Teneisha & Chris’ Funky Las Vegas Wedding

The Offbeat Bride: Teneisha, Imagination Specialist

Her Offbeat Partner: Chris, Graphic Designer

Location & date of wedding: Ceremony- Valley of the Falls, Mandalay Bay, Vegas. Reception- Foundation Room, House of Blues, Vegas. After Party- The Luxor, Vegas — May 23, 2009

What made our wedding offbeat: The objective for our wedding (besides getting married) was about two things — the first was a goal that every single person have a completely kick ass time (including ourselves) and the second being that we would do things our way, no questions asked.

We solved the “having fun” issue pretty easily by getting married in the evening, in Las Vegas, with a premium open bar and a excellent ipod play list. We also encouraged people to get creative with the dress code which produced a very colorful crowd. I think that our Bride and Groom outfits helped to set the mood as well. We wore accents of matching blues and silly things like bow ties, suspenders and a handmade hair fascinator that stuck straight off my head.

A few other fun aspects were; our handmade Elvis card box, a handful of Elvis glasses and gag glasses that floated around through the night, a few packages of stick on mustaches, a bunch of glow bracelets/necklaces, lounge seating and sushi rolls at the reception, and chocolate covered strawberry's instead of cake.

Our after party included everyone, young and old and lasted until 5am!

Our biggest challenge: Our biggest challenge was probably helping people to understand what a Creative Cocktail dress code was. We threw the term on our invitations thinking that it would inspire people but instead we ended up making 89 people nervous that they were going to “do it wrong”.

We dealt with it by patiently answering questions and editing the dress code section of our wed-site a few times until it sounded like less of a rule and more of a suggestion. I also ended up giving people a jumping off point by suggesting a designer to look at, i.e. Betsy Johnson.

My favorite moment: I think my favorite part of the day was the actual ceremony. Just Chris and I, in front of our friends and family, holding hands, laughing and smiling so hard our faces hurt. Our officiant was 

fabulous and our violinist was straight out of a vintage Vegas mobster movie. We even had a “the bride may now high-five the groom” moment, which was very us.

My advice for other offbeat brides: Even if people think you are crazy for planning so far in advance, keep planning. Having 85% of your wedding tasks done a month before the wedding is a huge relief. Not to mention that the wedding you will probably actually have will be much different than your first draft ideas, so the sooner you can get to that point the better. Get a three ring binder and plan the heck out of it.

Also, If you are looking for nontraditional dresses, go to prom dress stores, you might be surprised at how much unique and colorful stuff they have.

Care to share a few vendor/shopping links?:

• Our awesome engagement shoot and wedding photography is by Holly Jones Photo.
• My Dress (which I bought at a prom dress store) is from Sherri Hill.
• My necklace was from Etsy seller BrianaEdelmanDesigns.
• Both of our rings are from Ben Bridge.
• We spent our wedding week, had our ceremony, and were treated like royalty at, Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.
• We had our reception in the amazing Foundation Room.
• We did a pre-wedding photo shoot at the Neon Museum (aka the Neon Graveyard).

Enough talk — show me the wedding inspo!:

 

 

Of course OBT members who want even more information can track down Teneisha on the OBT.