M&M Limo Service-(For my fellow Chicagoians) A…best prices in the area, on time and clean limos.
Southwest-A…Typical southwest service, no complaints…there were 15 of us on the same flight, so I was able to put my dress in an overhead without smashing it.
Bell Trans-A….on time, no complaints…driver even held a sign that said Betustak-Mattingly Wedding which was cute.
MGM Grand F….ughh…were to begin?? As soon as we got dropped off at MGM it was problems. I had booked 3 rooms, 1 for Chadd & myself for 1 night and 2 more rooms for 3 nights for the 2 guys and 2 girls. When I checked in I was told there was a $300/per room fee that would be applied to my credit card on file for any charges. NO WHERE on my reservation form did it say ANYTHING about a $300 fee per room. Busted out my wedding binder to show her the confirmation email and even spoke with a manager. The “best” they could do was only do 1 $300 charge and not fully apply it. I was still pissed, but I kinda got over it since I didn’t want it to ruin my day. Once we got settled in the rooms we headed out for marriage license and I checked my credit card balace on my phone…they charged me $300 (and not just one of those pending withdrawls…they took out the $300...PLUS an additional $111.00. At that point I was really busy with other things and decided to take care of it the next morning when I checked out of our room.
All the girls went out that evening, and my MOH decided to go back to the room early with her 3 year old daughter. The rest of the girls got back around 2am and Dani (BM) who was in the room Becky and her key wouldn’t work. We went down to the desk and they “reactivated” it. Still wouldn’t work. We found a security guard and he tried to open it…still wouldn’t work. He then told us the door was “broken” and we would have to beat on the door to wake up the girl inside for her to open the door. We explained there was a toddler in there and his response “well, you could just sleep somewhere else then”. With all the noise in the hallway it woke my MOH up and she opened the door without us having to beat on it. When I checked out on Friday, they basically called me a liar and said they did not charge me $411.00. I had to log on to my Chase account by phone to prove them otherwise, which they finally admitted the “bank messed up” and charged me when they shouldn’t have. Whatev…got my $411 back.
Mens Wearhouse A-….fittings went smoothly, they called the week before to confirm colors and pick up location which I appreciated. Only issue was they forgot to send H and FILs tux jackets. The lady at the store didn’t realize 2 jackets were missing when she bagged everything up until FIL mentioned it. She went in the back room and found them in a separate UPS bag, the hub sent them separately.
Debi @ Fit for a Bride A+….on time both times, dress looked beautiful. Every bride should use her!!!
Clark County Courthouse A…we pre-registered 2 months out so all we needed was the conf # and our I.D.s. We were in and out in 3 minutes.
Yolos A….All the girls had dinner here Thursday night. Yolos food is always good and the margaritas are to die for.
The Gallery (Planet Hollywood Night Club) C….typical Vegas club. Ladies get in free Thursday nights, expensive drinks, slow bartenders…but it looks a lot nicer than when it was Prive though.
Caesars Rehersal B…I debated back and forth about a rehersal since it was an additional $300, which is highly overpriced. In the end Im glad we did it. My dad offered to pay, so that helped. It was the first time I had seen the space in person, and I really felt a lot more comfortable the day of the wedding.
Café Lago D….Food and wait staff was great, that is the only reason I didn’t give a F. Management sucked. I got there early, and was told they didn’t know what I was talking about and needed to stand in line and wait like everyone else. I had made reservations through the catering department almost a year ago…so I busted out the trusty wedding binder again and showed them the confirmation page. The lady looked at it like I made it myself on Microsoft Word. She kept telling me she didn’t know anything about this, and I kept arguing with her so she went and got another manager, who apparently knew exactly what was going on and took us directly to our reserved area. Once we got done with dinner we asked for our bill, since we still owed a balance. We were then told that we were going to have to wait 45 minutes to get a bill since only the manager can give a bill for a reserved party. H and FIL argued that we had to go now to be at PH for our M&G…but they still ended up waiting 45 min and the manager never came back. The ladies at the front finally produced a bill, swiped the card and we left. We found out the next day they double charged us. FIL and MIL paid the balance so they went and argued with a different manager got it taken care of and needless to say…we have a weekend trip to Caesars comp’ed to us.
