Vegas Wedding

[Black_Swan]

Yeah I enjoy this conversation because it is useful and gives me something to think about. I got a bit twisted up over some of the initial judgements.

[dspapo]

@Black_Swan

@dspapo

I got married in Vegas not long ago. I highly recommend it.

Mine was a destination wedding, opposed to eloping, though. So, we had about 50 guests show up, which included about 10 uninvited guests / crashers. Take that for whatever it’s worth.

The whole notion of getting black out drunk and waking up married is impossible since you have to go get a license ahead of time, and the office is only open standard government hours. There’s no real background check or blood test, like some states do, which makes it an easy process.

We got married on the strip and then had our reception off the strip in a suite, which was a blast.

Happy to answer any questions.

What are your thoughts on having gotten married in Vegas after the fact?

Anything you wish you’d known going into it logistically or otherwise?

Things to do differently? Headaches?

What were the best parts, where did you choose to get married on the strip and why (if you don’t mind)?

I loved getting married in Vegas. There’s not much I would have changed.

The ceremony was poolside at the Flamingo and the reception was at the Palms in the Kingpin suite (we like bowling).

Headaches:

The Palms was a bit weird. They advertise themselves as the party hotel, but their contract seemed to make a big deal about limits on the number of people and no outside drinks. Not a big deal to get around, though.

My folks were a bit thrown off since it wasn’t a traditional church + ballroom wedding.

We stayed at the Palms, but some people decided to stay elsewhere. Meeting up with them was infrequent and a bit of a hassle unless we had specific plans.

Best Parts:

The best part was that my friends all came out early and/or stayed a couple days after. So, the wedding activities were over several days, opposed to a day or two. I have some friends who are a bit hard up for money, so the travel was tough for them, but they still had fun.

edit: Also, we were there for Halloween. We went to Fremont street at night, which was a blast!

[bchad]

I think that it would be a good idea to tell your parents that you are thinking of doing this. Some parents feel they ought to have a say in how the wedding is done. You can tell them that you’ve decided to do it this way, but at least they’ve been informed before you do it and (hopefully) have some time to get used to that (if they care at all; some don’t, though parents of brides are likely to care more).

Otherwise you risk them feeling that you “stole” that opportunity from them, or worse blaming your spouse for the same. They still might not like it if you advise them beforehand, but they’re likely to respect you more for doing it.

So - just keep the parents in the loop. Presumably they know the baby is there by now, so the wedding will be less of a surprise to them than the baby was.

I suspect most parents will be ok with an elopement, as long as they get to participate in some kind of reception/celebration afterwards. Often times the big advantage of eloping is to keep the costs of the party down, and to make it easier to keep the guest list short.

[itera]

^ I agree with all this.

[geo]

@Black_Swan

@Matt_Likes_Analysis

i truly think that eloping is a much more romantic and memorable experience that makes a couple stronger. my wife and i married on a gorgeous beach and ate a multi-course dinner with our very own Hawaiian man servant at our beck and call. many years later, it is still one of my most treasured moments. i can’t imagine going to a golf course with your family, dancing to YMCA and watching your little cousin yack up a steak is someone’s most treasured memory.

THIS. This is food for thought. We may trade in LV for another location after this description. In my head I’ve been batting around Florence and Nantucket lately.

Florence, Italy? As in Firenze? We really wanted to get married in Europe, Bruges and Ghent were our first ideas, though we also considered Florence. Just places we’ve enjoyed. Word of caution: getting married in these places is insanely complex. You need to nail a notice to the front door of the civic hall for a few weeks, then town council does something, etc., etc. At the end of the day this was an enormous hassle and we ended up getting married in Canada.

[Black_Swan]

Yeah but apparently Italy is like the vegas of Europe in terms

of ease of marriage.

[Matt_Likes_Analysis]

@bchad

I think that it would be a good idea to tell your parents that you are thinking of doing this. Some parents feel they ought to have a say in how the wedding is done. You can tell them that you’ve decided to do it this way, but at least they’ve been informed before you do it and (hopefully) have some time to get used to that (if they care at all; some don’t, though parents of brides are likely to care more).

Otherwise you risk them feeling that you “stole” that opportunity from them, or worse blaming your spouse for the same. They still might not like it if you advise them beforehand, but they’re likely to respect you more for doing it.

