squeezing as much fun into wan-niversary as possible

we kicked off wan-niversary with a fantastic lunch at joe's seafood and prime steak in caesar's.  i love the selection in the bread basket that they bring you after you're seated.

and we splurged on some amazing stone crab claws for our appetizer.  mmmmm.

their seafood chopped salad is *chef's kiss*.  there's king crab, lobster and shrimp in there and the salad is tossed in a delicious vinaigrette dressing.  

and then we headed over to the shops at crystals for something that i'd managed to talk him into taking me to the night before...you know, when he was fresh from a fun concert with his friends and enjoying a cigar.  heh.

when we checked in, we were given a headset and this device to listen to the narration throughout the self-guided tour.

you can see diana's signature in this book that she'd checked out at her school library.

there were lots of framed letters and notes in both charles' and diana's handwriting throughout the exhibit.

this was a birthday card she'd sent to george michael.

and there were pieces of her clothing on display that she'd worn to various events.

while this was not her actual wedding gown, it's a life-size replica painstakingly created out of paper.

i remember watching the royal wedding back in 1981, during summer break.  i was fascinated by the pomp and circumstance and thought the new princess was so beautiful.  and so it was really interesting to see all of the artifacts from the wedding on display here.

this display case contained figurines of all the royal brides starting with queen victoria...and ending with kate middleton.  confession:  i was lowkey annoyed AF that meghan was not represented in that case.  it's not like the wedding just happened...it's been a few years, guys.  update your shit.

diana's famous 'do required a strict maintenance schedule, with some of it in her own handwriting displayed here.

the exhibit also went into a bit of royal history, with a few artifacts from the days of king edward and wallis simpson.

and this was interesting too:

there was, of course, ample coverage of diana's passing and the world's reaction to that terrible news.

there was one super cheeseball photo op, and i dorked it up real good.

this was my favorite part of the exhibit - hand-sewn miniatures of 79 of her most iconic dresses.  these were beautiful and obviously a labor of love, and i could have spent hours examining each one (i didn't, because i'm pretty sure the hub would have left me if i tried).

when i tore myself away from the miniature dresses at last, i finally found a section on harry and meghan:

and william and kate, too.

a last look at diana on the way out:

in the gift shop there was a rack of sweaters just like the one she wore available for sale. you know i would totally have snagged one, but it had a $300 price tag on it.

as we made our way through the shops, we found this:

no, i didn't drag him to this - although you KNOW i would've loved to see it.  maybe it'll still be there when i finally get to do a girls' vegas trip hopefully sometime this year.

we had some time before our dinner reservation, so we headed back to our hotel and hung out in the cigar lounge for a bit.  

oh, and check out the free gift that we got at the end of our tour...

(that did not make it home with us)

the hub had reserved a table for us at barry's steakhouse at the circa resort, in the older downtown area of vegas.  i'd never been there, and it was really nice.  there's a gigantic sports bar there, and i swear i recognize this old neon sign from family trips to vegas when i was little.

dinner was delicious - prime steaks and a glass of champagne to celebrate our anniversary, and i'd also had about four espresso martinis so i can't really tell you a whole lot more besides that.  from the pictures i did take, it looks like a good time.

we made our way upstairs to check out the legacy club on the top floor.  we stayed just long enough to walk around and check out the view.

i was super amused at where we had to go for uber pickup.  garage mahal?  comedy.

back at the hotel, i was SUPER dejected to find that year 17 was it...the year that i truly could not fit into the dress anymore.  so much sadness.

did i still twirl, though?  well, yeah.  one last time, apparently. and because youtube has made a bunch of changes and i can't figure out how to find the code to embed the video in this post, just click here.

but will i still try again next year to see if maybe i can zip that thing up again?  HELL YEAH.