Double Decker Bus Co. A+….We got so many compliments on the guided tour. Everyone enjoyed the bus and got great photos. It was nice to see everyone before the wedding and have some fun. Light Show at Fremont was playing when we went past so the driver stopped for a few minutes and let us watch. Well worth the money!!
Francesca Lombardo A++++…Amazing. Her and her assistant Lori arrived early, got all set up and started knocking us out quickly, and we even finished up early. Everyones hair looked great, and held up all night, even through the crazy wind at times. I loved my hair and makeup…turned out better than I could ever imagined. She chit chatted with me and kept me calm. Lori even put a little product in the FG hair which I had not arranged. Makeup stayed on all night…even after wiping icing off my face!!
Mike L. Photos (Mike & Courtney) A++++….LOVE THEM! Mike was great as soon as he got there. I barely ate anything all day and after the rush of the ceremony I came to a crashing burn right after he started taking pictures…he was patient and kind enough to let me sit on some stairs at the Bellagio and drink some water and take a quick break. We got to the fountains right before the show started so we got some pictures there, met up with Courtney and headed to the Welcome Sign and then to an abandoned area by the Stratosphere. After the reception they took us out to their secret spot and got some night pictures. I am soooo excited to see the photos. They were one of the best vendors we chose for the wedding!!!
Caesars (Hotel Rooms) A+….We had a lovely room with a pool view. Plenty of space for all 7 of us to get ready in…2 bathrooms, 2 person shower and 2 person jetted tub. After getting ready in the room, maid service came up and cleaned the room up before we got back after the reception which was MUCH appreciated.
Caesars (Venus Garden/Ceramony)A…Venus Garden is beautiful and surprisingly intimate. I was a little worried during the rehersal about the music from the pool, but I didn’t hear anything other than our music playing during the ceremony. The officiant also did a great job.
Imagine Studios (Caesars Photag) B…with price aside…I was happy with Imagine. I don’t remember the photags name, Mike L. even said he had never saw him before there, but he did a great job. He joked around and had us do some poses that are not the typical Caesars Wedding Shots which I liked. The next day we went up to the 2nd floor to view the pictures and get the DVD, we sat in a room was offered bottled water and watched a slide show of all the photos. Everything seemed to be very organized. The lady gave us the info about viewing and ordering photos and the website address and price of all the photos ($650 for 113 photos). I went in knowing it was going to be expensive and I didn’t want all the photos so it wasn’t much of a sticker shock.
Ashley Guerrero (Caesars Wedding Coordinator) B…Ashley was friendly in her emails and in person. At one point I emailed her and didn’t hear back for almost 2 weeks, I wrote her once more and then I wrote JoAnne, the main lady there(worried that she had left and no one had told me) and she told me she was on vacation. No biggie. But when she got back from vacation she emailed me saying she got “all of my many emails” and took care of what I was asking about. 2 emails=many ?? The day of the rehersal she acted like we were bothering her and she was rushed, but she was nice the day of the wedding and had everything in order.
Jasons Deli A-….Delivery was a few minutes late, as I wanted delivery before Francesca arrived…but it was no big deal. Food was great and convient to have while we were getting ready.
Trump Hotel North Deck (Reception) A…I liked that it was something different. The entire Trump Hotel is gorgeous and the North Deck is simply stunning. It worked really well for our group size and everyone complimented on the space and location…palm trees all around the deck with a view of Wynn & Encore. Food was amazing, everyone raved about all of it…H ate a whole plate of brushetta himself.
Carolyn & Cynthia (Trump Wedding Coordinators) C…I had originally been working with Cynthia and closer to the wedding I started working with Carolyn. Sometimes there was a lack of communication between the 2. Cynthia said one thing, Carolyn said another. The weekend before the wedding Carolyn sent me a WEO, and everything was correct. The day before the wedding, I dropped off all of the décor & extras and met with both of them, and Carolyn even texted me later asking about the ribbon I had bought because she needed more and was going to go and pick it up for me. The day of the wedding was a bit windy and apparently Carolyn called my cell twice to get the approval to move in recpetion indoors, but I didn’t have my phone. She made the choice to leave it outside, but none of the lanterns could be hung and the candles all blew out. After the reception began Carolyn left and Scott (maybe??) took over. He was very nice and did anything I asked, but there was a lack of communication because he didn’t know about our engraved forks for the cake cutting, or that we were having a toast. As soon as I mentioned it, he took care of it.
