A Las Vegas Ceremony & A Kid’s Party Reception

Linsey Hepworth-Brown

July 11, 2017

Alix and Richard always wanted to elope to Las Vegas – so that’s exactly what they did! They were married with just their parent’s there then went on honeymoon driving around Route 1. When they returned back to the UK they had a huge party for all their friends and family which the bride described as “an eclectic kids party for adults.”

“We don’t do tradition at all so Vegas was the perfect choice!” said Alix. “Our wedding took place on Monday 10th October. We got married at the Graceland Chapel on the strip at 2.30pm with an officiant and the King himself. During the ceremony our officiant mistook Richard for ‘Michael’ and it was the funniest thing, it made us all laugh and relax immediately especially as Elvis knew we were up for a laugh he incorporated ‘Michael’ into our chosen songs throughout!”

They didn’t have a professional photographer, but they took plenty of their own posed shots on their phones. “We were due to meet our photographer after the ceremony but unfortunately he stood us up!” she said. “So we decided to ask our wonderful Uber driver if we could hire him out for three hours whilst we did our own guerilla photography. Bashir knew vegas well and took us to graffiti walls, unique art pieces, In ‘n’ Out burger (I was really hungry) and of course the infamous Welcome to Las Vegas sign. We couldn’t have been luckier that Richard’s parents agreed to be our stand-in photographers.”

Alix I wore a dress from eBay that Richard actually round for her! “I knew what dress I wanted but finding it was a different story, it took a while but he found my perfect dress for a bargain price of £50, so we bought two, as you do, just in case, which worked out perfectly as I used a fresh one for our reception back home, which was ideal as I dropped a lot of sequins in Vegas! I had the dresses altered to fit my size and added a mullet style shape which still came in cheaper than the average wedding dress. My heart shoe clips were a last minute DIY and the floral crown was a £1 from the H&M sale.”

Back at home, their reception took place on January 28th at Harrogate village hall. “We hired out a local village hall near Harrogate for three days costing us a mere £180! We used our own DJ software and created our own weird and wonderful soundtrack including rap, motown and 90s pop music to keep it personal. We hired a local Fish & Chip van and washed down with a fully catered free bar focusing on Richard’s love of craft ale.”

“We had our own sweet table so our guests also had a decent pudding. We were particularly spoiled for help as our friends, friends parents and my maid of honour baked cakes and buns. Our wedding cake was lovingly made by one of amazing best friends Sian, who was so patient with us throughout as we our only criteria was ‘Make it look like our wedding spewed on the cake’.”

“We had various activities and games to keep guests busy from Hungry Hippos to face in the hole props, Beat the Buzzer and beer pong. We had decided we wanted this wedding so our guests shouldn’t have to pay to celebrate with us so we did it all for them!”

All their decorations were DIY which really saved money. “We tried to recreate what we wanted for the decor by using materials we either had or picked up from Freecycle or from family and friends”, she explained. “Scrap pallets and wood cuttings were used for signs, used milk bottles for vases and an old business display banner from my father in law for our photo booth. Toys also played a big part in our wedding. Richard has an online toy business and our home is full of retro toys, Barbies and loads of Lego.”

In total they spent around £11,000 including their Vegas trip and honeymoon. “Our motto was ‘Spend it, but spend it for the right reasons’ which we kept to. The biggest expense was the flights, flying premium to Vegas. We saved money on both our outfits and deciding not to have professional hair and make up on the day.”

“The best thing about planning our wedding was planning for us and only us”, she concluded. “We planned everything single thing solely based on our passions and interests so it was fun whilst doing it. We enjoyed every minute of our wedding(s). Not even the Vegas photographer standing us up could bring us down. We were insanely happy all day.”

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