Vegas, Baby!

Hey There!

It's been a while, but, by golly, I promised to provide updates on my trip to Vegas and, by golly, that's what I'm going to do!  Apparently living in a hotel warrants lots of free time (hence my exorbitant increase in facebook postings and comments) - so there's no excuse for my lack of blogging about Vegas =)  Here we go.

Why were you in Vegas, exactly?
Ah, yes.  In case you don't have the activities of my life memorized (why would you?) you may not remember this.  Our sweet friends from college, Ben and Michele, got married in Vegas at the gorgeous JW Marriott off Rampart Boulevard.  It's about 20 minutes from the Vegas Strip, but this hotel was like a tiny town - it was BEA-U-TI-FUL.

A little history =)
Ben is one of Marc's fraternity brothers...and we're basically the reason this couple got married (haha okay, not really).  But for serious - we are pretty much obsessed with this couple and we were so thankful to be able to celebrate their wedding with them.

Ben and Michele were our token "hotel roomies" during every beach weekend/formal/semi-formal event the fraternity had during the last few years of college.  We actually were roomies when Ben and Michele FIRST started thinking they may be a couple.

And now they're all grown up and tying the knot =)  Ahhhh...SO happy for them!!

Alrighty - time for the play by play.  Thursday night:
Marc and I had an evening flight to Vegas on Thursday.  NOT ONLY did we get bumped up to first class on the way there (what what!) but Marc surpised me with car service from the airport to the hotel.  We may sound like high rollers, but it was actually, like, $15 cheaper to get car service rather than take the hotel shuttle!  So don't think we're ballers...we're actually just really cheap.

Free drinks - a must when preparing for Vegas!  And Marc decided to get some work done on the plane too...lame.

Our driver - he was an ex-Army soldier and HUGE!  And had some great stories for us =)

After we landed, it was straight to the hotel to check-in and meet our buddies.  Marc went straight for the Craps table with some people, while I kept it real by playing Black Jack.


Mmmm...Steak...
Perhaps the highlight of our Thursday night was when me and 2 buddies decided we were hungry...at 4:30am...and wanted some steak.  We went to one of the many 24 hour restaurants in the hotel and ordered rib-eyes - complete with potatoes and eggs (it was part of the breakfast special...??).  It was quite hilarious - and I wasn't hungry again on Friday until like 4pm.  Go figure.

Marc and I both finally called it quits on Thursday night (or should I say Friday morning...) at around 5am.  Went to bed for a few hours...then woke up and started all over again =)

Friday Essentials - Pool, Bloody Mary, Strip:
We woke up on Friday around roughly 10-10:30 (actually quite impressed we woke up that early!) and decided to hit up the hotel pool with our pals.

Breakfast.  Note, there's no food - I was still full from my 4am steak, but goodness, I needed that Bloody Mary!

After getting some "breakfast", we decided to take a dip.  It was at this point that I realized I was the only married girl in the group (there were about 6 girls there total...and like 23 dudes) and I had made the switch from "house girl" to "house mother."

I'm not kidding.  I had a straw hat on, made sure everyone had sunscreen on all those hard to reach places, and provided magazines for everyone to read.  I was their mother.  No joke.  But I enjoyed it =)

Some of the boys - all protected from the sun with SPF 30 =)

The bride to be and some of the boys at the pool!

After completely losing track of time, we realized it was time to get showered and ready for dinner.  And let me tell you - not eating, staying out in the sun all day and losing track of how much you drink definitely makes for an interesting shower =)

We got some people together and decided to head out to the Vegas Strip for dinner.

Our dinner group =)

For dinner, we went to an Italian place called Battista's Hole in the Wall, and if you haven't been, you HAVE to go next time you're in Vegas.  This place is baller - there are no menus, but these billboards on the wall that showcase their food.  All the prices listed include a soup or salad, garlic bread, pasta side, entree, capuccino for dessert and BOTTOMLESS red and white wine!  Yes - bottomless wine.  With this group - it was practically suicide - but it's amazing!  AND they have a sweet old man there who will play the accordion for you =)

We're enjoying the serenading, accordion music =)

After dinner, we walked down the strip, made our stop at the Bellagio for the water show and then started gambling.

