JW Marriott Las Vegas Resort & Spa

The JW Marriott was a beautiful venue and had professional, responsive staff. We were very well taken care of in the planning and on the day. We were sold on the venue because the JW had an option for a morning brunch wedding, which saved us some money and worked better for us as morning people. As the less contested time, this also gave us access to the Garden Gazebo for the ceremony and the Cascade Room for the reception. These are beautiful locations and could accommodate many more than the 65 people we ended up having. It was also a major plus that we could do everything there, from the rehearsal dinner (Hawthorne Grill was a great option for us, but there are others), to the ceremony, to the reception, while we and our many out-of-town guests could stay on the property. (We're both local, but we're both transplants whose families must come from out of town). "All-inclusive" weddings are a bit of a misnomer, as they don't include outside vendors like photographers, florists, etc. That said, we got quite a lot for our money, including some outside vendors that may be additional costs at other venues. The venue cost included: * The ceremony and reception * Use of the bridal suite the day before and day of the ceremony (with an option for another day earlier, which we probably should have taken) * The food at the reception, which was excellent (cost also includes a tasting a few months before) - we went with the buffet option * Open bar - there are upgrades, but the base is pretty solid * A day-of coordinator - this person is assigned by the venue to coordinate the outside vendors. The JW made a truly inspired decision on ours - she was wonderful * The cake - note this isn't always covered in all-inclusives * The DJ - see above * A standard dance floor - Probably enough for 100 people, upgrades available for larger parties * Quite a few other things, which they are very open and transparent about The JW provides a pre-approved vendor list of outside vendors that they have worked with before, which is a tremendous help as you try to narrow down the universe of Las Vegas wedding photographers to eight or so. You can go outside of this list if you want - we didn't. Audra Bishop was our venue coordinator, helping us with all the planning pertaining to the venue itself and coordinating the JW staff related to it. She was very responsive, professional, and helpful, and if you end up with her, she will take good care of you. We had general ideas for the wedding, but no strong ones, and she helped guide us through the myriad options available. When our guest list ended up coming well short of what we anticipated, she worked to find options to meet our food and beverage minimum (the cost is already agreed upon - we just ended up with some food upgrades to meet it). This of course wasn't ideal, but we ended up with an agreeable solution. The day before the wedding, it became apparent that a windstorm would blow in sometime that Saturday. It seemed likely that we could get the ceremony in (and the florist could get the gazebo decorations down) before it hit, but you never know for sure. Audra took us to the alternate location to let us see it. The forecast held and we got to use our primary location, but we would have been OK had the weather forced the alternate location. The Garden Gazebo is a beautiful venue. It is out on the grass in the middle of the property. It does more or less require draperies and flowers (our florist handled both), as some guests would be staring through at the onsite Starbucks otherwise. It does, however, lend itself very well to ceremonies up to 150 guests or so. It is next to the pool, and the JW does make an effort to try to prioritize the wedding by turning down the pool music. As the morning wedding, we were way ahead of the pool crowd, so this didn't affect us. The cocktail hour was held outside this room, and it is in direct sunlight. This may be an issue if your guests aren't used to Vegas' heat and dry air, as even in late spring, it's easy to overheat. There apparently was a miscommunication somewhere, as we were told people could hang inside if they needed, but some guests mentioned they couldn't. The reception was held in the Cascade Room, which is just around the corner. The Cascade room is incredibly spacious and elegant. It includes an overhead light fixture that can be set to many different colors. It has a few alcoves that need decorations to work for weddings, but it's pretty close in its base configuration. It's designed for 150-200 people, but we didn't feel swallowed by the space even with only 60. Their service staff and bartenders were outstanding - we got to avoid the typical wedding mistake of not eating, as they brought everything to us, kept our drinks topped up, and overall ensured we were taken care of. Our guests reported much the same. Note that, if you do what we did and chose the morning timeslot, your reception has a hard cutoff time so that they can turn the venue around the the evening wedding. This wasn't an issue for us - they are very transparent about this before you commit to that timeslot. Overall, we were super happy with our experience at the JW Marriott Las Vegas. They were very helpful and transparent during the planning, they provide many options within a helpful structure to couples that don't have strong visions, and they are flexible. Their experience and professionalism is apparent in every aspect of the process. It was the beautiful, all-in-one venue we were looking for, and it helped provide the elegant, intimate, and fun celebration we wanted. Thank you, Audra, Richard, and everyone that helped us along the way. Monika and Jeremy