I got married in Las Vegas! To be fair, I live here. So, it’s easy to have a Vegas wedding when you live in Vegas. But, my family and friends are mostly in other states, so I kind of treated it like a destination wedding, because it was a destination for everyone else! Whether you live in Vegas, or are just coming from somewhere else to tie the knot in Vegas, I have some quick tips and things to consider for your Las Vegas Wedding planning! This is a long post. I’m warning you. But, it’s full of good info!
On the Strip vs. Downtown vs. The Burbs
When people think of Las Vegas, they think of the Strip. Many people don’t really consider anything off the strip, and don’t know what exists off the strip. To see the wedding venues I visited on and off the strip, check out my roundup post here.
When you’re planning a Las Vegas wedding, you want to consider a few things. How many people are coming, what type of accommodation is nearby and easy of travel. The airport here is very central and easy to get to. So, that starts things out nicely. But, you’ll want to consider if you want your attendees to rent a car, follow directions to somewhere, etc. Here are the pros and cons for each scenario:
| Venue Location | Pros | Cons |
The Strip | – Convenient – Many Options – Lots of food/entertainment – All-in Packages | – Need to be aware of events on the strip that may make your hotel crowded – Very tourist heavy (think families, drinkers) |
Downtown | – A little less pricey – Affordable hotels – Artsy/Vintage Aesthetic – Unique Venues – Cool small chapels – like being married by Elvis! | – Need to check out the surroundings (neighborhood safety) – Parking can be a challenge – depending on the location, may have to pay |
The Burbs (Off the Strip) | – Doesn’t feel like you’re in Vegas – LOTS of options – Variety of price ranges – Both traditional and non-traditional options | – Attendees will have to drive/navigate – Some locations can be 30-60 min from airport – Need to check for available nearby accommodations |
The Strip
I got married on the strip. Since ALL of my attendees (all 12 of them) were coming from out of town, and most flying, I thought the easiest thing would be to have a wedding ceremony at a casino wedding chapel and then a reception at a nearby restaurant. This just seemed the easiest for all involved. I also enjoyed the fact that I could select a package and everything is in one place. Even though I like planning parties (you know a wedding is a giant party!), it was still easier for me to focus on the makeup and hair and such the day of, because the hotel chapel took care of everything else. Like seriously, it was so easy. More on that in this post.
Downtown
I actually work downtown. There are some seriously cool shops, bars, and venues downtown and then two streets over is an abandoned building full of homeless people and trash. The city is really working on revitalizing that area, but it’s a work in progress. So, I suggest just physically going to your downtown location and looking at the surroundings, also keeping in mind it will most likely be dark by the time it’s all over. But, there are some super cool, artsy vibes down there and all of the old school little wedding chapels. When my dad got remarried, they had their ceremony in one of the old downtown chapels and it was super fun!
The Burbs
I visited many off strip venues when I was looking for a wedding venue. Many are very beautiful. One of my favorites was so cool, all-inclusive and not expensive. But, it was 45 min from my house, which is 15 min from the airport. So, I knew my guests would have to rent cars and drive an hour. I just wasn’t into that idea. Especially because my husband and I are in our 30s/40s and a lot of our guests were that age or older. So, we weren’t about to have our parents driving all over town. But, I do have a roundup of the beautiful venues I visited and their various benefits in this post.
Vegas Wedding Food Tips
Vegas is FULL of amazing food. Seriously, it’s one of the reasons we moved here, because we like to go out and eat. But, in terms of setting up a wedding reception, there is a lot of good food. I checked restaurants for wedding meals because I didn’t do the typical reception with a banquet hall. I only had 12 guests, so I wanted to spend that budget on eating and some other little details.
But, there are many hotels that offer full wedding receptions with banquets. So, that option is still here for you. A cool thing that I saw often was that there were a ton of options for wedding receptions inside strip hotel restaurants. (Which is what I ended up doing). I saw one for Border Grill in Mandalay Bay that had options for seated dinner, or a taco buffet, you could bring decorations, margaritas. It was super cool. Budget-wise, I ended up going another direction.
We had dinner at Buca di Beppo. I know what you’re thinking, not too formal. But, they gave us a semi-private room, the menu was amazing, and the service was awesome! The amount of food we got for the cost was awesome! More on that in this post that breaks down my wedding for under $5000.
