Whoooo!! I love a travel recap! And I loooove getting to go on a trip to see one of my best friends get married! It feels like I was just flying to Miami for Caitlin’s 30th birthday (geeez this girl picks fun cities for her celebrations!) and now here we are recapping her Las Vegas wedding.
So, I’ve been to Las Vegas only one time before. I recapped that whole trip here, and I was honestly “meh” on the city. I felt like, if I did the trip slightly differently, I might like Vegas more..
…and now I can say that that’s true. I had SO MUCH FUN in Las Vegas on this 2023 trip! We really packed in a bit of everything and I totally get why people go back to Vegas again and again.
Nate and I made it to the Austin airport with enough time to grab some dinner before our flight to Vegas. Thank goodness there are so many amazing restaurants at the Austin airport!
A delicious bowl from Peached Tortilla ftw.
We got on our flight to Vegas and I settled into my typical flight routine and had a quick and lovely little flight.
We made it to Vegas pretty late on Thursday night, so we just grabbed our bags, got a ride share to the hotel, and checked in.
Here’s our room at the Palazzo at the Venetian, if you’d like to see!
The rooms in Vegas are so big. I remember this from our last trip to Vegas when we stayed at the Mirage, too.
I snapped a few pictures before we got unpacked and settled into our room, and then we crashed!
After a great night of sleep, we woke up to…
…a view of all of those Palazzo pools down below! They’re connected to the Venetian pools, too, so we had access to a TON of pools. It was wild.
I think I could totally go back to Vegas just to hang out by the pools for a full weekend. They are sooooo beautiful.
Nate and I made our morning coffee and got a few little bits of work done, and then…
…it was time to meet up with everyone at the Palazzo pools!
VEGAS!!! Here with my man and my friends and ready for a fantastic weekend!!
We were there pretty early so the pool deck was quiet and empty. It was so peaceful and calm and beautiful.
The fountains and the palm trees and the shady pool deck…it was seriously bliss. Like, I don’t even know how to express how relaxed and excited I was.
The first day of vacation is always incredible because it’s just full of anticipation of the days ahead! 
We had this cabana and the chairs reserved for our group. AMAZING. It was sooo fun to have our little private oasis with shade and air conditioning and a mini fridge.
Of course we had to get it all decked out for Caitlin. It was her last day as a single lady! 
Haha. Everyone wore those pink heart sunglasses. Everyone. Nate wore them all day and after a few drinks he commented on how “they quality of the lenses is actually quite good.” Haha. Love him.
I got to know Caitlin’s friend Sydney on the Miami trip back in early 2020 (juuuust before Covid hit the US!) but I hadn’t seen her since then. It was so much fun to get to spend the whole weekend together with these girls.
A piña colada at 9 am? Yes. Yes please.
Aww! We had our cabana, our drinks, our decorations, and a full day of hanging out in the sunshine.
(And by sunshine I mean shade because no one wanted a sunburn the day before a wedding. Haha.) 
We hung out, we talked, we played games, we order lots and lots of beverages from our incredible server. It was amazing.
I had a delicious breakfast burrito to start the day by the pool.
Aww! How cute is she? I kid you not…Caitlin was like a celebrity walking through the pool deck. She was all decked out in her bride gear and she got soooo many well-wishes and kind words thrown her way. 🙂
Drinks with my man…in pink bachelorette cups!
I lounged for a bit and read a few chapters of my book. (The one that I mentioned in this post…and it’s sooo good!!)
More delicious food! I ordered a bacon cheeseburger and sweet potato fries for Lunch. It was delicious.
Drinks. Swimming. Lounging. Hanging out. That was our first day in Vegas! It was excellent and now every time I go back to Vegas I’m going to need to have a private cabana.
At one point Caitlin had to go back to her room (she and Jason were staying at the Venetian) so we walked by all the Venetian pools. They were much more crowded than the Palazzo pools! Not sure if that was just this particular day or if it’s always like that.
Living my best life.
We relaxes so hard core. It was NOT a typical Friday morning for us, haha.
After lounging by the Palazzo pool all day, everyone headed back to their rooms to get cleaned up and ready for dinner…
…yay! Ready for our night out in Vegas!
Of course Caitlin picked a brewpub for dinner. 😉 I didn’t complain at all! We had a bunch of flights of beer and some delicious food at Trustworthy Brewing Co.
Vegas is even fancy with how they serve their pretzels. 
Drinking beer and having a blast.
Since we had a group of 6, Caitlin had made reservations for everything we did. Sooo glad she did because things were starting to get crowded on a Friday night in Vegas.
After dinner we headed a little bit up the strip to Resorts World, the newest resort in Vegas.
Here’s the whole group!
Love this man so much. It’s seriously soooo much fun to get to sneak away on a couples trip like this. I don’t take these moments for granted!
We made it to Resorts World and found our seats in the theater to see…
Katy Perry PLAY. She’s at the end of her Vegas residency and I’m so happy we were able to see this show.
It was adorable! It was every bit the “Katy Perry” experience you’d expect.
Caitlin picked this show for us to see this weekend. There are obviously a hundred different options for shows in Vegas, but Caitlin wanted something fun and light and entertaining and “Vegas-y” and I think she did a perfect job choosing a show for Friday night.
Everyone LOVED it. I mean, Katy Perry is a pro entertainer and the costumes, set design, hair/makeup, dancers…everything was just so much fun.
After the Katy Perry show we went all the way to the top of Resorts World where we had reservations at…
Alle lounge. It’s on the 66th floor of the resort and has floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the strip.
It was very classy and sophisticated. There was a live saxophone player performing and they offered lovely cocktails and small bites.
Ahh! This is the night before this girl’s WEDING!!
Ok, not my best picture taking skills because you mostly see a reflection of the interior, but I’m telling you: the view was INCREDIBLE! It was so much fun to be up there at night and see Vegas all lit up and glowing.
Haha. And one final picture from this day. I had Caitlin take this pic and then I looked at it and was like, GEEEZ, why do my eyes look soooo tired!?
And then I realized it’s because it was 1 am in Vegas. Which is 3 am in Austin.
Not my normal bedtime. Haha.
That was part 1 of our Vegas trip. I’ll share part 2 tomorrow!
