To Vegas with love.
It all started with a visit from a young couple who wanted and ice bar at their wedding.
Nothing new so far, we do lots of those.
Then came the surprise.
Could I carve the Vegas strip onto the bar?
I always say a quick “sure” when I get requests but this one made me gulp. I’ve never been to Vegas, much less know what is on the “Vegas strip.” The young man was only too eager to educate me since he’s been there 32 times and even got engaged at the Mandalay Hotel. Guess where he was going for his stag?
What he wanted was the Excalibur, the MGM Grand, the Paris , the Luxor, the New York, the Belagio and the Mandalay along with the Hotel… eight Vegas hotels on ten feet of ice bar. And he wanted each one to have it’s unique color of lighting. WOW! Thank God for the internet! I spent the next few days studying each of those hotels, what was unique about them and how they could fit onto a bar. Needless to say, they come in a variety of shapes and sizes and carving them from ice would mean reducing each one to what is uniquely identifiable. At the same time, the hotels would have to serve another purpose, hold up the heavy table tops onto which we would be placing the Mandalay and the Hotel ice luges.
For the better part of two weeks I worked it out, some of it in the middle of the night when I’d wake up with yet another mental challenge that couldn’t wait till morning. Finally, with a day to spare I set it up in the studio, just to make sure it had all the pieces and actually fit the way I designed it. Then, off to the Bombay Banquet Hall for another one and a half hours setting it all up with Nathan. One of the groom’s friends stopped by to remind us that this was to be the highlight of his reception. No pressure. If nothing else, he wanted to show off this ice bar. Quickly fixing a last minute glitch with the lighting and it was up. I never get tired of the oohs and awes we hear when the guests arrive. Before long there was a 20 foot line up for photo ops.
Check it out! One of a kind!
I feel like I’ve been to Vegas J!
And then came the real reward when we returned after 8 hours to disassemble it all. There were the bride and groom, all alone taking one last drink from the Mandalay ice luge on their Vegas ice bar. He pretty much gushed over it, even bowing to thank me, so happy they were with the bar!