Having a Las Vegas wedding is definitely something you'll never forget but not everyone wants to drag their entire wedding party and guest list to Nevada to experience one. The good news is that doesn't mean you can't bring a little bit of the casino action and neon lights to your own wedding without leaving your city.

Traditions

The Las Vegas theme will work best if you don't stick too close to conventions and traditions at your wedding. A very formal wedding just doesn't seem to fit quite right with a Las Vegas reception. That doesn't mean you can't include all of the important traditions you want. Plus, you have the freedom to incorporate traditions from other cultures or to create new traditions for your family because you won't be bound by the conventions of a formal wedding.

Rituals

A Las Vegas themed wedding doesn't require any special rituals. The theme can work with almost any ceremony, although if you are having your ceremony or reception in a church you may need to speak with the managers of the facilities to make sure such a theme will be appropriate for the location.

Style

If one thing is true about Las Vegas, it's that the city has plenty of style and so should your wedding. You'll definitely want to keep things casual and informal, particularly at the reception. As part of this theme, you might want to consider going with the color trio of black, red, and white – like the colors of a deck of cards these colors will help your theme come to life even in the least casino-like environments.

Decorations

The decorations should help recreate the feeling of being in a Las Vegas casino. If you can find some neon signs to rent or purchase, definitely hang them up around the reception hall. Neon is synonymous with Las Vegas. For your table linens, choose green felt fabric to mimic the gaming tables in casinos or rent some gaming tables (some organizations have casino nights and may be able to loan you their tables). From the ceiling, you can hang collages made of poker chips while the centerpieces for the tables can be potted cacti or miniature slot machines. For the place cards, create one-sided playing cards and write each guest's name on the other side.

Food

Besides gambling and amazing entertainment, Las Vegas is also known for its incredible food, particularly its buffets. Instead of a formal sit-down meal, choose to have either a buffet or food stations set up at your location so guests can help themselves to the food. Make sure you also have cocktail waitresses bringing mixed drinks to your guests (to keep your costs down have a cash bar).

Clothing

If you were getting married in Las Vegas, you'd have dozens of options about what to wear at your big event and the same is technically true for your Las Vegas-themed wedding. You can still wear traditional attire or you can rent costumes from local stores and dress up like Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, a gangster, or almost anything else you want. Even if you don't want to dress up, you could always rent a costume for your officiant if he or she is willing to do a little role-playing.

Favor Ideas

One great Las Vegas-themed wedding favor are poker chips engraved with your names and the date of your wedding. You can wrap the chips up in tulle along with some gold-foil wrapped chocolate coins to distribute to all of your guests.