Wedding Adventure - Day 2 - Vegas

As nice as THE Suite was, we didn’t have too much time to enjoy it Saturday morning. Since we were changing into a Vista Suite in the main Mandalay Bay tower for the next three nights, we had to pack everything up into the car before check-out time. After hauling everything down to the parking garage and arranging for the room transfer (we couldn’t get a key to the Vista Suite until 3PM) we hurried through the casino to the valet area where our ride to the Courthouse was waiting.

We knew that our wedding package included limo transportation to the Clark County Courthouse to obtain a marriage license, but we figured that just meant some sort of fancy town car or big taxi. We were quite surprised to discover a black stretch limo with room for 8 waiting for us. Despite these limos being a dime a dozen in Vegas, we still felt a bit like celebrities as we were driven to the courthouse and dropped off at the marriage license bureau.

The marriage license bureau was not exactly what I was expecting. It was a small space with a few tables for filling out forms, and then a set of ropes to line up in, much like making a deposit at the bank. Actually it was more like buying tickets for a movie as the clerks were behind glass with the whole microphone and speaker arrangement and a little slot to slide your documents and cash back and forth. We didn’t have to wait very long and the whole process took about 20 minutes. Walking down the steps out of the marriage bureau, we encountered a group of people peddling wedding guides and transportation to near by chapels (the closest is two blocks away) in case we were in for a spontaneous quickie wedding. Since we already had arrangements in place, they wished us a hearty congratulations before moving on to the next couple behind us. When the limo driver picked us up to return us to the hotel, he told us that we were very lucky and picked a good time to get our license as during the week the line can be one or two hours long. I guess that isn’t too surprising since a typical day in Vegas will average over 600 weddings. Luck finally seemed to be turning our way!

Arriving back at the hotel, we found the Impala and drove over to Tuxedo Junction on West Sahara to pick up my tux and shoes. A few months prior, Amy had measured me and submitted them online along with my selection from the various tux, vest, tie and shoe styles. I was pleasantly surprised to find that everything fit perfectly when I tried the tux on. No alterations needed. Amy, who was sitting on one of the comfy couches in the tuxedo shop actually started to cry a bit when I came out of the fitting room with the tux on. This did not bode well for a tear free ceremony.

With my classic retro Vegas 50s-esque tux and rat pack like black and white shoes in the trunk, we stopped at a nearby Jimmy Johns sandwich shop for lunch and discussed the last few remaining items we needed for the wedding and cake party we’d be having in the Vista Suite in place a of a true reception. The last thing we needed was iced tea for all the southerners who would be in attendance. We hadn’t had any luck finding the right stuff at Von’s and there were not any Chick-fil-a’s in town, so it seemed like we were pretty much stuck. I took a wrong turn after leaving Jimmy Johns but it happened to take us past an Albertson’s grocery store. We decided to give it a try and it happened to have the iced tea we needed.

It was finally time to head back to Mandalay Bay and check into our new room. This was a source of much worry and stress as we had planned our wedding day around having a “cake party” in a big “Vista Suite” overlooking the strip from high atop the hotel. However, they can never guarantee you the exact room and view, so we didn’t know if things would go exactly as envisioned or not. While checking in, the clerk mentioned that this suite had a really pretty view. For a second I could feel things sinking as I thought that might mean we were looking away from the strip towards the mountains. Amy was brave enough to ask, “Which view exactly is that?” The clerk responded that it looked down the strip at all of the other hotels. Perfect!

Excitedly we raced up to the 32nd floor. To give them a wraparound view, the Vista Suites are at the end of the hotel wings, so our room was all the way down a very, very, very long hallway from the elevators. We ran down the hall to the double doors. Behind them we were greeted with the most amazing view of the Vegas strip and a fantastic room in which to spend the next few nights and throw our once-in-a-lifetime party.

The next couple of hours were a blur of hauling boxes of supplies up to the room and getting things set up for Sunday. We had previously shipped a number of boxes containing all sorts of things, from cake cutting sets to all of the wedding favor boxes, to the Mandalay Bay business center. Amy’s parents picked them up on Friday after they arrived and had been holding them for us until we checked in to the suite. While Amy helped them arrange things, I went to my parents’ room to pick up the groom’s cake that my Mom had brought with her on the plane from Winnipeg. It seemed like it was just starting to thaw nicely. We also had to haul several cases of glass bottled soft drinks up from the car in the parking garage. You don’t realize how much easier plastic and cans make going to the grocery store until you elect to go the old school route.

After getting everything staged, Amy’s parents left and it was time to run down to Rodney and Stephanie’s room to check out progress on the main wedding cake. Besides being good friends, Rodney and Stephanie run a side business doing custom cakes out of their home in the Metroplex. Stephanie has created many amazing creative cakes over the years, and when she offered to create our wedding cake, we jumped at the chance. I‘m not sure if they realized exactly what they were getting themselves into, but baking a cake for a Vegas wedding turned into quite the adventure. A few weeks before the wedding, I helped Rodney construct an insulated container to transport the cakes. We lined a huge Rubbermaid storage tub with Styrofoam using liquid nails (Rodney’s great idea of using some baking soda to absorb the glue odors saved the project). Then, a few days before the wedding, Stephanie baked the cake layers and gave them a base coat of icing. Then the cakes were placed in the container along with some dry ice to keep them cool while they made the long drive from DFW to Vegas with minimal stops. They arrived around midnight Friday and had spent all day working on finishing the cake. Stephanie actually brought her Kitchen-Aid stand mixer and had it sitting on the dresser in their hotel room mixing up icing! I’m sure it wasn’t their ideal or most glamorous first day in Vegas but the cake looked spectacular! They had even rolled fondant on the cake board and imprinted a pattern that matched the one used on our wedding invitations. You can get Stephanie's take on the adventure here.

The only trick now was moving the wedding cake from their room on the 9th floor up to the 32nd floor. Unfortunately, Mandalay Bay has two elevator systems, one serving floors 16 and below, and another serving floors 17 and above, so to move the cake between rooms we’d need to ride one elevator all the way down to the casino level, walk across the elevator lobby to the other group of elevators, and then ride all the way back up to our room. Fortunately the bellman came to our rescue and showed us where the service elevators were. This greatly shortened the ride for the cake and kept us from winding up in a crowded elevator. It’s a good thing too as it seems like Stephanie was on pins and needles the whole way with the cake being one thumbprint away from disaster. The cake made the trip safely and looked even more amazing sitting on the large dining table in front of the windows overlooking the skyline of the Vegas strip. Relieved and freed from their task, Rodney and Stephanie sprinted off to the casino.

Since it took a lot longer than expected to get everything unpacked and the cakes in place, we were late for dinner at the Burger Bar in Mandalay Place. It was supposed to be a come and go thing but by the time we arrived, a lot of our relatives were seated together and well into their meals. The food at the Burger Bar was very good after such a long day of running around. I don’t remember a whole lot except for my Dad giving Amy’s brother a hard time while watching Oklahoma trash the previously undefeated Texas Tech football team.

It had been a long day and after dinner we wandered through the casino and lost a few dollars in some slot machines. After taking care of some more setup in the vista suite, we met Rodney and Stephanie at Forty-Deuce. I’m sure this place would be a lot of fun on a Saturday night, but since we had to get up at the crack of dawn to get ready for the wedding, we called it a night early. I couldn’t resist giving Amy her wedding present ahead of time however: a silver Tiffany necklace with a lock charm shaped like the ace of spades.