Mixing the fun and frivolous side of Las Vegas with a modern, luxury venue is one of the best things about having a wedding in Las Vegas. For fun-loving couple Seth and Kaitlyn, this combination turned out to be perfect! This pair road tripped from the northeastern United States to Vegas for their wedding with their travel companion Harry, a Chinese Crested, and a car full of DIY’d details and decor. Everything else came from an array of some of the city’s top vendors: images by Meg Ruth Photo, LED Unplugged for that amazing marquee LOVE sign and floral, and Kaitlyn’s whimsical feather and succulent-filled bouquet from Layers of Lovely. And don’t forget the Elvis officiate!
A day filled with love, laughs (doesn’t Kaitlyn look like she’s having the time of her life in every single photo?) with friends and family capped off this vintage glam wedding day for this couple.
Why a Las Vegas wedding?
Las Vegas was our first vacation together when we first began dating over 5 years ago. We just love everything about Las Vegas. There’s something for everyone, and the same goes for when you choose to have a wedding in this city. Seth and I wanted a very intimate get together with just family and close friends. We wanted our day to feel more like a party than a wedding. We just wanted to have fun- it’s Vegas! However, we also wanted to showcase our relationship and have a ceremony/ reception that really embodied our friendship, love, and individual personalities. The Mandarin was both elegant, yet fun; modern yet had remnants of Old Vegas. We fell in love with the venue. We also knew that we needed to have our dog, Harry, involved in some part of the day. We were incredibly excited when we found out the Mandarin Oriental allowed dogs! That was the deciding factor. So, we packed up the car with all our DIY decor and road tripped it from Massachusetts to Las Vegas so our pup Harry could come along for the ride! We made a vacation/ honeymoon out of this entire trip. It was incredibly romantic to drive across the country, just us, knowing that the end result would be our marriage!
Kaitlyn’s favorite memory
Seeing Seth standing at the aisle with our little dog, Harry, dressed in his Elvis suit. Harry looked so adorable and he was such a good boy! I couldn’t stop laughing!
The Ceremony – Ballroom at Mandarin Oriental Las Vegas
We wanted a fun ceremony, nothing serious. After all, a wedding is supposed to be a celebration! And we knew, if we had a wedding in Vegas, we needed to have an Elvis officiate! Travis is so incredibly talented. He sang 4 Elvis renditions: “The Wonder of Youâ€, “Love Me Tenderâ€, “Can’t Help Falling in Loveâ€, and “Viva Las Vegasâ€! Our ceremony was quick, sweet, and fun-loving! Guests have told us they have never laughed so hard at a wedding in all their lives!
DIY Details + Decor
I hand wrote all the chalkboard signs: the menu, guestbook signs, and seating charts. We made our escort cards out of playing cards correlating to the table numbers and placed silver labels with each guests’s name on each card. We also wanted to pay a tribute to our amazing grandparents (all but one are now deceased) so we made a table with vintage gold framed photos from all of our grandparents’ weddings. It gave a personal touch to the whole wedding, and everyone really enjoyed viewing the gorgeous black & white photos of our loved ones. I purchased many of the frames and small decor items at vintage shops. We also made adorable welcome bags filled with bloody mary fixings, snacks, a travel guide, Vegas magnet, and transit schedule to assist guests in exploring the city. We dropped these off at guests’ hotels when we first arrived in Vegas. The Las Vegas Convention and Visitor’s Authority was incredibly helpful with sending us free maps, travel guides, and show schedules to help fill our welcome bags!
The Reception – Ballroom at Mandarin Oriental Las Vegas
The Mandarin Oriental’s ballroom is absolutely breathtaking. When you enter, you are taken aback by the wall to wall windows providing an exceptional view of the strip. That, in and of itself, was decor enough. But we also wanted to play on those incredible Vegas lights with bright pops of color in the flowers, linens, and lighting. We wanted our reception to be reminiscent of Old Vegas: a bit of a vintage glam vibe. My favorite part of the reception decor was the huge marquee lights spelling “L-O-V-Eâ€. Just beautiful! Our reception naturally turned into a great dance party fairly quickly, and our DJ was so awesome: he even passed the microphone over to me to do a rendition of the Little Mermaid (Seth, myself, and the bridal party guests had a wild night at Dino’s singing karaoke the Thursday before our wedding)! We also purchased our own props for all our guests to wear during our dance party: Elvis sunglasses with sideburns, Stunner shades, and Groucho Marx glasses- A Must! A total party!
Seth + Kaitlyn’s Vegas wedding tips
HAVE FUN!! Just remember, you are getting the best of the best when it comes to vendors in this town. This is the wedding capital of the world! Keep reminding yourselves that these people know what they’re doing! I’m a bit of a control freak, so it was hard for me to give up all the reigns, but these vendors are literally professionals. I had so much fun planning this destination wedding. It doesn’t matter what your budget is: this town has something for everyone. Shop around and email vendors. Ask them as many questions as you can, and when you find a right fit, you will know. It was such a pleasure to work with everyone- I’m so glad I planned this wedding in the age of email – it really made planning from a distance so easy!
Seth + Kaitlyn’s Wedding Guestcount and Budget
Originally we had invited about 180 guests, but due to it being a destination wedding, we only ended up with 50 guests, which was actually perfect. It made the evening very intimate yet fun. We were able to visit with everyone and still had a chance to dance and enjoy ourselves. My parents were incredibly gracious and helped us pay for everything. The total spent was about $40,000.
 VENUE + VENDOR DETAILS :
PHOTOGRAPHY . Meg Ruth Photo
CEREMONY + RECEPTION VENUE . Mandarin Oriental Las Vegas
OFFICIANT . Elvis aka Travis Allen of Tallen Productions / WEDDING PLANNER . day of coordination provided by Scheme Events / FLORAL . Layers of Lovely / CAKE . Mandarin Oriental Las Vegas / BRIDAL FASHION . dress – Sloan by Sottero & Midgley, jewelry – Sarah White Jewelry / BRIDESMAIDS DRESSES . Radical Thread Co. / HAIR AND MAKEUP . Amelia C & Co. / GROOM’S WEAR . Men’s Wearhouse / TRANSPORTATION . AWG Ambassador Limos / RENTALS . furniture + linens - Layers of Lovely / LIGHTING + LOVE MARQUEE SIGN . LED Unplugged / STATIONERY . Minted / ENTERTAINMENT . DJ Mike Fox
It was the best day ever! I’m so glad I was there to be part of the epic celebration! Love to Seth and Kaitlyn.