THE Venue

We have a venue.

We flew out to Las Vegas earlier this week to visit several wedding venues. It was ten venues in three days. Boy was it tiring but well worth it.

The first venue we visited was Emerald at Queensridge. I really liked this location and it was my favorite of the day. I loved the courtyard area and the best feature was this awesome bridal dressing room suite.

The Bridal Suite Features:

• Six fully functional make-up stations with running water and electrical.
• A salon style step-up mirror.
• Two private bathrooms with additional facility for make-up.
• A walk-in closet that can be locked throughout the reception to store
  purses and other valuables.
• A private balcony.
• Comfortable furniture for relaxation prior to the ceremony.
• TV and surround sound CD stereo system.
• Complimentary Champagne for the ladies prior to the ceremony.
• Refrigerator stocked with complimentary soda and waters.
• An elevator provides easy access to The Brides Suite on the second floor.

The groom's room was not as sweet but it was still very nice.

The Groom's Dressing Room features:

• A 47 inch Plasma TV.
• PS3 with the latest games.
• A private bathroom.
• Comfortable furniture for relaxation prior to the ceremony.
• CD stereo system.
• A round of Complimentary beverages prior to the ceremony.
• Refrigerator stocked with complimentary soda and waters.

We did look at a few strip hotel locations. I wanted something not so large or busy. I saw four brides at the Bellagio on a Tuesday. I don't want to fight with five other brides to take pictures in the Bellagio gardens. We really liked the Westin. Jerami was really impressed by their customer service. The rooms were typical hotel ballrooms. Then they showed us the pool area. They would close down the pool area for us. I considered having a reception at the pool area.

Jerami fell in love with the second golf course we visited. I think he was ready to book with them right then and there but I wanted to wait until we visited our next venue. This is Angel Park Golf Club. It's a public golf course. The ceremony area is really gorgeous with a waterfall in the background.

Then we visited THE venue. Actually we were pretty torn between Angel Park Golf Club and Canyon Gate Country Club. In the end, we were leaning slightly towards Canyon Gate.

Here's the entrance:

Here's the beautiful balcony area. We can have a choice of the modern arch thing with choice of color (we would keep the red) or a huppa.

And here's the clubhouse. Lighting packages are offered but I think I like it just the way it is.

Canyon Gate just changed from the chiviari chairs to chameleon chairs -- the new chiviari.



I believe they had this color combo but I can be wrong:


Here's another style. I don't think these were the style at the venue.

Headpieces & Accesories

My dream was to wear a mantilla veil on my wedding day but unfortunately, none of the dresses I picked out worked with one. I ended up buying this veil from someone on Craigslist. She bought two veils on Hautelook.com during their sale featuring items from Bridal & Company. It is a two-tiered fingertip veil with satin edging.

I still thought about the mantilla veil and thought maybe I could wear a modified mantilla with the lace edging. How tough can it be to make a veil? I decided against it because I have very limited sewing skills.

I want something else besides a veil in my hair. I want something sparkly. I thought about doing crystal hair picks, crystal comb, headband or flower. I think a tiara will look silly with my dresses.

I love the romantic, fashion-foward accessories from the Vera Wang White line. (I love the black horsehair sash. Some people find it a bit out there but I love the look.)

This comb is very pretty.

I then came across this ribbon headband and bought it. (The Limited $59.90 -- online only.)

I also bought this bracelet. (The Limited $49.90 -- online only.)

My dream earrings are below. But at $200, I couldn't swallow the price. They are from Jardin and sold at perfectdetails.com. I searched for a similar pair but I couldn't find anything. I was at JCPenney so I wandered over to their jewelry section. I found a pair by Vieste Rosa that I really like. They are not as beautiful as the Harry Winston inspired beauties below but at $20, I decided to go ahead and buy them. If I find something else, I can still wear them somewhere. I can't find a picture of the earrings and not in the mood to take pictures right now.

Below are other items I love from Haute Bride. The first is a headband. It's on sale one the Aisle New York website but it's still $185. It retails for $372.

This bracelet is gorgeous but it's sold out on the Aisle website.

This barrette is also sold out.

Shoes

I fell in love with these shoes the first time I saw them on http://intheircloset.com/manolo-blahnik-something-blue-satin-pumps. I don't remember them from the Sex and the City movie but apparently they were Carrie's wedding shoes. They are called the Something Blue or Hangisi.

Even after several years, they are still an extremely popular wedding shoe. I couldn't find them for sale in blue anywhere except ebay. Unfortunately none were my size. I found them in fuchsia, coral, white, and black at the various department stores. I even considered buying them in black but I wasn't sure about wearing black shoes for my wedding. (Although I'm starting to like black accessories for weddings after trying on the Vera Wang White dress with her black horse hair sash.)

Aren't they gorgeous?

I then looked for the knock-offs from Martinez Valero. For $160, they are not exactly cheap shoes. A little more and you can have Badgley Mischka wedding shoes. These are also sold out everywhere in blue. DSW online has the white and black.

I then tried forgetting about the shoes because not only are they not available but the blue is not the shade of my wedding color blue and at $945, was a little steep for me. I looked and looked and found these other Martinez Valero pumps. The color is a little off in the picture but in person they match the Tiffany blue exactly. Bling wedding shoes are in right now. I liked them but I didn't love them. I didn't really want Tiffany blue wedding shoes. I wanted something a little more vibrant.

So I looked for shoes in my other wedding color: red. I love red shoes. These are Charles by Charles David. 6pm.com has these shoes on sale for $129.00 with a listed price of $215. I thought the CBCD line was the cheaper line of Charles David. Maybe it's been a long time since I bought a pair of Charles Davids. I found them at a deep discount at my new online shoe retailer: Marty's Shoes. I used a $10 off coupon and got them for $49.99 with free shipping.

Then I started googling "Manolo Hangisi" again and found that Bergdorf's is taking preorders for the blue with delivery by the end of October 2011. What is a girl to do?

The Hunt for a Venue Continues

I was in Las Vegas this past weekend for a bachelorette party. I had my heart set on a venue out there and almost booked it without visiting it. My girl friends were adamant about me visiting the venue so we went out. It was a good thing we did. The place was too small.

So the bf and I are flying out in two weeks to go look at a few venues. Wish us luck.

Below are some venues we already have on the calendar:

Vdara: One of our favorite places to stay. We're actually staying at Vdara during this visit. It's on the strip but it's so peaceful. Our goal was not to have the reception at a really high traffic Vegas venue like Bellagio or the Wynn. (Plus I couldn't navigate the Wynn or Encore's website. I got frustrated.)

I've never met a Westin I didn't like. The Westin is close to the strip but not on the strip. I've never been inside so I'm not sure about the traffic inside the hotel.

The Grove is a wedding ceremony and reception venue. I like the gazebo and the garden feel of this venue.

The bf actually found this place when I called and said no to the other venue. It's Rainbow Gardens -- the only indoor garden in Las Vegas.

The Emerald at Queensridge is really pretty. It has a dark espresso colored dance floor instead of the typical parquet floor.

Canyon Gate Country Club looks amazing. I love the idea of a ceremony of this balcony area but I'm not sure if everyone will fit.

The last place we just scheduled an appointment with is Angel Park Golf Course.

Other places we would like to visit bu have not heard back from yet.

This place is called Victoria's. I'm not crazy about the carpet.

This place is called Flamingo Banquet Hall. Imagine no balloons and disregard the stupid name.

We ate at the buffet at the M Resort. It was really nice so I put it on my list to consider.