Ah, Las Vegas, Sin City, the perfect place to be before you get hitched. If you’re the maid or matron of honor and you are planning this trip to vegas for Bachelorette party — continue reading. I am writing this from my own experience and sharing our vendors. Just remember to make sure the ‘bride-to-be’ has a good time and always carry a barf bag in your teeny clutch purse.
First of all, our vendors:
- Flight: Southwest Airline, US Airways
- Hotel: Venetian Resort and Casino
- Dinner: The Grill at Valentino (Venetian)
- Snack: Strip House (Planet Hollywood)
- Night Club: Tao (Venetian), Lavo (Palazzo), Privé (Planet Hollywood)
- Show: The Phantom of the Opera (Venetian)
- Bachelorette Gears: Bachelorette.com
- Party additions – Flashy Blinky Rings
Kien wanted a vegas bachelorette party, but without the naked greasy guys, so we decided to hit the night clubs in vegas and see a show instead. Before our trip, I ordered a bachelorette veil and some hang-over remedies from Bachelorette.com and something flashy for the girls to wear. I as going to order t-shirts for the girls, but who would want to wear tshirts to go clubbing. There were some clever ideas tho I learned from other bachelorette parties in Vegas: have the girls buy dresses of the same color (not the bm dresses though). Forever 21 usually have good stuff.
First of all, get a headcount of how many girls will be going to vegas. Ask the girls if any of them can get comp’ed rooms. For our party, we got 2 free rooms for both Friday and Saturday. Second, room sharing. If you can’t get free rooms, pick a nice hotel with suites, then split the cost. Venetian or Palazzo both have really nice rooms with sofa bed., plus you’ll be on the Las Vegas Strip. Fit up to 6 girls per room. (to save $, just tell the reservation desk you have 4 people in one room, that is the max they’ll allow without addtional charge). Let the girls pick who they want to stay with, and the Bachelorette can decide which room she wants to stay in.
Two of the girls have comp’ed rooms at the Venetian, with a few girls dropping out last minute, two rooms were perfect for our party. Most of the girls flew in from LA and we met up at the Venetian front desk to check in. We couldn’t decide the time and place for dinner, so we went to the food court and grabbed some fries to snack on. Our agenda for Friday night was dinner and clubbing. After snack, we shopped at the Venetian Grand Canal Shoppes for a bit, then went back to our rooms to change. [Remember if you have 4 girls per room, make sure you buffer a good 2 hours before dinner or event, cuz we know how long it takes to shower, change, hair and make-up.] We made dinner reservation at The Grill at Valentino inside the Venetian. We picked a restaurant inside the hotel we were staying in to avoid girls getting lost, or having to walk in their heels too far. The restaurant serves hearty traditional Italian foods such as pastas and ravioli, they also have steak and seafood. It happened to be my birthday, so after dinner, the girls got me a yummy tiramisu and sang me happy birthday song.
I was lucky to have a bunch of party animal friends, so I got a couple of nightclub hook-ups for the weekend. I also bought these flashy blinky rings for the girls to wear. They were a hit at the clubs! Guys and girls asking us where we got them and what do they have to do to get one. We made the guys buy us drinks, and I think I gave one to a girl cuz she was also getting married. Plus, the rings helped us find each other in the clubs. Anyway, first night club we hit was Lavo at the Palazzo. It happened to be open Vodka bar night for the ladies from 10 – midnight, we totally scored! The club was hopping by midnight and the server gave us a table free of charge (no purchase required) until someone actually buys one. We drank and danced and drank some more.
My guy texted me around 12:30 and asked if we wanted to meet him at Tao at the Venetians. He says we can get in free by showing our hand stamps and ask for this other guy. That’s great news, right? Right, Except the girls wanted to go bathroom, change shoes, gamble or whatever, we somehow got split up. [Remember when you have hook-ups for nightclub to make sure everyone in your party arrive at the same time.] With two girls missing, we were stuck outside Tao for a bit, until one of the girls asked if there’s anyway we can get in since we’re hotel guests and showed our room keys. Finally, the ‘guestlist’ guy let us in. The club was crazy packed! We bought a round of drinks and hit the dance floor. We didn’t leave the club till almost 4 am. Everyone passed out as soon as we got back to the room.
Saturday, I woke up early with a headache, so I went downstairs and got coffee and some pastry for everyone. The girls got up about an hour later. We decided to hang out by the pool. Again, getting ready takes a loooooooong time. Finally, we’re ready to go. The pool was packed. My guy got us into Tao Beach. It was nice, but way too many people, plus the day beds were $400+ and the cabana were $2,500! We really just needed some magazine and sun, so we left Tao Beach and asked the Pool attendants to find us lounge chairs. We ordered lunch from Riva Poolside (from Wolfgang Puck).
After our sunbath, we went back to our room to freshen up. Kien wanted crepe, so we walked to Paris and had dessert at La Creperie. We had to make it back to Venetian by 6:45 pm for our 7 pm Phantom of the Opera Show. Kien’s friend, Nicole Pryor, is in the cast. She has an amazing voice. The show was awesome! I loved the stage design and props. Nicole gave us a backstage tour. We saw some of the props they used such as the famous masquerade staircase, the boat, and each of the handcrafted $20K costumes. After the tour, we were way late for dinner, so I suggested to get to Prive at Planet Hollywood, get in and our hands stamped then come out to eat. We got to Planet Hollywood and had to wait for my hook-up to get us in. While we’re waiting the girls were starving, so we got snacks at the Strip House. Around 11:30 pm, we finally got into the club. I think the girls liked Prive the best. Karlene, of course gets picked up by all the guys, so we were hanging out with some guys at their table. Kien had one too many to drink, so I took her back to the hotel around 2:30 am. The girls didnt get in till 6 am *wink*.
Kien and I had a flight back at 1 pm on Sunday, but I misread the time, so we missed our flight. FLYING HOME FROM VEGAS ON SUNDAY IS NOT PRETTY! We were put on stand-by for the 4:30 pm flight, but that flight was overbooked, the next one is not till 6:30 pm and that one is also not guaranteed. While trying to figure out what to do, Kien saw MARIO LOPEZ standing in line to talk to the Southwest counter lady. I think he totally got hook up for the 4:30 flight! Anyway, we decided to hop on the plane that was leaving for LAX at 5:30 pm and finally made it back home. Too bad our baggage were in Ontario, so my poor hubby had to drive us all the way from LAX to ONT to pick up our stuff.
Overall, I’d say the bachelorette party was a success. We had some good times and annoying times. Highlight was probably seeing Mario at the airport, but that might just be me. =P