I would say the only drawback was that since I got married at Mandalay Bay, we did have to drive over to Excalibur and do a little walk through the casino to get to the restaurant. But, I will tell you, I’ve never felt so much like a celebrity. Everyone said congrats on my way through! So that was fun.
So, my point. There are a bunch of food options. You can really dig in by looking for events pages on restaurant websites, or checking out the wedding packages at various hotels. They typically have a spot describing reception options.
Vegas Wedding Cake Tips
I would literally suggest Freed’s Bakery and only Freed’s Bakery. To be fair, it’s the only wedding cake I had sampled. But, there are cake options at casinos that you can order through the chapels, but they are a little pricey. If it’s in your budget and easier to do that, then go for it, because they are beautiful! Since I was bride-ing on a budget, I was looking for alternatives.
Freed’s Bakery has a few locations around Vegas and they have a sample cake tasting you can order for $25. They give you their six most popular flavors and if you order a cake from them, they apply that $25 towards your cake total. So, no money lost, unless you go somewhere else.
When I am telling you their cake is delicious, I don’t know if I can even say it strong enough. SO GOOD. We literally liked every flavor. Their icing is a buttercream. It looks beautiful and doesn’t taste like biting into fondant. The overwhelming comment I got the day after the wedding from everyone was that they all loved the cake. Freed’s has some beautiful designs and options for sizing and you can’t beat the price.
Also, don’t let me forget to mention, they deliver. So, they brought my cake the afternoon before my wedding to the restaurant on the strip! Talk about convenient! Just make sure you let the restaurant know it’s coming!
Las Vegas Wedding Photos
Just a quick note on photos. If you do get married at a Vegas Casino on the strip, almost all of them are partnered with Cashman Photo. This means there are certain parts of the ceremony that you can not bring your own photographer. They exclusively shoot your ceremony photos. Most packages in the casino come with some free prints and options for additional photography.
Our package came with six free prints and a half an hour of photography after the ceremony. That was perfect for me because I am not, nor have I ever wanted to be, a model. So the thought of a photoshoot was awkward.
I will say, they are amazing!! Our photographer was so nice, so funny and really got some amazing photos of us without making it feel weird! As part of the package, we booked an appointment the next day to view the photos. As you know, wedding photography is not cheap. But, since we didn’t register anywhere, we mostly received money and used that money to purchase our photos! There are a bunch of package options for photography, but we went with buying the complete digital photos. So, literally everything. They show you a nice little slideshow and you get to preview everything.
It included photos of me in the dressing room before the wedding, with my family, during the ceremony, with our guests (since there weren’t many, we had time for all of them!) and with me and my husband afterwards. You can see some of the shots above.
Overall, I was originally worried about this being the only option, but I 100% do not regret using Cashman and buying these photos! I seriously suggest you invest in them! I look at them all the time. 😊
Little Details
There are some little details that can help in planning your Vegas wedding. One of those details is a wedding website. This was a big help for my attendees because it housed all the information for the wedding in one place. It had location of the hotel chapel, I could add pictures for reference, the hotel gave me a promo code for hotel rooms, so I had that on there, reception details, and more.
There are so many options for wedding websites, a lot of them free. I purchased my wedding invitations on Minted.com. You can see what I got in this post here. Since I knew I wanted those wedding invites, I looked on their website for a wedding website I could make. To my surprise, they have free wedding websites and you can get a promo code for the invites! So, it was perfect for me. You can see a video on this post about how to set it up on Minted.com.
Another little detail to consider is other activities while people are in town. There’s so much to do in Las Vegas, you could plan additional activities like a show, or a trip to a cool bar, whatever you like! After our wedding, we met some of the guests down at the hotel bar in the casino and it was a fun little after touch. Also, the night before our wedding, my sister set up a girl’s dinner at a fun venue called Flights for drinks and apps. (SO FUN). So, there are a bunch of fun things you can do before and after!
A final suggestion would be to plan some fun newlywed relaxation time. The day after our wedding my husband and I got massages at the hotel spa. It was a great way to wind down from all the craziness!
Wrap Up
There are a ton of things to consider when planning a wedding. Especially, if you are planning one in a diverse town like Las Vegas. I hope this helped give you some ideas that you can use when looking into options for your own Las Vegas wedding! If you have any questions that I may not have answered, feel free to put them in the comments below! For more inspiration, check out my Las Vegas Wedding Pinterest Board! I’m happy to help! Happy Wedding Planning!
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