When I was planning the wedding, I dreaded it and couldn't wait for it to be over. But now that it's over, I felt almost empty, like, darn, what am I gonna do with all my free time now! Haha. It was a great day because I was surrounded by many loved ones, and I became the wife of my love. Everything went smoothly with no major hiccups. But maybe it's the nature of my personality, I feel it wasn't as perfect as it could've been. There are things I wish I could've done differently. But overall, I enjoyed my big day.
Ceremony - Wynn - A+
Our coordinator was Jalan, and she was AWESOME. We chose the "Just the Basics" package, and had the "beginner floral upgrade" package, which included a bridal floral upgrade, asile runner, and some rose petals. We also purchased two small BM bouquets and two boutnieers for the fathers. These upgrades are very basic, so the final price was kept fairly low. During the whole process, we kept telling Jalan how we are on a tight budget. But Jalan never made us feel less important in any way. She was always very sweet and warm, and made us feel as special as if we were spending millions there. The ceremony was the part I didn't stress over at all, because I knew I was in good hands. My hubby's tux button fell off before the ceremoney, and they promptly fixed it for him. The only thing I wish was done differently was that an assistant came in to sprinkle the rose petals on the runner when guests were already seated. But maybe there was a wedding right before us in that chapel. Overall, I highly recommend the Wynn. And really, their price is comparable to other chapels, but they are perceived as higher-end than most other hotels in general.
Reception - Maggiano's - A
We picked the special occasion menu with martini bar and steak upgrade. We took two rooms, and in the end we were over the room minimum just a little bit, which was nice.
The best part of Maggiano's is Cassy. She really made the whole experience that much better. She was so sweet, and always answering my millions of questions on time and patiently. She was also flexible in menu creation and pricing. I brought in my own linens (tons of them) and menu cards and martini menu and napkins..etc, and I wrote complicated notes on how to set everything up. When I showed up, everything was exactly as I wanted, and the room looked so dreamy! At first I was worried Maggiano's might be too ugly looking as a wedding venue, but was I wrong! Trust me, with the right linen and lighting and floral, the rooms will look lovely!
On the day of, the staff were very polite and the service was great. Guests liked the food, especially the stuffed mushrooms. They also really enjoyed the martini bar. Everyone raved about the chocolate martinis (we had chocolate martini and white chocolate martini on the menu).
There were a few minor things I wish were done differently. We paid for the good liquor, but unless guest request them specifically, all drinks were made with standard liquor (i.e. Absolut instead of Grey Goose). Many of our guests didn't know, and ended up drinking cheaper liquor all night. There were also at least 15 people at the wedding that don't drink at all. Although San Pellegrino sparkling water was included, it was not displayed, and no one knew about it.
So I wish I remembered to tell guests about the premium liquor and sparkling water. I just feel I didn't get my money's worth at the bar. But overall Maggiano's is a great deal, and Cassy is really awesome! I was very iffy about hosting a wedding reception at a chain restaurant. But give it a chance, you will be surprised. =)
Florist - The Palette - A+
After bugging Pam many many times with phone calls and emails and changing my mind countless times, we ended up getting 9 centerpieces total. They were 15" cylinder with submerged orchids and floating candles. 5 cylinders had dyed light blue water with white orchids, and a white ribbon tied on the bottom. The other 4 had clear water with light blue orchids (sprayed on the tip) and baby blue ribbon tied on the bottom. They looked absolutely phenomenal! To be honest, I wasn't expecting too much, but they really blew me away! See pics in this site.
I also purchased a box of rose and asked Pam to create me a cake topper outta the roses. Again she did a wonderful job, and I saved myself ~$100 cuz cake toppers are so darn expensive! With the roses she didn't use up, she tore off the petals and sprinkled them on sign-in and cake tables, which worked out nicely. And it doesn't hurt that she is such a sweetheart to deal with. I wholeheartedly recommend her!
