How to get married... quickly!

[GingerZebra 16]

@hplusj could I hear a bit more about your wedding? I was also surprised when you said Vegas, but actually if it can be not 'Vegas-y' It's actually a really plausible thing for us to think about doing. You mentioned using a company ? 

[Lil bear 4,519]

On 4/4/2025 at 5:31 AM, Nywoek said:

Just wanted to say I love all your replies! I did not mean to abandon this thread. XD

Since we are looking at us hopefully arriving in the summer, we will need to get married by fall.. probably closer to arrival than the deadline.

Yesterday we talked about a Vegas wedding. I just want us to wear something nice and get some photos with my kiddos. We can plan a big party for everyone later, in a few years or so. 😃

Nothing really constructive to add to the conversation except that next Tuesday is our 49th anniversary .. while i do remember all of the wedding day, there have been many many many way more significant days in our lives since that day. Get married … then throw all this energy into living !! 

[TBoneTX 47,491]

47 minutes ago, Lil bear said:

Nothing really constructive to add to the conversation

Your addition warrants enshrinement in the pantheon of All-Time Greatest VJ Posts, LB ma'am.

How beautiful and enviable.

[hplusj 571]

On 4/8/2025 at 7:33 PM, GingerZebra said:

@hplusj could I hear a bit more about your wedding? I was also surprised when you said Vegas, but actually if it can be not 'Vegas-y' It's actually a really plausible thing for us to think about doing. You mentioned using a company ? 

Oh my gosh, so sorry I missed this!  

 

We actually explored a couple microwedding companies in Vegas, trying to remember their names (edit: Elopement Las Vegas and Cactus Collective, I looked them up).  They essentially work with popular venues including the strip hotels and fill in last minute time windows.  So if you're not strict on the day of the week or time, you can get a gorgeous albeit brief ceremony somewhere like Bellagio.  We wanted to livestream so the time was very important to us. 

 

Both companies were awesome and had a lot of great ideas, including these beautiful desert weddings.  They provide all the add-ons like a live musician, a little cake, and connections to veteran photographers and videographers in the area to fill out a package for you.  I would say on the more economical end you can probably get a package for around 1k, and that includes officiant/filing fees (though you have to get your own license downtown: Vegas charges $102 for that).  

 

Ultimately Jon and I were presented with a venue called GreenGale Farms by one of the companies.  They're a farm/animal sanctuary in north Vegas with an olive grove I just fell in love with.  Jon and I wanted to get married in nature so it seemed like kismet.  When the company who worked with GGF said they couldn't get the date or time we wanted so far in advance (remember we were shopping after our NOA2 received in March, and this was for an October wedding), we reached out to the coordinator at the farm; turned out that we could skip the middleman because they would be able to work with us directly.  This is why the companies are good for plans within 2-3 months.  Anything longer, reach out to the venue.

 

The major vendors we used were:

• GreenGale Farms, who provided the venue, coordinator, officiant (who was AMAZING even in meeting him moments before the wedding because he received notes from us through GGF), as well as photography as part of our package.  
• Taylor Made Photography (Heather Taylor), who actually knew GGF and worked out a deal to be our assigned photographer, and we hired her for another hour session later in the evening before our little reception dinner
• Atomic Style Lounge, for hairstyling (we opted out of makeup and did our own)
• LoveStream, who produced a three-camera livestream and chat for our family and friends who wanted to tune in; my maid of honor's plus one thankfully was there as a point of contact for setup and camera work so the wedding party could focus on the wedding. 
• Freed's Bakery, who made and delivered our cake direct to the restaurant where we had dinner
• Renta-Dress and Tux, where we picked up Jon's rental the day before the wedding because it was literally three blocks from the marriage license bureau. They also steamed my skirt for me and made it flawless

We stayed at Park MGM and our mothers were next door at NYNY.  My maid of honor was rather cheap and insisted on staying at Excalibur which is on the other side of NYNY, bless her heart.  

