Decision making-venue

We've gone through several different wedding scenarios until we came to our final decision. We were initially looking to do a small ceremony in the LA area. After looking at venues we quickly realized most the places we wanted were far more expensive than we felt comfortable spending.
I wanted an outdoor venue as neither of us are religious so doing it in a church or chapel seemed un-necessary, out of place, and frankly uncomfortable for me. Also outdoor shots always look so beautiful.
We wanted a venue that would allow our dog at our ceremony. She is a huge part of our life and wanted to include her in the official joining of lives.
We also wanted a venue that we could have our ceremony and reception at. Also that didn't require us to use a list of their specific (and generally expensive) vendors for catering/liquore/rentals etc I had planned on cooking the meal for the reception buffet style to save money and I love to cook.
We quickly realized this didn't really exist in the price range we wanted. We started looking into parks which was our most affordable option but we're still pretty pricy for what it was. We looked into "alternative" places and then someone had suggested enquiring about our friends-parents home. It's has beautiful outdoor areas and required no vendors! After we spoke to our friend and Travis and I started getting into details such as center pieces, food, decorations, music, etc I went to Travis for about the 20th time and said lets just elope.... We should just go to Vegas and not bother with any of this. Frankly I don't care about any of the extra "fluff."
One of those defining moments when you know you made the right decision to get married was when he replied "That's fine with me. We can go as soon as you want. You want to go next week? I just want you to be happy."
This was when we decided scrapping everything we'd previously planned and go to Vegas. As easy as it would be to elope we wanted some of our close friends that we consider family and Travis' parents present. It felt a bit selfish to do it just us. So thus the decision was made to find an outdoor venue in Vegas (that was GREATLY more affordable!) and go to a buffet for dinner (everyone is happy when they can eat whatever they please) My planning list shrank significantly as well as my stress.

That is what our venue looks like. We have the space booked around sunset.