any questions.

 

All the best for your big day !!

[Christine]

post some pictures when you get them.

[RedDiamond]

Show us the photos when you get them.

[Inked1]

Thanks for the review!! It's nice to get some more vegas info on here.

[syl1115]

I can't wait to see the pictures!

[nicmicj]

Thanks for the review. I would love to see pictures and have been trying to decide if I want to hire a photographer to do a Las Vegas Strip photography session.

[DJaysEntertainment]

Great reviews! I hope you don't mind that I come to the defense of one of our "competitors", the Strip Photography...

 

Providing 500 pictures where 20% were "quite good" is VERY good in a 2-hour session. That's 100 nice shots in 2 hours, about 1 every minute.

 

It sounds like they provide what is called a "shoot and burn" meaning they shoot the pictures, maybe do a little adjusting, and then burn them on CD for you. That's cool, but many photographers will do "special" processing on a selection of your favorites (from 5 to 30 of them usually), and some will give alternate versions of many of your shots (ie. a color version and a b/w version).

 

Now, my non-political-correct side has to comment on a couple other things.... As for the other issues (being on the phone), that's really just unprofessional. It's 2 hours, other people can wait, or he could be on the phone while driving.

 

The one thing that really stood out is that you were disappointed with the "framing" (we call it "composition"). That's very surprising really... that in itself is the main reason you hire a pro photog. For their "eye".

 

As for scheduling, we do a lot of Strip Tours and we always work it out in advance on where we can go in a certain amount of time. That is usually 3 to 5 properties, but we also get more in-depth at the properties... there are more great shots that just in front of the signs, etc.

 

We also pretty much insist that we ride in the limo if we one is required (but we usually suggest to concentrate the photos in a certain part of the strip, then maybe 1 other location on top of that). It's WAY too hard to find each other at the new location! We usually just let our brides know that they'll be doing a bit of walking!

 

And a random-ish comment: We cannot believe that brides excuse "rushed" vendors... if a vendor has to rush between appointments (ie. Glamsquad) or cannot spend 2 hours with you without texting then we believe they need to make longer appointments (even if that means charging more!). The wedding day is NOT the time to rush a bride just so a vendor can make a little more money by squeezing in another appointment. That said, there's also a distinction between being efficient and quick, without "feeling" rushed.

 

Disclaimer: I am commenting ONLY on this SPECIFIC case. I do not know whether the "rushing" (Glamsquad) or the texting (Classic Vegas) are normal behaviors for these vendors.

 

Oh, is there an online gallery or a blog from your Strip Photo Tour? We blog most of our brides and all of them get an online gallery, I was just curious to see!

[RayofSunshyne]

Quote:

Providing 500 pictures where 20% were "quite good" is VERY good in a 2-hour session. That's 100 nice shots in 2 hours, about 1 every minute.

I do agree that this is good - But can not help but feel a bit disappointed with the lack of variety in my pictures. I didnt think Vintage Vegas was awful - but i'm not jumping up and saying that he was fantastic either. I just thought he could of gave more direction. I'm not to unhappy though - I did walk away with some great shots and had a great day. This is my own personal opinion so other people may be quite happy.

I'm happy to show pictures but I'm not very tech savvy i'm afraid and not sure how to do a "blog" or post my pictures. I currently have a load in an album on my picasso which ive been sending to friends and family - so any help in this area will be appreciated.

Cheers :-)

[DJaysEntertainment]

You can right-click on the picture in Picasso and then click on "Properties". Where it says "Address" just highlight and Copy (Control/C).

 

Then on this forum when you make a thread or a reply, you click on the little icon that looks like mountains with a sun and a window will pop up... paste the URL into the box and hit OK.

 

I would also be appreciative if you would send me the link to your album (you can send me a Private Message if you want), I'm really curious to see what they provided to you!

[michellepicksbrent]

Sounds like you had a fantastic wedding day! Congrats!

Would love to see some pictures!