Vegas originally became a wedding capital because only in Nevada could you get a marriage license without a blood test and a waiting period. Today, only a handful of states require either one so the only real advantage to getting married in Las Vegas is that you can get a wedding license in the middle of the night.
Cupid’s Wedding Chapel
Nowitz Photography/Apa Publications
Statistics
Vegas has around 50 wedding chapels, which open daily from 8am to midnight (24 hours on legal holidays), from the gimmicky drive-thru to slightly more dignified wedding chapels. There are also elegant wedding gardens and most major resorts on the Strip have their own wedding chapels too.
The invitation to impulsiveness is taken advantage of by an average of 337 couples every day, though over Valentine’s Day weekend as many as 2,000 are married. At least 87,000 marriage licenses, each costing $55, are issued each year. ID, such as a driver’s license, passport, or birth certificate, is required for legal reasons.
Celebrity weddings
Celebrity weddings have been fashionable in Sin City since silent-film stars Clara Bow and Rex Bell chose to tie the knot here.
The golden years
Perhaps the first marriage that grabbed the public’s attention took place in 1943, when Betty Grable and trumpeter and band leader Harry James exchanged their vows at the Little Church of the West. The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that more than 100 locals left their beds in the middle of the night to make a trip to the train station, hoping to get a glimpse of Grable as she waited for James to return from Mexico with his divorce papers. The wedding took place just before dawn, and after the ceremony, the couple drove back to Los Angeles.
Mickey Rooney married Ava Gardner at the same spot in January 1942. Over the next three decades he made seven return trips to the same chapel, concluding with a marriage to January Chamberlin in 1978.
Stratosphere Wedding Chapel
Nowitz Photography/Apa Publications
Among other famous marriages at that busy chapel was that of Zsa Zsa Gabor and actor George Sanders in 1949. In the same year, Rita Hayworth married singer Dick Haymes at the Sands and on July 19, 1966 Ol’ Blue Eyes married Mia Farrow at the Sands, Sinatra’s second home for nearly a decade.
Ongoing trend
The trend for quickie Vegas-style nuptials looks set to continue. Billy Bob Thornton married Angelina Jolie in 2000 at the Little Church of the West and in January 2004, Britney Spears married Jason Allen Alexander at the Little White Chapel, although the marriage was famously annulled 55 hours later. In 2011 Sinéad O’Connor married Barry Herridge, also at the Little White Chapel.
Newlyweds on top of the Stratosphere
Al Argueta/Apa Publications
Themed nuptials
However, it’s the more colorful ceremonies for which Las Vegas is most well-known. Viva Las Vegas Wedding Chapel at the northern end of the Strip offers a Blue Hawaiian wedding named after the Elvis movie, as well as a pink Cadillac wedding, a Star Trek-themed wedding, and a Woodstock wedding.
The Excalibur provides a medieval-inspired ceremony and the MGM Grand offers Merlin the wizard to officiate while a fire-breathing dragon attempts to thwart the nuptials. Betrothals can be made by, with, or even to the Phantom of the Opera. Other options include a beach party, a Wild West wedding on horseback, a pirate ship, the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the bottom of the Grand Canyon, under water and the top of Paris Las Vegas’s Eiffel Tower.
Extreme weddings
Those with a taste for the extreme can marry on a bungee jump, during a roller-coaster ride or, for even whiter knuckles, during a parachute jump or sky-dive. Ceremonies can be officiated in a helicopter hovering over the Strip, the Grand Canyon, or the Hoover Dam. For more serene mid-air marriages, a hot-air balloon is available with a basket large enough for bride, groom, and the assembled company.
On four wheels
One wedding chapel offers a drive-thru venue, so the bride and groom don’t even need to leave their car. For the more upmarket autophile, you can have a limousine drive to the scenic backdrop of your choice – and get married in the back of the stretch. In fact, a few limos come equipped with whirlpools and hot tubs, so the happy couple can bubble and betroth simultaneously.
Wedding outfits
Catering to Vegas’s wedding market are numerous bride stores. These include I&A Formalwear (4850 West Flamingo Road; tel: 702-364-5777) and Bridal de Paris (2207 Las Vegas Boulevard South; tel: 702-301-1002), where packages include hair, makeup, and clothes for the bride, bridesmaids, and mother of the bride.