Apr 30, 2023 8 min read

Not Entirely Boring Newsletter Issue 4

Ant & Glen

Greetings 👋

Well it’s been a week, hasn’t it? Glen and I have tied the knot in a private ceremony in Las Vegas and I’m going to talk shortly about the process of getting married in Vegas (it’s spectacularly easy if you’re from the UK) and I’ve got some Las Vegas tips and advice if you’re planning a trip here. One of the great things about Vegas is its anything you want it to be and with us both being jet lagged for a huge part of the week, it’s been a nice relaxing time. Albeit a time where waking up between 3 and 4am seems to be the norm.

💍 getting married in las vegas

The process of getting married in Las Vegas, even for those who are UK residents is surprisingly easy. The good news is that once you’re married in Las Vegas it’s legal in the UK! So you don’t need to have a separate ceremony once you get home. This isn’t always the case, so if you’re not from the UK and travelling to Vegas, it worth making sure that you are aware before you decided what you are going to do.

There are so many options when you arrive in Las Vegas for your wedding, but there are some things you need to do before you can get hitched. The first is to get a wedding licence from the Clark County Marriage Bureau.

📄 the licence

I would strongly advise completing the application online before you arrive. The application is valid for a year once completed. You’ll get a reference number which you take the bureau with your passport. You must take government issued photo ID. The fee is $102 if you’re paying cash and $105 if you pay by credit/debit card. There can be a queue, so be prepared to wait. When it’s your turn you’ll be required to take an oath and check that the details on the paperwork is correct - including any name changes following the wedding. If you have to make any corrections after the wedding there is a processing fee of $80. So it pays to be careful when checking. I overheard a couple who had got a date of birth incorrect.

If you haven’t completed the documents online the officer will direct you to a computer to complete the form before you can take your oath.

You will be given a copy of the paperwork that you need to give to the persons organising your wedding. They will return the completed paperwork following the wedding. After 10 days you can arrange for your legal wedding certificate to be posted back to the UK. However, we decided to expedite this part of the process with our wedding planner. We were able to collect the certificate the following day. We chose this due to the issues that the UK has been having with Royal Mail and didn’t want to take the risk. To expedite cost around an additional $100.

🤨 what you need to know

When it comes to choosing the type of wedding you want - well, this is Vegas. You can pretty much tailor your perfect wedding to meet your needs. As a huge fan of Star Wars, I request music from the film to walk down the aisle too. One of the key things is that there are some things that need to be paid for in cash. This includes ministers fee and also tips for the driver and the photographer. Tipping, as many will know, is commonplace in the USA, so make sure this is factored into your wedding budget.

⬆️ advantages

One of the key advantages is that the ceremony can be as long or short as you want it to be and there is also a huge choice of venues in and around the Las Vegas strip. We chose the Little Vegas Chapel because of LGBTQ representation on their website. The package included being collected and returned by limo. It also includes photographs and a video of the ceremony that is available the day after to download and share. Also, compared to the cost of weddings in the UK, Las Vegas is exceedingly good value. However, you can also spend thousands and more should you wish.

💌 other considerations

I have always felt that it’s quite cheeky when people chose to get married abroad expect their guests to cough up the cost in both travel and accommodation to attend. So, this is something that’s worth considering, particularly as Las Vegas isn’t exactly cheap. We decided to keep the ceremony private and had no guests with the photographer witnessing the ceremony and signing the paperwork. Some Chapel’s do offer the option to have a live stream, but the quality can differ between venues and you’ll need to take into consideration the time difference so people at home can watch.

🔥 should you get married in Vegas?

