28 Sept: Las Vegas (Day 2) - catchup post too many years later!

What better way to start your wedding day than with some vegemite toast! Jamie had brought some for me and this was my opportunity to show Connie that it didn’t, in fact, “taste like dirt”. Both her and Kelly tried it. Kelly quite liked it, Connie was diplomatic, and I enjoyed it no end.

Mark, Jamie and I went for another hot sun wander while Connie and Kelly met up with one of Kelly’s friends, the infamous Dr Toby. Again, it was bloody hot in the sun, but as soon as you were in shade, it was quite bearable. We walked down to the Venice – which really is a mini Venice. Gondolas, Doge’s Palace, Campanile, the whole kit and caboodle. Only with chlorine instead of sea water. We went down as far as The Mirage where we would be seeing the Cirque Beatles show ‘Love’ that night.

The casinos all have very inviting pools but we went for the air conditioning instead. We ducked into the foyer of Caesars’ Palace (after walking past the Colosseum). Yep, it’s pretty impressive. Huge marble statues and fountains and floors made of beautiful Italian marble. We went and looked at the gambling areas in here as well as a few other casinos, but they are all smoking venues and so we wouldn’t last very long before deciding we valued some fresh air above the flashing lights. They must have amazing air conditioning systems though because even though everyone was smoking, it wasn’t like walking through a pub in the 80s. It was smoky air but not stale cigarette smells – and it disappeared as soon as you were out of the playing area.

We went into the Bellagio in search of ‘the world’s largest chocolate fountain’. That seemed like a logical thing to go and look at. We had a look at all the very expensive Bellagio shops; Harry Winston, Tiffany’s, Chanel, Dior, Fendi, Hermes, Valentino – you name it, if the prices tags were in the hundreds of thousands, it was there. We ended up needing to ask where the fountain was as it seemed we were on the wrong path. A bellhop pointed us in the right direction but we can see why we walked straight past it. It was a little sad. Not unlike the buffalo in San Fran, it was undersized and lacking in any energy.

 ~ OK, writing from memory now as we’ve jumped into 2023 ~

It was get-ready-for-the-wedding time. Jamie and I got all prettied up, and I can’t remember where Mark went while we did! I know we met up somewhere in the lobby with him and Connie and Kelly. We decided it would be good to go to the chapel in Connie’s rented red convertible, so we headed off to the carpark. It was then that we realized that five people were not going to fit in the car! So Mark, Jamie and I hightailed it back to the Flamingo and had the valet bring our car around. We somehow managed to navigate to the chapel – but we were running late by this stage. When we arrived, the couple who were ‘going’ after us were there, so they decided to go in early so that we could wait for Connie and Kelly to arrive. We were given our leis and our Elvis sunnies and took some crazy pics while we waited. Then it was our turn.

Elvis was fabulous. (Gosh, I don’t know what to write about all of this – it’s a blur because it was all so full on). He told us how it would all work, marched Mark and Jamie (his best-woman) off down to the end of the aisle and Kelly into the guest seating. He came back to grab me and I’m pretty certain Connie walked down the aisle before us. I should say, Jamie was Mark’s best-woman because she was my bridesmaid the first time around, and Connie was my bridesmaid this time! We were ‘doing’ the Rock-a-Hula Elvis wedding, but in all the time delay confusion, Elvis walked me down the aisle to ‘I Can’t Help (Falling in Love with you)’ rather than the Hawaiian Wedding Song (which my grandparents were married to – that’s a long story). It was ok though, he changed to the Hawaiian stuff later. He was a fab Elvis impersonator and looked and sounded like the real deal.

The ceremony was so much fun. He had these crazy funny vows – “I promise I’ll always love your tender and be your hunk-hunka-burning-love” and “I will always let you step on my blue suede shoes” type stuff. It was really hard to repeat after him as we were laughing so much. It was great fun. And then he got all serious – and we said serious vows, which neither of us were expecting. We thought it was all a bit of a lark, something to do when you’re in Vegas type stuff – and so when the real vows came out, it turned from funny into really lovely. I can’t remember them, so I wish I had blogged sooner. I remember that I cried, and that it was in so many ways, more meaningful than our original wedding. Yeah, it was that good.

Then we had all the wedding photos, followed by a fun version of ‘Rock-a-Hula Baby’ where we all danced up and down the aisle. Elvis of course finished with a “thank you very much”. It really was great fun and a very special memory. I quite often tell people how we had a sleazy greasy Elvis wedding in Vegas – so kitschy.  After all that fun, we of course had to have a ‘reception’ so we headed to one of the bars outside the Flamingo and dug into margheritas, beers and nachos. Connie had the biggest mound of nachos ever. Take a look at the photo album to see the gimungous thing! Lots of toasts, and lots of laughs. 

That night, we went to see Cirque de Soleil’s Beatles show ‘Love’. This is not a touring show and so if you’re in Vegas, it’s worth seeing. It was really well done. Dancers, lighting, sets and props – it was very typical Cirque style, made all the better with a Beatles soundtrack. Sadly, it’s all a bit of a blur now, but I know we all walked away talking about how wonderful it was.

Check out lots (and lots) of crazy photos here.