Real Bride: Carly
Carly and Ian had a fabulous, destination wedding in Las Vegas, Nevada! This wedding just looks like so much fun, you can't help but wish you had been a part of it! Carly rocked an amazing Etsy wedding dress for her awesome rooftop Vegas wedding!
Your name: Carly
Partner’s name: Ian
Wedding date: 09/09/2015
City, State: We married in Las Vegas, Nevada but are from London, UK
Tell us more about you!
How long have you been together? 10 years at the time of wedding
How did he propose? (Or how did you propose!) We already had a trip to California booked and were looking for something to do as part of our trip as we had been to California a couple of times before, so we decided to go back to Las Vegas as we had loved our previous visit. Then I suggested we elope whilst we were there, and the rest is history. I did get an actual proposal a month or so later but by that point we had already booked a lot of our trip! But I got a ring and an engagement, even if we did keep it secret.
What was your favorite part of the wedding? I don’t think I have a particular favourite part as the day was so random, fun and full of things we just love to do, but I do remember thinking during our ceremony that it was so much better than I expected. Our ceremony was a basic chapel service and I thought it might be a bit tacky and short, but actually it was really lovely and I didn’t end up an emotional wreck like I would've done in front of everyone if we had a big wedding back home!
What went wrong with your wedding? Nothing that wasn’t resolved easily or that ultimately didn't matter. Silly things like our photographer being pulled over by the police on the way to meeting us so he was a little late, and the stereo in our limo not working, but in the grand scheme of things we are so easy-going that nothing really mattered. We were married and we had an awesome day! That was all I was concerned about.
Did you find any tricks to save you money? Not inviting anyone! We spent some money on the people that came with us (we had 4 friends come out to Vegas) like bridesmaid dresses and a limo to transport us all around, but eloping was so much cheaper than holding a wedding at home. We probably spent less than £8,000 ($10,000) for 6 of us to have a week in Vegas including everything for the wedding. For bachelor party, wedding and honeymoon all in one I think that was a bargain.
We also didn’t do anything for our ceremony other than what was included in the package so all flowers, service etc. was included in one small price. By keeping it simple we didn’t spend money on the things we deemed unimportant and saved money for the things we really wanted.
If you could go back and redo it, would you change anything; and if so, what would you change? I would have a bigger bachelorette party. My maids had only just landed in Vegas and were jet-lagged (I wasn’t because we only flew in from California and had acclimated already) so they weren’t really in the party mood. We had a great girly day out but by the time it got late we were crashing badly!
Do you have any advice for new brides? I would always question who
are you getting married for? If you can only ever see yourself being married in a ceremony with 100+ people and doing the whole big white wedding thing, then do what feels right but I see so many brides overwhelmed by wedding planning when they should be feeling the love for their marriage. It is one day--things will go wrong and if your great aunt’s second cousin doesn’t like your food choices, your marriage will be okay! And if you want to pack it all in and elope, then find some reliable supplies and advice from other brides. Be adventurous, those who love you will understand and those who don’t understand don’t matter.
Did you over-plan or under-plan, or was it just right? I always over-plan everything. There is a reason I have a blog about it! I am the over-planning queen but I knew that if we went abroad to get married that would stop me worrying so much because I had to put my trust in people I had never met. It was a relief to be able to hand it over, in some ways. I probably didn’t plan enough non-wedding activities to be honest. Whilst we only had 4 people with us, I did still feel responsible for entertaining them, but luckily for me lounging by a pool and drinking champagne in a jacuzzi at 2 am seemed to be okay for them!
Did any of your vendors knock your socks off? The chapel did but mainly because I had low expectations of them! I expected to feel a bit more like a conveyor belt bride but actually they were super lovely and I never felt rushed through the ceremony.
Our photographer was awesome, but he was exactly what I was looking for and we had a lot of conversations beforehand so we knew what we were doing with him. So yes, he was great but I spent a long time choosing! I am so glad we did spend a long time choosing because we ended up with photos we love and they were great value.
Did any of your vendors disappoint? The only thing I felt a bit flat with on the day was our chapel photographer. It was part of our package and we were not allowed to take our own photos during the ceremony (which wasn’t really an issue) but that was the only part where I did feel like he had done it a million times before. He clearly had set poses that he did with everyone and they are so different in style to our other photos they could be someone else's wedding. They have zero personality and I don’t ever look at them. That being said, we could have paid to have better photography and we didn’t for the ceremony. The photographer money went toward having our own photos done elsewhere, and that was a much better use of our budget.
What was one (or more!) special element in your wedding that isn’t in most? The sheer volume of food we ate! Most brides at traditional weddings say to me, “oh I didn't get to eat anything because everyone
wanted me to do things all the time,” but we had the opposite. We got up and had breakfast, got married, had lunch in a diner, got in our limo, drank champagne (and the husband had beef jerky, his favorite!) whilst having our photos done and then went for dinner at Joe’s Steak and Seafood in Caesar's Palace. Literally the most food and drink I have consumed in one day! And the best food I ever ate. Oysters, steak, champagne, burgers, milkshakes. My husband is a foodie so he was in charge of food and drink for the day, but he did an excellent job! No hungry bridal party here!
What do you wish you’d spent more on (whether you were able to or not)? More photography--we just didn’t know what to expect so we only booked 3 hours for our strip and downtown tour. I would have loved to go to the desert for sunset or similar with a photographer but we thought it would be too much and we have to save something for the 5-year anniversary trip right? Perhaps on my bridesmaids outfits. I got them bridesmaids dresses secondhand and altered them myself (I’m a pretty nifty with a sewing needle) but I let them choose everything else themselves (I did make them some hair accessories to match mine) so perhaps if I had more in the budget or had thought about it more I would've taken them for fittings and bought new, but they live far away and going to a bridal store fills me with dread anyway!
Where do you feel like you could have saved money or where did you overspend? We could have hired a suite for our stay but when the normal hotel rooms are so good and great value it seemed like a waste to spend so much money. Maybe next time….
How many guests did you invite vs how many RSVP’ed vs how many actually came? we invited 4 and 4 came! It was touch and go with 1 of my bridesmaids as she didn’t book her flights till really late but once I had fitted her dress for her she wasn’t backing out!
Wedding Venue: In the gazebo on the roof in Vegas
Photographer: Photography by Paul Cichocki
Dress Designer: BoutiqueDeLAfrique Etsy Shop
Hair & Makeup Stylist: Amelia C & Co