Cake - Cake Design Las Vegas - A
If you email them, make sure to follow up with a phone call the next day. But once I got a hold of Dawn everything went smoothly. I ordered a 3 tier cake and I designed it myself. I'm not very artistic so I wasn't too sure how it will turn out, but I was delighted once I saw the cake. It turned out very nicely. See picture in "non-pro pic" page. Dawn did charge me 10 dollars art fee for the card suit design on the middle tier.
I didn't taste any during reception. Maggiano's did save me a big piece, but by the time I ate it it was all dry already, so I can't speak for the taste, but I'm sure it was good. The only thing I regret is not ordering a bigger one. Each slice was so tiny to the point it looked bad on our part as if we were being too cheap, and we didn't even have other deserts. I'm still beating myself up over this =(
Elvis - Travis Allen - A
Travis was kept as a surprise for our guests, and it was a very nice surprise indeed. He sang 5 songs, most of them fast songs except one. We had our first dance to the slow song, "Can't help Falling in Love".
People kept telling me what a nice touch it was to have him there. He did get there almost 20 mins before our agreed time (because I think he had another show right after ours) so that kind of messed up my timeline a little bit. But in the end everything worked out nicely. He didn't contact us until Friday which made me worry a bit during the week, but once I got a hold of him it was great. Hubby said he is very chill and nice to talk to. He really can sing! People also liked the picture time. I noticed many guests are now using pictures with him as their Facebook profile pictures =p
DJ - All Night Long - A
Pretty standard DJ/MC service. We also got light show which was a nice touch. It transformed the dance floor, and kids loved it. Our DJ was nice and played the type of music I had indicated on the sheet they sent me. I think he is fairly new because it took him a while to get Travis hooked up with the music. But no biggie.
Maybe I was being too specific on the music preference sheet I sent them. Some of our Latino guests really wanted to dance to Salsa. So they requested that but the DJ said "er.. I dunno..". So maybe I should've indicated to him to have some kind of flexibility... Man! Some Salsa would've been really fun!
Linens:
linentablecloth.com - A
CVlinens.com - B
Efavormart.com - A
I'm soo happy I ordered my own linens. Cassy was very sweet to help me decide the right sizes to order. In the end I left all my linens at Maggiano's because I ran out of room in my car. Cassy said she can try to offload them to other brides if they happened to use the same color. So if your colors happen to be baby blue or silver, just ask her.
I ended up ordering my lines from 3 different vendors after getting samples from each one of them. I dressed up my tables to a T because buying them was so much cheaper, and I really wanted to make Maggiano's pretty since it usually looks pretty plain in the banquet rooms. I had white underlay, baby blue satin overlay, and silver satin table runners for all banquet tables and my sweetheart table. I also had white underlay, silver satin overlay, and baby blue satin runners for the sign-in and cake table. In the end I decided against chair ties. I only ordered two silver chair ies for me and hubby, rest of the guests didn't get any. But honestly, what I had was enough to make the room pretty.
linentablecloth.com has tons of promotions if you follow them on twitter so the prices are just unbelievable. I got almost 300 dollar worth of stuff for about 60, which included a steamer. So I even saved myself money by steaming my own gown. (It doesn't really matter though. By the time I came back from the strip tour everything's all dirty and wrinkled. I could've gone without steaming). The only reason I didn't give this site a A+ is because their runners are not very good quality.
CVlinens.com has decent price but never any promotion. I was horrified by the quality of their chair ties (HORRIBLE), but they do have the prettiest baby blue color. So I bit the bullet and bought the satin overlays from them. It was so dark at the reception no one cared about the loose threads. Did I say I love the color? =p
Efavormart.com is a very popular site with tons of stuff, but unfortunately being in CA I have to pay 9.75% sales tax. Otherwise they have an awesome selection, and their linen are of highest quality comparing to the other two. I bought runners and chair ties and also some ribbons from them to tie my Godivas.
To be continued
More reviews to come. Pls check back later