Sarah and Kyle hit the bright lights of Las Vegas to celebrate their intimate, original Mat Night (Halloween Eve) love fest complete with a trained ring-delivering bird, flamingo cake toppers, a murder mystery and Elvis.
Sum up your event:
I guess in a lot of ways it wasn’t very traditional.
For starters, Kyle came shopping with me and helped me pick my dress;. He was there when I tried it on and for the fittings (much to the confusion of the bridal boutique employees.) So, he saw me in the dress plenty of times before the wedding. He was also with me whole the morning of the wedding as we were getting ready. Honestly, I can’t imagine not having him there that morning because we work better as a team and lots of things needed doing.
I didn’t have something old, new, borrowed and blue, and no one “gave” me away. We didn’t have any bridesmaids or groomsmen or flower girls. We didn’t have a reception party and… our minister was Elvis.
Our ceremony took place in an actual Ghost Town (the Nelson Ghost town in Nevada). We chose the location for our wedding because the abandoned buildings and vehicles create a vintage (and slightly eerie) feel and made for mind-blowing backdrops for photographs. We wanted the wedding to have an old Hollywood 50’s feel because of the location and the whole Elvis thing. I opted for a short, tea-length dress to reflect the era and I asked my guests to try to do the same. They totally pulled it off and it looked amazing!
After the ceremony, our limo drove us to a public murder mystery dinner party. During dinner some actors posing as guests are “murdered” and the rest of the guests have to solve the murder. Im tempted to say this was my dad’s favorite part of the wedding. After dinner, we all went back to the hotel for the cake which was lemon flavoured and very delicious.
Why was the timing important?
We both love the Fall and Halloween, and the temperature in Vegas is tolerable at that time of the year. We also chose Mat night for our wedding because the holiday is underappreciated and basically forgotten, so it’s kinda our way to make Halloween Eve a special day for us.
What was your budget?
We didn’t want to spend as much as we ended up spending. It came up to about $10K (CAD) for everything including rings. Minus the rings, it would have been about $7000.
What were your “non-negotiables”?
For me (Sarah): Really nice pictures at a really cool and unique location! 
For Kyle: Raptor ring delivery.
What did you splurge on?
1) Joe the birdman (700$) for a Bird Ring Boy. This was Kyle’s must-have.
I discovered the idea when I was searching for a location to have the wedding. Apparently in Scotland its a popular thing to have owl ring delivery, especially for the castle weddings. It was one of the places we has considered for the wedding but it was way too expensive. But Kyle loved the idea of bird ring delivery so when we decided on Vegas I looked and found the bird man for him.
The raptor whose name is Sheba was trained to fly to Kyle while holding the rings. Long story short, Sheba was being a naughty little princess and didn’t want to perform that day. In the end, Sheba was tossed to Kyle instead. LOL.
2) Elvis the Minister (500$) We had to pay him extra to travel to our location.
What could you have lived without?
I can’t think of anything, everything came together pretty well. The Wedding planners and photographer at Luv Bug Las Vegas were absolutely amazing! I worried about nothing the whole time. They took care of everything and they were very organized and the pictures turned out amazing!
Number #1 bargain tip?
We tried to cut corners when possible. For example, I did my own nails and we ate dinner at public restaurant after instead of having a private reception. Also, we spent literally months looking for the right location that was both affordable and different from the norm. We entertained dozens of options before we found Luv Bug Las Vegas; the company that organized our Ghost Town wedding. I guess what I mean to say is that finding a good deal can sometimes take time patience and persistence.
Favourite detail?
Hard to pick just one! I think I was mostly just happy that everyone had a good time and nothing went tragically wrong.
Biggest surprise?
The biggest surprise was probably for our guests because we kept Sheba a secret. Otherwise for us there were no unexpected surprises, which is just the way we wanted it. Everything was exactly as Tim and Pam at Luv Bug said it would be.
Memorable moment?
On our way back to the hotel we made a pit stop at the famous fabulous Las Vegas sign to take a picture. We were just planning on taking some photos with our camera phones, but a professional photographer (Mark Winer) approached us and offered to take a few pictures for us instead!
Special vendor shout-outs!
1) LuvBug Las Vegas :
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