7 months, 1 week, and 6 days to go! (I only know that because my little time ticker told me so.) So we made it thru Christmas, and now all that's left to tackle in 2008 is Todd's birthday/New Year's Eve Party, which will be a blowout. I suggest contacting me if you are still looking for a NYE destination, and will be in the OKC area.

I will be flying to Vegas at the end of January to finalize, look around, approve things, in person. As of this writing, the Flamingo is still our pick (I want to stay in a GO Room...) but, since I made a major change to my color scheme this morning (no more hot pink and black ladies, sorry), anything's possible at this point.

I've heard alot of buzz about driving out to Vegas! I have no problems with this! I think it would be amazingly fun, but I don't know how well my stress level would be, after 16 hours in a car, freaking out, 3 days before my wedding. (Say the Bridezilla word, and I'll show you why I come from an Italian family, I WILL break your kneecaps....) So for me, I will be flying. We're not making any reservations until after the first of the year. I think it would be really fun to get as many of us on the same flight, possibly get trashed on the way there.....hehe....etc.

So, for you driving divas and dudes: Prices at the Flamingo, hotel only - Thursday. August 6th thru Monday, August 10th (based on double occupancy, prices from flamingo.com)

Deluxe Room -$290.00
GO Room - $450.00
GO Room Strip View - $530.00

Hotel Only - Expedia.com (as of right now, they are offering a 4th night free at the Flamingo, so the rates below include that.)
Deluxe Room - $222.00
GO Room - $336.00
GO Room Strip View - $396.00

For my flighty fellas and f-word that relates to girls???

Hotel and Flight - Expedia.com
Deluxe Room - $431.00/person (total - $862.00)
GO Room - $496.00/person (total - $992.00)
GO Room Strip View - $528.00 (total $1057.00)

These prices have went down considerably since the last time I checked, so this is good news. Todd and I have used Expedia for all of our trips (and he uses it for 95% of his business travelling) so I trust their prices, customer service, etc. If you choose another agency or website, no skin off my back. If you are deciding to attend the wedding, I am totally sure you will get a 100% OCD, attention to detail, anal-retentive, subject to change, JoRaye-made itinerary and list of things....so no worries! I keep getting the question - when should I book? I can't answer that for you. (Sorry....) I will definately let everyone know what price and details I decide to book on. What I choose to pay may be totally different from what you want to pay, and I of course, cannot guarantee if prices will go up, down, or stay the same from when we decide to book. (Most of you know this, but, I've had to explain to others....love you all....even the traveling-challenged folks.) I think this is all I have now. This will be on my MySpace blog, toddandjoraye.com blog, joraye.com blog, and emailed to my special folks, and please, pass it along to anyone you may think needs this info (no wedding stalkers!)

Love, JoRaye

As promised, my weekly findings on prices to Vegas for my budgeting beauties.

The first week's entry can be found on the blog at www.toddandjoraye.com...:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

Flight and Hotel from Expedia.com - July 16th - 20th, 2009 (SAMPLE DATES ONLY)
Deluxe Room - $652.49/person
Go Deluxe Room - $740.15/person
Go Deluxe Room w/ Strip View - $782.93/person

Room Only from Flamingo.com - July 16th - 20th, 2009 (SAMPLE DATES ONLY)
Deluxe Room - $390.00 (based on double occupancy)
Go Deluxe Room - $550.00 (double occupancy)
Go Deluxe Room w/ Strip View - $630.00 (double occupancy)

Flight Only from Expedia.com – July 16th – 20th, 2009 (SAMPLE DATES ONLY)
Cheapest flight was $400. (That was this morning, as of now, there's cheaper - $333 and $383 fares)

OK, a few of you asked: "Why would we book separately? It seems much cheaper to do it all together." The only reason we would book flights and hotel separately would be if the Flamingo gave us a group rate for a block of rooms that would beat the Expedia Flight + Hotel prices. I haven't even booked our ceremony, so I'm not sure of any of those details yet. Looks like we have about 3 weeks to go before we can start getting an actual gauge of what our actual August date prices are! As for last weeks prices, just to give you an idea as of how they fluctuate, they all went down $36/person over the course of a week.

Flight and Hotel from Expedia.com - July 9th – 13th (SAMPLE DATES ONLY)
Deluxe Room - $624.91/person (was $660.91)
Go Deluxe Room - $711.52/person (was $747.52 )
Go Deluxe Room w/ Strip View - $754.30/person (was $790.30)

OK, I've bored you enough. Go start counting pennies and rolling quarters for ToJo's Vegas Wedding!