 

All expenses related to the wedding, including our airfare and hotel stay, came to just around 10k.  As mentioned before I probably would've skipped the LoveStream service if I knew that interest would be so low.  Even still, we're pretty proud of keeping the budget at about a third of the national average.  The wedding industry is insanely brutal on pocketbooks. 

 

Thank you again for asking!  Since someone mentioned wearing comfy shoes, I'm going to attach Jon's favorite pic from our big day.  I love those shoes lol!

(By the way, I edited all of our photos myself--not because our photographer didn't, but I've been an amateur photo editor for a while and have a certain aesthetic I enjoy so I did more )

 

Edited June 20 by hplusj

[GingerZebra 16]

On 6/20/2025 at 7:21 AM, hplusj said:

Oh my gosh, so sorry I missed this!  

 

We actually explored a couple microwedding companies in Vegas, trying to remember their names (edit: Elopement Las Vegas and Cactus Collective, I looked them up).  They essentially work with popular venues including the strip hotels and fill in last minute time windows.  So if you're not strict on the day of the week or time, you can get a gorgeous albeit brief ceremony somewhere like Bellagio.  We wanted to livestream so the time was very important to us. 

 

Both companies were awesome and had a lot of great ideas, including these beautiful desert weddings.  They provide all the add-ons like a live musician, a little cake, and connections to veteran photographers and videographers in the area to fill out a package for you.  I would say on the more economical end you can probably get a package for around 1k, and that includes officiant/filing fees (though you have to get your own license downtown: Vegas charges $102 for that).  

 

Ultimately Jon and I were presented with a venue called GreenGale Farms by one of the companies.  They're a farm/animal sanctuary in north Vegas with an olive grove I just fell in love with.  Jon and I wanted to get married in nature so it seemed like kismet.  When the company who worked with GGF said they couldn't get the date or time we wanted so far in advance (remember we were shopping after our NOA2 received in March, and this was for an October wedding), we reached out to the coordinator at the farm; turned out that we could skip the middleman because they would be able to work with us directly.  This is why the companies are good for plans within 2-3 months.  Anything longer, reach out to the venue.

 

The major vendors we used were:

• GreenGale Farms, who provided the venue, coordinator, officiant (who was AMAZING even in meeting him moments before the wedding because he received notes from us through GGF), as well as photography as part of our package.  
• Taylor Made Photography (Heather Taylor), who actually knew GGF and worked out a deal to be our assigned photographer, and we hired her for another hour session later in the evening before our little reception dinner
• Atomic Style Lounge, for hairstyling (we opted out of makeup and did our own)
• LoveStream, who produced a three-camera livestream and chat for our family and friends who wanted to tune in; my maid of honor's plus one thankfully was there as a point of contact for setup and camera work so the wedding party could focus on the wedding. 
• Freed's Bakery, who made and delivered our cake direct to the restaurant where we had dinner
• Renta-Dress and Tux, where we picked up Jon's rental the day before the wedding because it was literally three blocks from the marriage license bureau. They also steamed my skirt for me and made it flawless

We stayed at Park MGM and our mothers were next door at NYNY.  My maid of honor was rather cheap and insisted on staying at Excalibur which is on the other side of NYNY, bless her heart.  

 

All expenses related to the wedding, including our airfare and hotel stay, came to just around 10k.  As mentioned before I probably would've skipped the LoveStream service if I knew that interest would be so low.  Even still, we're pretty proud of keeping the budget at about a third of the national average.  The wedding industry is insanely brutal on pocketbooks. 

 

Thank you again for asking!  Since someone mentioned wearing comfy shoes, I'm going to attach Jon's favorite pic from our big day.  I love those shoes lol!

(By the way, I edited all of our photos myself--not because our photographer didn't, but I've been an amateur photo editor for a while and have a certain aesthetic I enjoy so I did more )

 

Thanks, it looks awesome! Unfortunately we really don't have much money so this probably isn't a possibility now