I’ve never been one for following convention and while I’m not a delinquent of any sort, I cannot be classified as a rule-follower. When society dictates one thing, I’m almost always wondering if there is another option. The fact that I decided to actually get married threw my family for a sixer as they thought I’d stay happily single forever, but things do change, and thankfully I’m not opposed to change.
Las Vegas has been on my bucket list for as long as I can remember, but little did I know at that stage that it would be my wedding venue
. My fiancé, thrilled at the idea of me agreeing to walk down the aisle, gave me free reign as to when, where and how our nuptials would take place, and me, being me, decided that it would have to be fun, outrageous and mildly shocking. So I confirmed the dates with my other half, consulted flythomascook
for the most economical flight prices and flight availability to Las Vegas, and booked.
Did you know that there are over 50 wedding chapels in Las Vegas and almost all of them are on Las Vegas Boulevard? I certainly didn’t. I also didn’t know that there are an estimated 100,000 weddings that take place annually in this desert city. The variety of wedding themes on offer is astounding. As a Twilight fanatic I was more than tempted to choose this theme, but knowing how my fiancé felt about the cult following, I decided against it. Themes ranged from Elvis, to Camelot, to Gladiators, to Ancient Egypt. In the end I opted for a Harley themed wedding as I knew my fiancé would be thrilled to bits at the concept of riding off into the proverbial sunset on one of these mean, metal machines and leather jackets with skulls drawn at the back.
Accommodation was a little more tricky to decide upon – purely because those flying over for the wedding were wanting to stay in the same hotel, however their budgets differed significantly, so in the end I booked for the two of us, and instead sent the wedding party a list of preferred accommodation and left them to sort it out amongst themselves. In hindsight this was a mistake because the bigger hotel rooms tend to book up quickly, especially on weekends, and my wedding guests landed up being scattered across 3 hotels.
We decided to stay in Vegas for our honeymoon, where we have the world’s biggest attractions (albeit in miniature form) right here, all together in the same fantastic city. Plus we could spend time with our families during the day (visiting lake mead with his buddies while I took the girls to the Michael Jackson Cirque du Soleil show) and we could then spend time with each other when the sun set.
Do I have any regrets? Absolutely none. A relatively stress-free, economical way of planning a wedding and honeymoon all in one – and I can guarantee you that our wedding photographs are very different to all our friends!