All Night Long A….DJ was great (cant remember his name) and played the songs I requested and no Bruno Mars (my only do not play). He kept the party going and timed the songs perfectly!
Retro Bakery A+….The cupcakes looked great and apparently were delicious. All I had was a slice of our cake during our cake cutting…but it was good!! The mini cupcakes are the way to go!
Chandelier Bar (Cosmopolitan) A…We went here after the recepetion. It is beautiful with plenty of seating.
Secrets Maroma Beach (Honeymoon) A++++…honeymoons are not normally reviewed on here but we were soo happy with it I wanted to let future brides know. The beach has perfect white sand and the resort is beautiful. Before we even left H & I decided we are going to book a return trip with his parents for their Christmas gift this year.
Tips from an Old Married Hag
-Bring lots of small bills, 1s, 5s for tipping
-Have all money for payments in envelopes before you leave. I annoyed the lady at the bank asking for 5 $100 dollar bills, 6 $50 dollar bills…and so on…but it helped sooo much having the correct amount in an envelope and ready to go when you need it.
-Have a list of all your vendors phone numbers
-Have a binder with confirmation emails/conversations…I had to open mine a few times during the trip
-Preregister for your marriage license
-Stay at one hotel, even if it costs you $300.…it is worth it to not move all your luggage down the strip the day before the wedding
-Bring someone with muscles with you when you get your dress from Debi. I had a guy friend of SILs with me to carry my dress to my room. You have to hold it above your head so it doesn’t drag, and it gets uncomfortably heavy.
-EAT!! & stay hydrated. I mean it!!!
-Bring a pumice bar with you…ya know one of those hard purple things they use when you get a pedi. You can buy them for like $1 at Sallys. Your feet get soooo gross leading up to the wedding walking around Vegas in sandals.
In The End….
All the little things that didn’t go perfect didn’t matter. When I found out the lanterns couldn’t be hung..ohh well, or looking back at what happened at MGM & Café Lago…ohh well. Our guests didn’t notice a thing and everyone had a great time. I married my best friend and thats what matters!
Southwest-A…Typical southwest service, no complaints…there were 15 of us on the same flight, so I was able to put my dress in an overhead without smashing it.
Bell Trans-A….on time, no complaints…driver even held a sign that said Betustak-Mattingly Wedding which was cute.
MGM Grand F….ughh…were to begin?? As soon as we got dropped off at MGM it was problems. I had booked 3 rooms, 1 for Chadd & myself for 1 night and 2 more rooms for 3 nights for the 2 guys and 2 girls. When I checked in I was told there was a $300/per room fee that would be applied to my credit card on file for any charges. NO WHERE on my reservation form did it say ANYTHING about a $300 fee per room. Busted out my wedding binder to show her the confirmation email and even spoke with a manager. The “best” they could do was only do 1 $300 charge and not fully apply it. I was still pissed, but I kinda got over it since I didn’t want it to ruin my day. Once we got settled in the rooms we headed out for marriage license and I checked my credit card balace on my phone…they charged me $300 (and not just one of those pending withdrawls…they took out the $300...PLUS an additional $111.00. At that point I was really busy with other things and decided to take care of it the next morning when I checked out of our room.
All the girls went out that evening, and my MOH decided to go back to the room early with her 3 year old daughter. The rest of the girls got back around 2am and Dani (BM) who was in the room Becky and her key wouldn’t work. We went down to the desk and they “reactivated” it. Still wouldn’t work. We found a security guard and he tried to open it…still wouldn’t work. He then told us the door was “broken” and we would have to beat on the door to wake up the girl inside for her to open the door. We explained there was a toddler in there and his response “well, you could just sleep somewhere else then”. With all the noise in the hallway it woke my MOH up and she opened the door without us having to beat on it. When I checked out on Friday, they basically called me a liar and said they did not charge me $411.00. I had to log on to my Chase account by phone to prove them otherwise, which they finally admitted the “bank messed up” and charged me when they shouldn’t have. Whatev…got my $411 back.
