{Above graphic by Brooke of Claremont Road}
Phew, I am just barely recovered from a whirlwind 110 hours in Vegas! The trip overall was absolutely FANTASTIC, with the exception of my difficult return journey, which took 24 hours in itself! Crazyness. And upon my return, I somehow managed to catch a nasty head cold complete with sore throat, congestion and hacking cough. The joys of travel!
Anyhoo, some of you may know that way back in the day from 2006 – 2007 while planning my own wedding, I used to be blogger, Mrs. Emerald on Weddingbee. Even though that was years ago, I still keep in constant contact with many of the bloggers – old and new – through the powers of G-chat, Facebook, Twitter, personal blogs, etc. Gotta love social media! I am not embarrassed to say that Weddingbee truly changed my life because of the wonderful network of smart, savvy, and FUN women I met.
{Please note that this post will be full of strange character names if you are not familiar with Weddingbee!} Last May, Snapdragon and I had dinner at Carnivale with Cupcake, who was visiting from the east coast. We talked about how awesome it would be to have a national Bee meet-up! So we got to work… And after 10 months of planning, 35 Bees landed in VEGAS for a unofficial weekend of fun! I arranged us a room block at the Mirage, and I have to say that the rates were great, the rooms were very spacious and well appointment, and the hotel was located in a great central location. Definitely thumbs up!
A view of the strip from Rhumbar at the Mirage, where Cookie, Cherry Pie and I met up for a drink after dinner on Thursday night…
FRIDAY:
Friday’s group breakfast at B.B. King’s Blues Club at the Mirage. Why B.B. King’s for breakfast? Because they had Southern-Style chicken n’ waffles! It was my first time ordering this dish, and to be honest, it wasn’t as exciting as I thought it would be… literally fried chicken strips and Belgium waffles. But still yummy 
Meet Mia, aka Baby Dumpling! I think we collectively spent half the weekend cooing over her and passing her from Bee to Bee. If you haven’t heard of Dumpling’s new mommy blog, head over to OMG I’m a Mom asap for some serious laughs.
Here we are heading to the Monte Carlo on other side of the strip for a reader meet-up, meaning that Weddingbee readers were supposed to come to hang out with us. We had a whole 2 readers show up, but we knew that was going to be the case! Not many readers live in Vegas… Here are Cookie, Penguin, Snowpea and Toucan.
Not sure where I took this picture, but I thought the umbrellas were so pretty!
On our way, we caught the Bellagio’s fountain show.
Dumbling brought baby Mia to the reader meet-up because she thought Diablo’s Cantina was a restaurant. Unfortunately, it was a BAR. Read about her hysterical account here. But isn’t Mia just precious?!
Pengy and I. We decided that we are “face twins” because we share a similar heart-shaped face. Come to think of it, our chins do look rather identical…
Belly to belly, and positively glowing! Aren’t Seabreeze and Flamingo the cutest pregnant ladies ever?! I was sooo glad I got a chance to know them both better, as we spent Monday at the outlet mall together after most people were gone!
Bees in an elevator, armed with cameras!
Hello, Wynn Buffet, with the best dessert spread I have ever seen. I seriously wish I could have tried everything! Hrmm, maybe I should have just skipped the dinner portion and had ONLY desserts (mental note-to-self for next time!) I wish the buffet had better sushi though… I was seriously disappointed with their options!
A yummy shot glass of passionfruit jelly and tapioca. The other ladies at the table seemed amazed that I like tapioca, because apparently, “who likes tapioca?!” haha
Oh yes we did. We went to Chippendales, and it. was. SO. MUCH. FUN!!!
Next up was Zumanity at NYNY, which was basically Cirque du Soleil, but 80% naked. This was interesting, especially coming directly from Chippendales. So essentially, we went from one nudey show to another, haha. This below is Pretzel facing off with the scary performer.
Last stop of the night was the ROK Nightclub at NYNY. This was my first time with real VIP entry, where we walked right past the long line of waiting people and right through the velvet ropes (yes, clearly I don’t go clubbing anymore!)
Roomies in a club! Emerald, Toucan, Penguin and D’Orsay.
To Be Continued…
Tags: chicago wedding coordinator, chicago wedding planner, Travel, Weddingbee
My name is Charlene Liang, owner of Sweetchic Events, Inc. a boutique event-consulting firm in the Chicago area, specializing in full service wedding planning and month-of coordination. For more information, 
Me too! I am still trying to recover. It was awesome to finally meet you.
Everyone’s posts look like so much fun. Can’t wait to see part 2.
aww Charlene!
I read through some of your weddingbee blogs and they were so awesome!
I had a blast in Vegas and so glad we hung out. What a great post. I miss you all already.
Um yeah, chicken and waffles are supposed to include juicy fried chicken. I enjoy mine with gravy, which sounds gross, but I like it – best served at 3a. Now that I think about it, I usually have had chicken/waffles while tipsy. I hope you have recovered!!! It took me a few days.
GREAT RECAP! Yeah, we are the twinniest twinfaces ever!!!
[...] where was I? Ah yes, tired from the previous night’s festivities… can I just make a quick note that I spent EVERY day of this trip hopped up on caffeine?! I’m [...]