Bianca + Mick Jagger Meets Elvis + Priscilla: A Week Long Las Vegas & Palm Springs Elopement

Rachel Gulotta

November 18, 2017

Sadie and Cameron wanted their wedding to be a low-key, funky, retro, boozy, dive bar-y 70s inspired Las Vegas elopement! They took inspiration from Elvis and Priscilla’s wedding, 70s Vegas and anything that fell under the category of maximum fun, minimum stress. They eloped in Vegas, then drove to Palm Springs a renting an Airbnb for the weekend.

“All of our friends stayed with us in the Real World Suite at The Palms for the three nights we stayed in Vegas which was SO fun and let us really enjoy each others company,” began Sadie. “It felt like a really exciting three night sleep over with all of our best friends.”

Before their ceremony they went to take pictures at Red Rock Canyon. “There were two tour busses full of Japanese teenagers following us from stop to stop. Every time we kissed for our photographers the tourists would squeal and take pictures and clap. It got funnier and funnier each time, which is why we are busting up laughing in a lot of those photos! At one point they were all cheering and Cameron made motions for them to keep cheering and they did for a really long time! It was such a blast and took some of our nerves away.”

Their ceremony was held in Graceland Wedding Chapel and was officiated by Elvis (of course!) “Elvis walked me down the aisle singing Can’t Help Falling in Love (which still makes me cry when I hear it) and we said some very cheesy Elvis themed vows. One of us definitely said, ‘I promise to never leave you at Heartbreak Hotel’ and in a matter of 10 minutes we were married and dancing around to Viva Las Vegas with our friends and family!”

Sadie designed the jumpsuit that she wore and made her own veil! “I designed my bridal Jumpsuit and had a tailor sew it for me. We also made my veil, cry baby handkerchief, our just married cooler and gift bags for all of our friends. They had our wedding ‘logo’ on and included a shot glass, a beer koozie, a matchbook, and tote bag. We also had colourful visors in each bag as well as personalised buttons with our guests names and a fun fact about the friend.”

“After we had our small elopement in Vegas we road-tripped to Palm Springs where we rented a gorgeous Mid Century Modern Airbnb for the weekend. The rest of our friends joined us in Palm Springs in a variety of rentals and hotels and we had pool parties at the Airbnb and hung out at The Ace Hotel. It was a really fun and inexpensive way to include more people that were important to us in our wedding. It also allowed us to have a wedding week so we got to spend lots of quality time with our friends and really get the most out of riding that just married high.”

Their photography and videography were their biggest expenses. “We really wanted people who would be excited about our non-traditional wedding and would be able to capture the mood and spirit of the day which they totally did! But we saved money by using Downtown Vegas and all it has to offer as our ‘venue’ so we didn’t have to rent one! We also didn’t have to pay for any flowers or decoration other than my bridal bouquet (which we took on the plane from SF to Las Vegas!) We cut out every tradition that didn’t have meaning to us, so we saved lots of money that way too.”

“We had so much fun planning once we adopted our ‘maximum fun minimum stress’ motto and started planning a week long party to celebrate the fun loving party animals we are. We are very lucky that we both agreed on keeping our week very non traditional and have families and friends that supported us celebrating however we wanted to.”

In retrospect, the only thing they would have done differently is keep their photographer and videographer for longer! “We wish we’d saved up to have the photographer and videographer come to Palm Springs for a day too”, she said. “We put just as much thought and love into that half of our wedding week, but don’t have any professional photos of videos of it.”

“Our advice for future brides and grooms is that weddings should be giddy and fun and beautiful for everyone, so really focus making the day all about you guys. In this day and age you can basically choose to do anything you want, so don’t let expectations and traditions hold you down! You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to. Time flies by so quickly, so make sure you fill your wedding day (or week in our case) with things and people that will really matter to you.”

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