Mens Wearhouse A-….fittings went smoothly, they called the week before to confirm colors and pick up location which I appreciated. Only issue was they forgot to send H and FILs tux jackets. The lady at the store didn’t realize 2 jackets were missing when she bagged everything up until FIL mentioned it. She went in the back room and found them in a separate UPS bag, the hub sent them separately.
Debi @ Fit for a Bride A+….on time both times, dress looked beautiful. Every bride should use her!!!
Clark County Courthouse A…we pre-registered 2 months out so all we needed was the conf # and our I.D.s. We were in and out in 3 minutes.
Yolos A….All the girls had dinner here Thursday night. Yolos food is always good and the margaritas are to die for.
The Gallery (Planet Hollywood Night Club) C….typical Vegas club. Ladies get in free Thursday nights, expensive drinks, slow bartenders…but it looks a lot nicer than when it was Prive though.
Caesars Rehersal B…I debated back and forth about a rehersal since it was an additional $300, which is highly overpriced. In the end Im glad we did it. My dad offered to pay, so that helped. It was the first time I had seen the space in person, and I really felt a lot more comfortable the day of the wedding.
Café Lago D….Food and wait staff was great, that is the only reason I didn’t give a F. Management sucked. I got there early, and was told they didn’t know what I was talking about and needed to stand in line and wait like everyone else. I had made reservations through the catering department almost a year ago…so I busted out the trusty wedding binder again and showed them the confirmation page. The lady looked at it like I made it myself on Microsoft Word. She kept telling me she didn’t know anything about this, and I kept arguing with her so she went and got another manager, who apparently knew exactly what was going on and took us directly to our reserved area. Once we got done with dinner we asked for our bill, since we still owed a balance. We were then told that we were going to have to wait 45 minutes to get a bill since only the manager can give a bill for a reserved party. H and FIL argued that we had to go now to be at PH for our M&G…but they still ended up waiting 45 min and the manager never came back. The ladies at the front finally produced a bill, swiped the card and we left. We found out the next day they double charged us. FIL and MIL paid the balance so they went and argued with a different manager got it taken care of and needless to say…we have a weekend trip to Caesars comp’ed to us.
Double Decker Bus Co. A+….We got so many compliments on the guided tour. Everyone enjoyed the bus and got great photos. It was nice to see everyone before the wedding and have some fun. Light Show at Fremont was playing when we went past so the driver stopped for a few minutes and let us watch. Well worth the money!!
Francesca Lombardo A++++…Amazing. Her and her assistant Lori arrived early, got all set up and started knocking us out quickly, and we even finished up early. Everyones hair looked great, and held up all night, even through the crazy wind at times. I loved my hair and makeup…turned out better than I could ever imagined. She chit chatted with me and kept me calm. Lori even put a little product in the FG hair which I had not arranged. Makeup stayed on all night…even after wiping icing off my face!!
Mike L. Photos (Mike & Courtney) A++++….LOVE THEM! Mike was great as soon as he got there. I barely ate anything all day and after the rush of the ceremony I came to a crashing burn right after he started taking pictures…he was patient and kind enough to let me sit on some stairs at the Bellagio and drink some water and take a quick break. We got to the fountains right before the show started so we got some pictures there, met up with Courtney and headed to the Welcome Sign and then to an abandoned area by the Stratosphere. After the reception they took us out to their secret spot and got some night pictures. I am soooo excited to see the photos. They were one of the best vendors we chose for the wedding!!!
Caesars (Hotel Rooms) A+….We had a lovely room with a pool view. Plenty of space for all 7 of us to get ready in…2 bathrooms, 2 person shower and 2 person jetted tub. After getting ready in the room, maid service came up and cleaned the room up before we got back after the reception which was MUCH appreciated.
Caesars (Venus Garden/Ceramony)A…Venus Garden is beautiful and surprisingly intimate. I was a little worried during the rehersal about the music from the pool, but I didn’t hear anything other than our music playing during the ceremony. The officiant also did a great job.
Imagine Studios (Caesars Photag) B…with price aside…I was happy with Imagine. I don’t remember the photags name, Mike L. even said he had never saw him before there, but he did a great job. He joked around and had us do some poses that are not the typical Caesars Wedding Shots which I liked. The next day we went up to the 2nd floor to view the pictures and get the DVD, we sat in a room was offered bottled water and watched a slide show of all the photos. Everything seemed to be very organized. The lady gave us the info about viewing and ordering photos and the website address and price of all the photos ($650 for 113 photos). I went in knowing it was going to be expensive and I didn’t want all the photos so it wasn’t much of a sticker shock.
