This week, our real brides come together to share three confessions about their weddings. Tweet us @bridalguidemag with the hashtag "#realbrides" to share yours!
Whenever Luke (who will, from now on, also be referred to as The Mister, The Man and My Boy) and I mention the location of our wedding, we always get the same, puzzled response: "Vegas! Wow...uh, why?" Most seem to think that since Australia (especially Western Australia, where we live) is filled with so many beautiful locations—everything from vineyards to lush, greenery-filled backyards—it's kind of weird that we’d pick somewhere like…Vegas?
It started out as a funny joke going around our family, that when we all visit America at the end of this year, Luke and I should get married in Vegas, just for the fun of it. That snowballed as we did more research, and realized that Sin City was a feasible destination option for us because it would allow us to avoid offending loved ones we couldn't afford to invite, thereby sparing our budget. To ours and many other people's surprise, Vegas is incredibly wedding-friendly and offers tons of great options beyond quickie nuptials in a drive-through chapel. (Note: Stay tuned for gorgeous evidence and a future post about the breakdown of costs for my destination wedding compared to what it would have cost to have my big day Down Under.)
Initially, when the Mr. and I first talked about getting married, Vegas never, EVER crossed our minds. We always thought we'd say "I do" on a gorgeous beach in the beautiful Indonesian island of Bali. With Bali being situated (almost) directly between Singapore (where I’m from!) and Australia, it seemed like the perfect locale for us and our beach-loving lifestyle. Then we looked at our guest list and realized we were expecting around 200 invited guests, total—most brides don't realize that they may actually get more guests than they anticipate for their destination wedding, since loved ones view it as an excuse for a vacay. Once we put the kibosh on Bali, I dreamt about a low-key, backyard bash: Truth be told, a backyard wedding filled with lots of DIY, homemade sangria, 20 people and fresh-cut wildflowers is pretty close to perfect, in my textbook. Since we don't have a picturesque backyard loaned out to us and we didn't want only my side of the family to have to do the traveling, we decided to compromise and throw the intimate wedding we've always envisioned in Vegas.
The bottom line: I want to let all of you brides out there in on a little secret that we all forget at some point in our planning—your wedding day is about no one else but you and your husband. Pick a wedding locale that you and your numero uno love. Someone in the extended family isn’t too keen on the location? That’s okay, they won’t pick it for their wedding.
—Theresa Misso
Theresa Misso is a real bride who originally hails from Singapore, but is currently living in Australia. This vintage-loving college student is getting married in Las Vegas (nearly 9530.99 miles away!) in an intimate, 30-person ceremony. Expect pops of color and lots of clean lines in her untraditional November 2011 wedding to fiancé Luke William Anthony.
