I have officially started wedding planning! Ya know, over a year since our engagement.

I will preface this blog by just stating here & now – I am not a “bride” type of girl. I have never once fantasized about my dream wedding. I was not that little girl & I didn’t grow up to be that type of woman. I didn’t care about my first wedding and to be quite frank, haven’t given this one much thought either. I am the anti-bride. Clinton knows this & so far he’s fine. I care about the marriage not the wedding. I also care about the honeymoon but that’s another post for another day.

Last year I actually found a place in Orlando that I thought would make a good wedding venue. It is called Mather’s Social Gathering & it has a vintage speakeasy vibe that would suit our style very well but over time I started to lose interest in Mather’s. Don’t get me wrong, Mather’s is beautiful! I just wasn’t getting that feeling of “this is somewhere we’re serious about”. I started making jokes about running off to Vegas & letting Elvis marry us, which Clinton thinks is the tackiest thing ever but I gotta say – the appeal is still there to me. I like a little bit of tacky. I think my personal style would be described as classic with just a touch of camp added in for fun & to me, Vegas is just that. You can class it up all you want…but it’s still Vegas ya know?

So anyways, he won’t let me have Elvis. So I started looking at more traditional wedding venues in Vegas via The Knot’s website & discovered quite a few on the Strip that I like. I really love the Cosmopolitan hotel – I think it’s just so gorgeous, however, my bride Clinton shot it down. He says he doesn’t feel like he’d fit in at his own wedding if we went with the Cosmopolitan (or the Bellagio) so we have decided on the Paris hotel. We’re aiming for December of this year – I know! Fast! However, I feel it can be done because in my emails with the Paris hotel wedding coordinator, I asked about coming to visit the property & she asked if I was intending on having my ceremony that day (!!) so I don’t think squeezing us in for a quickie will be that big of an issue if she was thinking in those terms!

I started emailing back and forth with Megan, a coordinator, a couple days ago. I had a 22 hour layover in Vegas yesterday & she invited me out to come view the chapels & go over the wedding packages with me. She also sent me information on Planet Hollywood’s wedding packages – and as I was leaving yesterday I noticed another email including some information on weddings held in the gardens at the Flamingo (I adore the Flamingo hotel but with it’s main color being pink…I don’t see myself having a wedding there). They have been totally on top of communications with me! Yesterday as soon as I woke up, I booked my Lyft (my airline currently has our crews staying quite a ways away in Henderson so I now have to Uber or Lyft to the Strip) & rode to Paris.

I made my way to the 2nd floor where the chapels are located and was honestly surprised how truly gorgeous they both are in person! They had a ceremony yesterday at 4 PM so one of the chapels was slightly more decorated & while not the one we are choosing, it was beautiful! Paris has 4 different locations you can get married in – La Chapelle Royale, La Chapelle Champagne, the Arc De Triomphe, and the top of the Eiffel Tower. We originally wanted the Eiffel Tower but I’m not sure about the views (and I wasn’t able to go to the top yesterday to check them out so I’m going by what I see online & it didn’t look very photogenic) & only 12 guests are permitted for a E.T ceremony. I believe we have decided on the La Chapelle Champagne, which seats 30 guests & is styled in cool tones of white, gray, silver, & has a lot of crystal detailing. I plan to wear a black dress (I have a specific image in my head about this dress that I have not been able to find online or in stores yet but I’m not giving up!) & I think black with sparkly jewelry would really stand out in that chapel. We also want to incorporate a dark red, almost wine, color into our scheme which I think would be very fitting for so many things – the chapel color scheme, the fact it would be a winter wedding, & our personal style. In my mind…it’s beautiful. Hopefully they can work their magic as wedding coordinators & make it work because I’m clueless.

I FaceTime’d Clinton during the duration of my visit & walked him through as much as possible but decided to walk downstairs and check out restaurants to consider for our reception dinner. I stopped for breakfast at the crepe place downstairs & had a blueberry lemon crepe that sounded far better than it tasted. If you know me at all then you know I stopped by the slots and played a little -I tend to have some luck up my sleeve from time to time- but didn’t win anything this time around. Actually I did but ended up losing. I play mostly because I’m a Caesar’s Rewards member & like to keep my rewards active so I can get room comps. I walked over to Planet Hollywood & checked out their chapel which I thought was very plain & don’t believe we’ll be using. Out of pure curiosity I walked across the street to The Cosmopolitan & looked at their venues as well. It’s such a beautiful hotel! At this point time was running short on me because I was working a red eye home from Vegas to Orlando & I knew I’d want to sleep for a few hours. It was officially afternoon so I thought I’d grab a quick lunch before heading back to Henderson & noticed that there is a Hattie B’s inside The Cosmopolitan! Hattie B’s is a Nashville staple famous for their hot chicken. Hattie’s is divine. I had to leave Vegas on a high note since my crepe was kinda blah so I jumped in the line & ordered my hot chicken sandwich, pimento mac & cheese, and a sweet tea. Heavenly. Chef’s kiss.

Shortly after lunch, I got my ride back to the crew hotel totally inspired for things to come. I feel like I have a real plan forming now! I have some dress shops I want to check out – they’re scattered all over the country so I think I’ll be putting my flight bennies to use soon! I found a dress shop that I am just dying to visit that is in Salt Lake City & as luck would have it, at the end of the month my airline starts flying to SLC! I have also found a shop in Minnesota that had some beautiful black dresses as well as a couple shops around Florida. My Uber was hilarious & if you read my little story about him on Facebook then you already know what I’m talking about but he was right about one thing – “we gon’ make it!” and we did.

I had a wonderful visit to Vegas prepping for our wedding. I can’t wait to fly back out & start finalizing some decisions & have Clinton fly out with me the next time!

Next order of business is talking Clinton out of wanting to wear a white tux to our wedding. Please someone, help me.


– Autumn