Ashley Guerrero (Caesars Wedding Coordinator) B…Ashley was friendly in her emails and in person. At one point I emailed her and didn’t hear back for almost 2 weeks, I wrote her once more and then I wrote JoAnne, the main lady there(worried that she had left and no one had told me) and she told me she was on vacation. No biggie. But when she got back from vacation she emailed me saying she got “all of my many emails” and took care of what I was asking about. 2 emails=many ?? The day of the rehersal she acted like we were bothering her and she was rushed, but she was nice the day of the wedding and had everything in order.
Jasons Deli A-….Delivery was a few minutes late, as I wanted delivery before Francesca arrived…but it was no big deal. Food was great and convient to have while we were getting ready.
Trump Hotel North Deck (Reception) A…I liked that it was something different. The entire Trump Hotel is gorgeous and the North Deck is simply stunning. It worked really well for our group size and everyone complimented on the space and location…palm trees all around the deck with a view of Wynn & Encore. Food was amazing, everyone raved about all of it…H ate a whole plate of brushetta himself.
Carolyn & Cynthia (Trump Wedding Coordinators) C…I had originally been working with Cynthia and closer to the wedding I started working with Carolyn. Sometimes there was a lack of communication between the 2. Cynthia said one thing, Carolyn said another. The weekend before the wedding Carolyn sent me a WEO, and everything was correct. The day before the wedding, I dropped off all of the décor & extras and met with both of them, and Carolyn even texted me later asking about the ribbon I had bought because she needed more and was going to go and pick it up for me. The day of the wedding was a bit windy and apparently Carolyn called my cell twice to get the approval to move in recpetion indoors, but I didn’t have my phone. She made the choice to leave it outside, but none of the lanterns could be hung and the candles all blew out. After the reception began Carolyn left and Scott (maybe??) took over. He was very nice and did anything I asked, but there was a lack of communication because he didn’t know about our engraved forks for the cake cutting, or that we were having a toast. As soon as I mentioned it, he took care of it.
All Night Long A….DJ was great (cant remember his name) and played the songs I requested and no Bruno Mars (my only do not play). He kept the party going and timed the songs perfectly!
Retro Bakery A+….The cupcakes looked great and apparently were delicious. All I had was a slice of our cake during our cake cutting…but it was good!! The mini cupcakes are the way to go!
Chandelier Bar (Cosmopolitan) A…We went here after the recepetion. It is beautiful with plenty of seating.
Secrets Maroma Beach (Honeymoon) A++++…honeymoons are not normally reviewed on here but we were soo happy with it I wanted to let future brides know. The beach has perfect white sand and the resort is beautiful. Before we even left H & I decided we are going to book a return trip with his parents for their Christmas gift this year.
Tips from an Old Married Hag
-Bring lots of small bills, 1s, 5s for tipping
-Have all money for payments in envelopes before you leave. I annoyed the lady at the bank asking for 5 $100 dollar bills, 6 $50 dollar bills…and so on…but it helped sooo much having the correct amount in an envelope and ready to go when you need it.
-Have a list of all your vendors phone numbers
-Have a binder with confirmation emails/conversations…I had to open mine a few times during the trip
-Preregister for your marriage license
-Stay at one hotel, even if it costs you $300.…it is worth it to not move all your luggage down the strip the day before the wedding
-Bring someone with muscles with you when you get your dress from Debi. I had a guy friend of SILs with me to carry my dress to my room. You have to hold it above your head so it doesn’t drag, and it gets uncomfortably heavy.
-EAT!! & stay hydrated. I mean it!!!
-Bring a pumice bar with you…ya know one of those hard purple things they use when you get a pedi. You can buy them for like $1 at Sallys. Your feet get soooo gross leading up to the wedding walking around Vegas in sandals.
In The End….
All the little things that didn’t go perfect didn’t matter. When I found out the lanterns couldn’t be hung..ohh well, or looking back at what happened at MGM & Café Lago…ohh well. Our guests didn’t notice a thing and everyone had a great time. I married my best friend and thats what matters!