If you and your partner want to, then absolutely! Glen and I know we both made the right choice for us. Vegas weddings are quick - our ceremony lasted about 10 mins in total. - We even went down to the hotel pool before we left, so the day itself wasn’t stressful whatsoever. The team at The Little Vegas Chapel were absolutely incredible. They helped to make us both feel comfortable and we loved every second of it. It was a day that we will never forget

🎥 youtube filming updates

It feels so good to be filming again and this week has been busy not just with our wedding, but also with our YouTube channel. Despite it being over 100 days since we uploaded, we surpassed 600 subscribers! Thanks so much if you’re one of them! - we have successfully filmed

Our review of Circa
A Downtown Las Vegas Vlog
A Review of the Cosmopolitan hotel
A comparison between a cheap and expensive Las Vegas Buffet
A Guide and Review to BA Club World

🃏 more vegas

Make sure you’re got your eye on the Not Entirely Boring website over the next few weeks as we’re writing up the reviews in old-fashioned words and pictures!

Our thoughts on Circa are already on the site, so head over there and check it out, and you can expect written reviews of The Cosmopolitan as well as the infamous Peppermill before the end of the week!

📺 watch this

Time is the most valuable non-renewable source that we have as human beings. And as someone who has a lot of different things going on at any one time, I would 100% recommend time blocking as a practice. Ali Abdaal, the productivity ex-doctor on YouTube showed a guide on how he managed and blocks his time. It’s a great little tutorial that I believe can help inspire you to make moves that enables you to achieve more with the time you have. I’ve been practicing time-blocking for some time now, and it’s enabled me to achieve so much!

❓why am I recommending this?

I personally use both an analogue and digital time blocking system. Which seems a bit counter productive. The reason for this is that when I sit down to plan my week, I prefer not to be staring at a screen. I love a pen and a hobonichi journal and this is what I use to plan my week, I keep my journal on me and open all day. However, I just block out ‘work’ and have a separate process for that, so my day job and my projects, such as YouTube, Not Entirely Boring and the novel don’t get mixed up. I think It’s very important to have a clear divide between work and personal projects so you can focus on the task at hand and not get concerned about other things you’ve got going on.

📚 relaxing reads

There was not much reading to be had this week, so I’ve managed to fall behind with The Count of Monte Cristo which I am going to be picking up once we hit Hawaii. One of the good things about the cruise portion of this trip is that we can really relax and just ‘be’, and for me that’s getting sucked into some good books. I did bring some classics with me to also sink my teeth into, because (a) I am a multiple books as a time guy (b) I prefer physical books to kindle, despite using a kindle far more and (c) the physical copy of Count is basically a weapon and weighed a ton, so stayed home!

🗣️ quote of the week

“Damn! I thought I was the only one who knew how to make one of these.”

Steven Spielberg’s first words after watching ‘Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny’ (the first Indiana Jones film he has not directed).

📺 watch this

Continuing on from last week’s dive into ChatGPT piece, I was bumbling around YouTube and came across this TED Talk that I believe will resonate with those of you who are following the development of AI tools and the arguments around the ethics of artificial intelligence.

Unlike the podcast that I recommended in the newsletter last week, which focused more on the societal effects of ChatGPT, this talk, presented by OpenAI co-founder, Greg Brockman, focuses on the practical examples of chatGPT. It’s less the ‘why’ and more the ‘how’. However, there is a very interesting point around the 25:30 mark where the interviewer asks Greg about the public release of ChatGPT has been reckless, with competitor AI products being rushed out.

In addition, Greg also shows the capabilities of DALL-E 2 which is a tool which generates AI images using the same technology that ChatGPT-4 is built on.

Boris Eldagsen’s award-winning picture. Photograph: © Boris Eldagsen, Germany

This reminds me of an article I read in The Guardian which reported German Artist Boris Eldagsen winning the creative open category price at the Sony world photography awards. Unfortunately the photo that he submitted was generated by AI and the photographer is refusing the award in an attempt to “speed up the debate”.

That’s all for this week!

It’s been a busy week with the wedding and everything, and I’m actually sending this from Oahu in Hawaii where I’m about 11 hours behind the UK.

As always, thanks again for being a subscriber to Not Entirely Boring and please share this newsletter with anyone who may find it somewhat interesting and check out some of my other writings that I will be publishing later this week on the website at www.notentirelyboring.com

Take care and I’ll see you next week from somewhere in the Pacific Ocean!