Change of Plans.........

So we narrowed down the Casino choice to Mandalay Bay, beautiful, amazing chairs, it is modern and perfect. All I had to do was reserve the date.........NO PROBLEM! Everything is ready right? Wrong!

Jim spent a manual labor filled week in Hawaii, on the island of Oahu. He was there working with Matt and a couple of other guys installing a bunch of bubble walls, bar, and VIP acrylic tables in a club called Oceans 808. He'd spend his days/nights working with acrylic, and then spending time at the beach (I think he is still cleaning sand out of his ears :) ) and he fell in love with the place. The owners of the club said that we can have the reception there, and the beach house that they stayed in has like 8 bedrooms, so we are thinking about renting out the house and having everyone stay there and splitting the cost instead of everyone renting hotel rooms, plus it's ON the beach, can we say perfect?? I will post some of the pictures that he took soon, the place is gorgeous, I haven't been there yet, but I'm ready to move there :).

So we are postponing the wedding ONE year, and the new date is January 27, 2010 the location is TBD for right now. We are heading to Hawaii in January to price out getting married on the beach there, if that is a no go, we will get married in Arizona, and head to a Hawaiian filled Honeymoon with the kids :). Rest assured, the details will be provided here. I am also going to put together a wedding website after the holidays.

I am not sad, I am not disappointed, in fact I am excited. I am starting the whole wedding planning process all over, and I am excited. While I would have been happy getting married in Las Vegas, I think we'd have looked back and felt that we had settled on something less than what we wanted.

Why wait you ask? Hell, we've been together for almost 6 years.........one more isn't going to change things......especially since we are planning to spend the rest of our lives together anyways. I'm not going anywhere, and neither is Jim........I can wait another year to change my last name ;).

We are planning on hosting an Engagement Party, probably the 1st or 2nd week of February, we will have a better idea of what the final plan is going to be then, as well as a couple of amazing tans :). I will send out the invitations as soon as I'm sure of the exact date.

I have a whole year to plan the wedding of a lifetime, and a lifetime to be married to the man of my dreams.

Steph

the next three....

So back to the Pro's and Con's....


The Luxor
Pros-
The wedding packages are reasonably price
Almost all of them contain the specifics I am looking for
It's shaped like a Pyramid :)

Cons-
I don't like the chapel or the chairs
The chairs are HIDEOUS....

The Mirage
Pros-
NONE

Cons-
I'm not sure how this casino ended up on my list, I don't remember what it was about it that I liked.

Planet Hollywood
Pros-
All of the wedding packages are named after movies (okay so not really a PRO, but a cute fact)
The packages all are reasonably priced
They all come with 7 days of webcasting the ceremony

Cons-
The webcasting quality isn't that great
There are no pictures of the chapel on the website, and the view in the webcasting doesn't show much
The female minister irritates me

So there are the next three, all thats left is Circus Circus and Mandalay Bay. We should have a location by the end of the week. Yay!


Steph

And the search begins....

So like I mentioned before, I have 8 casinos that I'm checking out wedding packages at, they are in no particular order:

The Stratopshere
The Monte Carlo
The Luxor
Circus Circus
The Mirage
Planet Hollywood
Hard Rock Hotel
Mandalay Bay

So what I am going to do is list out the Pros and Cons as I get through them.....

The Stratosphere
Pros-
I'd get married on the 103rd floor with a view over most of Las Vegas.
The photography and DVD of the ceremony are included with the package price
The wedding cake and champagne toast are included in the package price

Cons-
I don't like the pictures of the chairs in the chapel or the chapel itself
I have a limit of 25 guests including the wedding party, or there is an additional fee
Did I mention I don't like the chairs???

The Hard Rock Hotel
Pros-
I LOVE the Rock n' Roll wedding theme
They have a whole brochure of chairs in various colors to choose from
The wedding coordinator I spoke with was a LOT of fun to talk to on the phone.
The guest list limit is 100

Cons-
Almost nothing is included in the package price
The package prices are EXPENSIVE, like seriously EXPENSIVE
I have to hire a photographer, videographer, and officiant

The Monte Carlo
Pros-
Reasonably priced
The photography and DVD is included in the package price
The guest list is a limit of 100

Cons-
I really don't like the chapel or the chairs (the chairs are a big deal for me, don't ask, I don't know why)
The wedding coordinator I spoke with was kind of rude, and short to answer questions
Their reception brochure pricing is misleading

That is all I have for today, hopefully I will get through a few more tomorrow.......I'd really like to get through the list this week.

Until next time,

Stephanie

Wedding Blog vs. Wedding Website?

So here's my dilemma, do I want a Wedding Blog or a Wedding Website, or both? I like this whole Blog idea, the ability to share the details as they become available is really appealing to me, especially since the whole thing has kind of changed, and changed, and just when we thought we had it all nailed down, it changes again :). I guess the best way to explain this would be to give some background about the whole wedding planning process.....


First we were going to get married in February 2009, at some location in the Phoenix Metro Area, I spent several hours a day for several weeks trying to find the perfect place that would fit our guest list as well as our budget.....except we didn't really have a budget, I don't know how to come up with a freaking wedding budget. But I did know that this was VERY exhausting, as well as stressful, especially since everything was going to cost several thousand dollars each. I was losing my mind. For as much as Jim loves me (and believe me, he does, especially after he put up with this particular time frame) he wasn't thrilled with the whole thing. Don't get me wrong, he wants to get married, he just didn't want the whole several thousand dollar ordeal.


So, we started talking and we really liked the whole backyard BBQ idea, so switching gears and dates, now we were planning to get married in March 2009, I spend several hours a night, for about a week looking at vacation rental homes in various parts of Arizona. I found this beautiful cabin in Payson, and was in love. We made an appointment for the following weekend to check it out, and it was PERFECT, except it was also for sale, go figure. Then we were right back at square one, and time was running out.


The thing for me was that I wanted to get married on our anniversary, but it fell on a Tuesday and in January. But it seemed that with all the "roadblocks" in the way for the other dates, we finally decided that our anniversary was the perfect date for us to get married, and that Las Vegas was the best option. So I spent about two hours on the computer looking at hotels (3 to be exact) and decided on the Stratosphere. So the date is set, the location is set.


Until now, I spent several hours online last night, and found about 7 other casinos that I wouldn't mind getting married at, in fact it's going to be a hard decision for me to make. I'm going to have to break out the Pro's and Con's list, and enlist the help of my Maid of Honor......rest assured the date isn't going to change, just the location might.


Now back to my original dilemma, which is better a wedding blog where I can keep everyone updated on the whole planning process, or the wedding website, where I can just put the finalized information in, and a little bit about how we met?


Who am I kidding, I'm going to have both........I'll let you know when the website is done :).


-Steph