To be honest this story isn't too different from how David found me on the night he proposed.  I was sitting on the floor of our one bedroom apartment in front of Hannah's crib, crying and eating Wendy's chicken nuggets.  I must have looked so pathetic but it's how I felt.  I was roughly 7 or 7 1/2 months pregnant with Hannah and all of our family was having financial troubles...including us.  I was stressed over asking them to help us pay for a lavish wedding when I knew it just wasn't what anyone could afford.

"Where can we elope that will make you happy baby?" my future hubby said.  "Ummm...Alaska or Vegas" I said trying to stop sobbing.  "Well, I think if we did Alaska we still have to "plan" things.  Why don't we go to the computer and look at Vegas?  Let's just look and see what it's like".  He was trying to be some empathetic to my situation and make me feel better and to be honest, he's a genius.  Within 30 minutes of being online we'd found a venue we loved, flights that were affordable.  So we started jotting down all the information to talk with our families about.  We made the decision that night that we were going to get married in Las Vegas!



That night when we looked into Vegas we just Goggled "Get Married In Vegas".  I think one of the first links we came upon was www.702wedding.com, they were an all purpose venue.  They had several locations with options upon options to give you the wedding of your dreams.

Granted, there are a ton of options when it comes to getting married in Vegas.  You can do a drive-thru wedding, you can have a lavish event at a hotel or you can meet in the middle like we did.  702 Weddings helped us with everything!  I think it was MAYBE 15 minutes from the time that we sent in one of those online consultation requests to someone calling and emailing us to ask about our big day!  They were wonderful and we both knew from the get go that they were going to help make our wedding everything we wanted it to be!



702 Weddings offered a couple different options for the ceremony.  We opted for their Wedding Garden.  The other venues for us were too bland feeling.  The Wedding Garden offered beautiful backgrounds and it was in a separate building so we knew we'd be the only party in the house for our big day.  It was perfect and even better looking in person.

The package we decided to go with was the $699 "Inspire Package". This is probably their most popular because it's the middle ground.  You get A LOT for your money and you can always add more options if you want.  Included was not only a limo to our big wedding day but they even sent a limo to take us to get our marriage license!  I had a beautiful bouquet of white roses and candles were everywhere.  The best part of this package and most of the packages that 702 Weddings offers in their chapels was that we had "Live Broadcast".  This meant that since we were only take 2 others with us for our wedding all of our family and friends could watch us get married in REAL TIME!  It was like they were there but without all the expense that came with it.



To be honest, deciding when to get married was an option of convenience.  We got married on Saturday, September 17th, one week after David's birthday but it was also a week before my maternity leave with Hannah ended.  I know it sounds crazy planning your wedding around your maternity leave but I knew work wouldn't let me take off for another "vacation" just after returning.  It actually ended up working out really well.

We left on the 15th of September which was a Thursday and returned that Sunday.  I would say our 4 day/3 night stay was just the right amount of time but David will tell you he wishes we had stayed just one more night and left on Monday to have a little more "honeymoon" time.


Who to Take?  Who to Leave Behind?

Because we had a limited budget ($4,500 total) we knew we couldn't take everyone in our families.  It was a hard decision but we left Hannah with my mom.  We knew that because the package had the live broadcast everyone could still see us get married.  We opted to take David's brother who was his Best Man and my girlfriend who was my Maid of Honor.  We were totally blown away at the last weeks before our big day that David's cousins from Mississippi and my cousins from Oregon decided to fly in and join us!  Thankfully everyone did it on their budget but we couldn't have been happier having some extra family with us to celebrate.  And while we missed Hannah a ton we knew it was the best decision to leave her at home.  Vegas just isn't really a place for little 8 week old babies!

Would I Do It Again?

YES!  100% I would marry in Vegas all over again.  The process was easy.  I wasn't a stressed out bride.  We were able to enjoy every moment of our big day with those who loved us and even if some couldn't be there they called and texted before and after the ceremony.  I don't see how people plan these huge weddings.  It's too much stress.  In fact we went to a couple weddings after ours and people would say "I just want it to be over with!"...what the heck?  "Should have eloped in Vegas like we did" is what we tell everyone.  We will be going back for our 5 year anniversary to renew our vows and we will definitely be using 702 Weddings again...probably their vow renewal in the Grand Canyon package!

How did you chose to marry?  Was it a JOP, Vegas or any elopement, destination wedding or a big lavish wedding?  Would you change anything or keep it all?