Me and Marc in front of the fountains =)

I'm going to be honest here...I'm not sure where we went after the Bellagio.  I just know that we went to a casino, there were girls dancing, there were free drinks, and I was playing Black Jack.  I actually played Black Jack by myself while the rest of the group played Craps.  The funny part is no one knew I was playing Black Jack at the same casino, about 30 feet away, so they sent out a search party for me.  But I was totally content...just playing Black Jack all by myself with the new friends I made at the table.

For those of you who haven't been to Vegas or played table games, it's really a lot of fun.  You literally build a rapport with the people at your table (as long as none of them are lame...that happens sometimes) and sort of create a little family.  You also start creating nick-names for each other and the dealer.  And if you or anyone at the table gets a Black Jack, everyone cheers and encourages each other.  It promotes world peace.  I seriously love Vegas.  That's what was going on at our little table and it was so much fun =) 

Saturday - Game Day/Wedding Day:
So at this point, you know that this whole group went to college together.  Well...to college people, Saturday = GameDay!  Even though the wedding was that afternoon, it didn't change the fact that the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets were taking on the Virginia Cavaliers for our Homecoming game.  The only thing that changed was that instead of the game starting 1:30pm it was starting at 10:30am due to the timechange.

Awesome...

...not.

I decided I would sleep in so that I wouldn't be grumpy later.  I know myself.

Our group watching the game.

After we won the football game, it was time to get ready for the wedding!  Our friends, Evan and Victoria, another married couple from the fraternity, came over to our hotel room to get ready.  Honestly, this was one of the highlights from the trip.  It was just like old times - Victoria and I were in the bathroom, doing our hair and gossiping about aaaall the single people (we both agreed that we are drama-free now that we're lame and married, so we enjoy hearing the gossip and drama of our single friends), and Evan and Marc were in the bedroom comparing wedding planning stories and talking about sports...or something.

Bummed this is blurry - but a prom-shot of Evan and Victoria =)

Pre-gaming the wedding =)  Don't invite us to your wedding if you're not cool with this...

 After we finished our drinks, it was time for the wedding.  They had a beautiful, outdoor ceremony in the courtyard of the hotel, and it was absolutely amazing.  I cried (this is normal).

The walkway leading up to the ceremony location.

She looked stunning!  Michele, walking down the aisle =)

Standing with the groomsmen - I love everyone in this picture!!!

Vows.

I love this!  They're laughing and high-fiving each other after walking down the aisle as husband and wife =)

I don't really feel like these pictures do the ceremony justice.  It was wonderful - so incredibly beautiful!

After the ceremony - time for cocktail hour!!!  Yay =)  The rest of the evening was pretty typical.  There was a cocktail reception, dinner, dancing, and general merriment.  Here are a few shots of the evening - it was just such a blasty blast, I'll let the pictures do the talking!

Awww cute!  First dance =)

Me and Marc with the happy couple.  WE LOVE THEM!

Marc and our friend, Sajit, breaking it down on the dance floor.

Dancin!

At the end of the night - it's blurry - but I think that symbolizes what I was seeing =)

Conclusion:
That's pretty much it.  We honestly didn't spend a whole lot of time on the strip, but it didn't matter.  Being with friends that you love and celebrating a marriage is what makes it fun!

Part of what was so great about this is that we made this wedding a little vacation for ourselves.  It was so great to just relax (...actually not sure you'd call what we did relaxing, but at least we weren't at work!) and be with people we know and love.  As a result of the weekend, we actually concluded that we should get the whole gang together once a year for a big, group vacation.  A lot of us live in pretty fun locations, so we may be planning more group outings in the future =)

Ben and Michele - we had SO much fun at your wedding!  Thanks for inviting us, and I really hope we didn't offend anyone with our antics =)