So - just keep the parents in the loop. Presumably they know the baby is there by now, so the wedding will be less of a surprise to them than the baby was.

I suspect most parents will be ok with an elopement, as long as they get to participate in some kind of reception/celebration afterwards. Often times the big advantage of eloping is to keep the costs of the party down, and to make it easier to keep the guest list short.

i didn’t really consider my parents to be honest. if they can’t keep their marriage together, which started in a church, likely because they wanted a traditional wedding for their parents, they have no say in when and where my wedding takes place. i agree with your “parents have a say” argument if this was the 18th century when religion and family values actually mattered to people. seeing as my parents obviously saw little value in their churchy wedding, i don’t see why they’d see any value in me having a churchy wedding, despite them saying they would. actions speak louder than words as always.

we did have a small receptiony dinner deal after our trip to celebrate the event to appease interested parties.

a wedding isn’t about anybody but the two who make the vows. parents need to suck it up.

[system]

@Matt_Likes_Analysis

when family values actually mattered to people.

Easy , Tiger.

[Greenman72]

@Matt_Likes_Analysis

my parents obviously saw little value in their churchy wedding, i don’t see why they’d see any value in me having a churchy wedding, despite them saying they would. actions speak louder than words as always.

+1.

My first wedding was in a church. We were divorced within two years.

My second wedding was outdoors by a river. Still going strong almost 7 years and two kids later.

There were some people who were vocal about how “you have to have it in a church for God to bless the wedding”. My response? “Noted.”

[emichan]

Two cents from someone caught up in frenzy of weddings (not mine)-

If you want a destination wedding for just the two of you, great. But don’t have a destination wedding and invite a bunch of guests and be surprised if no one shows up.

I am seriouly appalled by the level of greed and selfishness that I see during wedding seasons. Lost a friendship because of a bride, just couldn’t stand her as I witnessed her wedding mania. Actually I haven’t told her this yet and I am still scheduled to go to the wedding (bridesmaid) and I am getting a stomachache just thinking about it.

Family values also still exist. Someone once told me that the distance between a spouse and a stranger is only as thick as a piece of paper. it was in context of appalling in-laws (ok it’s a long story) but the point is family is still important to some cultures.

[inkybinky]

To address the original question point of the thread, the Mrs. and will have our tenth anniversary this year. We were vacationing in Vegas prior to the wedding and, because my wife was strongly opposed to a large wedding, wanted to check it out.

Vegas weddings can be “Little White Chapel” affairs or quite grandious. While there, we got info from Paris, Bellagio, and the Venetian. Each of those “classier” joints had wedding packages that, if memory serves, started right around $10k-$12k for a small ceremony. But, of course, they went up to pretty large amounts. From what I gathered, you can actually have a nice, small Vegas wedding that isn’t necessarily tacky.

We wound up getting married in Hawaii with only immediate family attending. It was quite nice for everyone involved. I would suggest looking into that as a Vegas wedding, if you’re looking to avoid something tacky, can be more expensive than a small destination wedding held someplace like the US Virgin Islands or the like.

[dspapo]

@bchad

I think that it would be a good idea to tell your parents that you are thinking of doing this. Some parents feel they ought to have a say in how the wedding is done. You can tell them that you’ve decided to do it this way, but at least they’ve been informed before you do it and (hopefully) have some time to get used to that (if they care at all; some don’t, though parents of brides are likely to care more).

Otherwise you risk them feeling that you “stole” that opportunity from them, or worse blaming your spouse for the same. They still might not like it if you advise them beforehand, but they’re likely to respect you more for doing it.

So - just keep the parents in the loop. Presumably they know the baby is there by now, so the wedding will be less of a surprise to them than the baby was.

I suspect most parents will be ok with an elopement, as long as they get to participate in some kind of reception/celebration afterwards. Often times the big advantage of eloping is to keep the costs of the party down, and to make it easier to keep the guest list short.

All my siblings were married in churches, so telling my folks that we were headed to Vegas came as a bit of a shock. I gave them plenty of a heads up, so it was fine. Her folks are a lot less traditional than mine, so it was a non-issue. The bigger issue on her side was that most of her family had never been on a plane before and were scared of flying.

[diya.soni518]

Quick, sinful and flashy! There’s no better way to start a lifelong union, right?