Mandalay Bay – Fabiola + John – Las Vegas Wedding Videographers
My husband and I first met when working in the military. At the time John was stationed at Pearl Harbour in Hawaii and I was a military education counselor. I was working with John to help him to achieve his master’s degree, but this was a working relationship that was soon to become so much more. After two years as work colleagues, we finally went out on our first date ever on the 19th September 2009.
We decided to take our date at the cinema watching ‘Cloudy with the Chance of Meatballs’ in 3D. On the ride back home I was extremely shocked to hear John singing along to the Christian songs that were playing in the car. I remember thinking at the time how great it was that John was a devout Christian like me. At a later date, I found out that the only reason he knew the songs was because the station we heard in the car was the same as the Christian radio station that was played constantly at his workplace. This had allowed him to memorize them.
It was on the 10th of November 2012 that John was watching television and every single channel he watched was of couples either getting engaged or married. I longed for Johns proposal to come too but as of yet, there had been no sign. Little did I know that he had a plan in his mind all along.
With the date 11/12/13 approaching, John had been waiting until that very day to propose. I had no idea and actually remember commenting on all of the people getting engaged and married on this date and laughing at how ‘cheesy it was’. Looking back I cringe remembering those comments. Poor John had already got plans in place to propose to me that very day and had invited all of our friends. That day John had popped out to pop to the shop. I thought nothing of it until hours later when he had still not returned. Every time I rang to see where he was he had a different excuse, but all plausible so I had no idea what was in store for me. So close to Christmas, I assumed he was grabbing a few surprise gifts.
When John did finally return he asked me to get dressed for dinner. We planned to go to the Chart House in Redondo Beach, CA. I loved that place; it was so romantic and had a full glass wall only feet away from the ocean. The plan was to meet up with engineer friends from our workplace, as I hadn’t had a catch up for a long time it was something I was looking forward to. John went on ahead of me and asked me to meet him there a little later that evening. When I arrived there we were seated at a huge table and looked a little lost as no one had arrived yet but us. I was starting to think that John may have given our friends the wrong time or venue, but he assured me they were just running late. Music began to play and I recognized the singer, my friend Damon who had traveled from San Diego to come and sing to me for Johns big surprise proposal. Our other friends followed behind him snapping pictures with their cameras.
What I didn’t know then was that the reason John had gone ahead of me to ensure Damon and our other friends were able to rehearse the grand entrance. When I entered the restaurant they had been there all along but seated at the bar so I had walked right past them without even noticing.
As Damon and our other friends walked towards me John romantically kneeled down in front of me but seemed to be searching his pocket frantically for something. Damon continued to sing while John continued to search through his pocket for the beautiful ring which he eventually found stuck to the lining. I was so shocked by both the appearance of the friends I thought hadn’t bothered to show but more so the proposal itself.
When our wedding day finally arrived I was already pregnant with our first child, to be our first born Giovanni. I walked towards the alter and poor John broke down in tears of happiness and pride, which was something that brought back memories when looking at our Las Vegas wedding Videography at a later date. He did so well to keep it together throughout the ceremony. Photographs alone could never have captured this moment as well as the videography.
The wedding was originally set to take place on Grand Turks at the end of our Caribbean Cruise and this had been the plan for over a year with around 60 people having bought reservations for flights and the cruise. Unfortunately, it got to February and the Zaki virus was a big threat which meant we were unable to safely continue with our previous plans of having our wedding in the Caribbean. The last minute changes were a nightmare, but we were thankfully able to save money by getting married in Vegas. Getting Las Vegas wedding Videography to help us capture our day instead of the original photographer turned out to be one of the best last minute plans ever!
We finally settled on renting a large mansion which had 10 rooms for 4 days which meant that we could all spend time together rather than a hotel where we would have more than likely all had a drink, fell into bed and gone home the following day. Instead, we were able to play games throughout the day after having breakfast together and thanks to Memory Lane Video, we can look back on this special time with our loved ones. It was such a fun time and made better by spending it with both John and the other important people in our lives.
The venue itself Mandalay Bay was gorgeous and captured by Memory Lane Video , we were at first sceptical because we had to walk through the parking lot and it was right next to the main road but thankfully it all worked out well. We were able to rent a private room in M Casino buffet which worked out cheaper and had higher quality foods than the usual reception hall. In addition to this John had rented limousines to take the guests to the different locations ending with a memorable night of dancing and singing karaoke in the mansion. Rather than having to get dressed up for the after party celebrations many of the guests got into their pyjamas as we were all staying their anyway.
Thankfully we were able to reschedule the cruise for April 2016 on an even better ship than the one we originally booked. We were able to have Memory Lane Video film the best day of our lives and now will have our video to look back. We were able to view Memory Lane’s videos previous work online before we booked. It was clear how all of the key moments were captured. It was all so professionally that it looked like a scene from a romance movie.
On the day itself, the staff with MLV were so professional and encouraged us to just be ourselves rather than making the whole day about stopping what we were doing to strike a pose. They only asked us to stop very occasionally so that we could get parts of the video that would make it even better and were ecstatic with the results. The team were all friendly and helped make the day fun, which made it easy to forget they were there as strangers at our wedding. There’s absolutely nothing about the day or the memories Last Vegas Videography captured that could have been any better.
Photos are great but the video, allowed us to capture whole scenes and moments so everyone else could enjoy watching the video as much as we do. Usually, couples are forever pulling out the dusty posed pictures, but this video gives us something that we can share and enjoy with our son and any future children and grandchildren for years to come. Everything from the music, our personalities, the happiness, and love were captured giving us an ageless gift that will live on long after we have grown old and grey together.
