Wedding in Las Vegas or England???

so, I got engaged on Sunday night and I'm thrilled!!!!!!
Now comes the hard decision. Wedding in Las Vegas or in England?
DF likes the idea of a Vegas wedding. Anyone have any personal experience?
Seems like they have plenty of choices ranging from cheesy to classy.
I also like the idea of getting married in some picturesque, quaint, English chapel.
Costwise, I'm thinking US wedding in Vegas would be loads cheaper.
Anyone have any ideas? Anyone married in England recently care to share stories/expenses etc???

Thanks!!! Can't wait to start planning

Hmmm. I'm not personally a fan of the Vegas wedding idea.

I think a lot of this depends on your situation. Will it just be you two and maybe a few friends and family, or do you want more people to come?  Where are you located? Where will you be living afterwards? You could get married in the UK quite cheaply, depending.

I understand the lure of an English country wedding, and I think lots of people here do as well. In the end, we chose to get married where it was convenient for immigration and would make my family happy.

Whatever is EASIEST to plan - really, don't make it hard on yourself. Mine is in the states and it has been hard to plan. I would have loved to have it here, but my family wouldn't travel here for it, so I am having it in PA.

CONGRATS!!!

We're looking to have a very small, intimate wedding with immediate family and a few close friends.
Maybe about 15-20 guests.
i'm in Manchester and will be living here after wedding.
It will be easier for my family to travel to Vegas but is not impossible for them to travel here for the wedding.

If it's important that you have those peole with you, I'd ask them honestly if they'd be willing to fly over. We had people promise and then back out, on both sides. I wanted family to come, and that's a big reason we chose the US, though I still have regrets at times. (I always joked the QE2 would've been a perfect compromise!)

Also, consider how easy it'd be to do that little church wedding. Is your fiance CofE? Does he go to church? Many vicars are reluctant to let you marry if you don't attend there, or have a really valid reason (e.g. my parents married there). Would you be just as happy getting married in the parish church where you/fiance live, even if it's modern and urban? Or with a registry office wedding?

One of my close friends got married in Vegas and she had a lovely wedding...and people used it as a vacation so they all stayed around for a while...hung out by the pool, did sightseeing...had fun!  You can make it a classy event...

Congrats!!

There is a Vegas wedding stereotype...Elvis marries you in a drive through. But locals don't do that...I've never been to one.

We have the whole church thing, reception at a country club/ historic house/resteraunt/ hotel ballroom (often off strip), just like everywhere else. If you did that it would be still cheaper. And Vegas does have some beautiful churches, but none like England.

Believe it or not, some casinos have really nice wedding chapels, far from the slots. You can get a wedding, a (small) nice reception with cake, spa for the bride, and sometimes a honeymoon suite for $3000 or so- not bad. There is a store on Sahara and Paradise road that rents very nice, none cheese gowns for far less then buying.

Freeds bakery has excellent cake, not too expensive. They are on Eastern rd. I think? Just ask, everyone knows it!  

That's all I can think of for now...I will say if it were me, I would want to be married in the UK over Vegas, but I'm really into history. Good luck either way.

My Scottish cousin and his English wife got married in Vegas a few years back.  They decided to combine the wedding and the honeymoon, and flew both his immediate family and hers over for the wedding.  (We live about 2.5 hours drive from Vegas, so we were able to attend as well.)  They HAD been planning a really big do in Scotland, so didn't actually end up spending any more money.  Anyway, they got married at a wedding chapel on the strip...can't remember what it was called, but I can find out if I need to.  Arrived by limo.  Men were in full Scottish dress.  Very nice, touching ceremony.  Then Elvis arrived to sing a song for them!  (But they had arranged that in advance, it wasn't mandatory!) 

After the ceremony, nice supper at a posh restaurant.

It was very nice, and although much smaller than what they'd originally planned they enjoyed it very much.

Thanks for the Congrats guys!

crabbit, would love to know the chapel if you can get the info.

Am not having the wedding til May so have plenty of time to decide.

First of all, congratulations!!  That's awesome! 

Secondly, my best friend had a wedding in Vegas and it was incredibly classy!  Regular ceremony in a real chapel.  No Elvis or anything like that.  She planned the wedding from Virginia and had her own personal coordinator that came with the package deal she got which included ceremony, reception, pictures, and accommodations.  It was really well done and so stress-free for her (she planned it in less then a month).  She rented her wedding dress, which I had no idea you could do, but Vegas specializes in weddings, so you can do almost anything.  The coordinator took care of all the details right down to getting her a hair appointment!

I have no personal experiences with weddings in England, but I can imagine from a cost perspective Vegas would be way cheaper.

My wedding was in England, and it was classy I guess (I've been told by dh's friends).  It was quite expensive, and after all the hassle (well, I'm starting a graduate program too, so that was a large part of it, doing two important things at once) we almost wished we had gone to Vegas.  I think it's however you feel.  Sounds like you can have classy anywhere!  Good luck!  Oh, and CONGRATS!   

A friend's brother got married in Vegas recently, and they had the reception at Lake Las Vegas.  They said it was absolutely beautiful.  Here is their wedding page link with the different options.  Best wishes!

http://www.lakelasvegas.com/events_weddings_venues.asp

Ah yes! One of my favorite weddings was at Lake Las Vegas. It's really lovely, and the turtle bay resort has *excellent* food.

Congrats!  Either way you go, I hope you have a wonderful wedding.  BTW my best friend had a Vegas wedding and it was very nice.  I don't see how you can go wrong with either place.

Hi Texasgal

What did you decide in the end?  I'm also a Texas girl (originally from Corpus Christi, have been in London for the past 7 years) and DH and I got married nearly two months ago in a registry office in west London.  We thought it was very romantic as he is also a foreigner (from Australia) so it was different for both of us, and the venue seemed to suit us perfectly.

Las Vegas is also fab, so you really can't go wrong either way.  Just curious as to what you decided in the end - and you don't have much longer to go til the big day too!