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Las Vegas weddings refers to wedding ceremonies held in Las Vegas, Nevada, which came to be known as the "Marriage Capital of the World" because of the ease of acquiring a marriage license and the minimal costs involved. The city continues to be known as a popular wedding destination for the same reasons, but also as a result of the various types of weddings available.
Nevada marriage licenses are considered notoriously easy to get; there is no blood test or required waiting period. Las Vegas has streamlined the process further. Once an application for a marriage license is completed online and presented to the marriage license bureau in-person along with $102.00 and a government-issued photo identification, a marriage license may be obtained within minutes until midnight every night. [1] The ease of getting married was historically a deliberate choice of Nevada lawmakers to promote tourism. [2]
Within one year of receipt of the marriage license a wedding ceremony must be performed in order to have a legal union, and marriages are legal and binding throughout the United States under the Full Faith and Credit Clause, as well as most other countries. [3]
| Year | Clark County | United States | Clark County % |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | 104,789 | 2,344,000 | 4.5 |
| 1997 | 109,378 | 2,384,000 | 4.6 |
| 1998 | 108,717 | 2,244,000 | 4.8 |
| 1999 | 114,465 | 2,251,000 | 5.1 |
| 2000 | 120,629 | 2,376,000 | 5.1 |
| 2001 | 121,547 | 2,345,000 | 5.2 |
| 2002 | 119,759 | 2,254,000 | 5.3 |
| 2003 | 114,544 | 2,187,000 | 5.2 |
| 2004 | 125,967 | 2,224,000 | 5.7 |
| 2005 | 121,282 | 2,230,000 | 5.4 |
| 2006 | 112,531 | 2,160,000 | 5.2 |
There are numerous options for wedding ceremonies in Las Vegas. One of the least expensive option, costing under one hundred dollars, is to marry at the Office of Civil Marriages. [5]
Most weddings performed in Las Vegas may be a civil or religious service depending upon the wedding venue selected. [6]
Most of the city's major hotels have wedding chapels and many of the local restaurants offer wedding ceremonies. Weddings may also be performed in one of the local churches, synagogues, at one of the many golf courses, or at a free standing wedding chapel. Drive-thru weddings are also available. [6]
The majority of the newer wedding chapels are located on the Las Vegas Strip. A local law in the 1970s made it impossible to build a free standing wedding chapel on the Las Vegas Strip. The older wedding chapels will be found downtown.
Many chapels also offer themed weddings. Common themes include Hawaiian, Fairy Tale, Star Trek, Star Wars, Gothic, Halloween, and weddings with an Elvis impersonator or Michael Jackson impersonator. The Tropicana has offered a "rock star" wedding officiated by former Quiet Riot frontman Paul Shortino. [7] Every year an electronic dance festival called Electric Daisy Carnival held at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway offers couples to marry during the festival with varied themes, these packages are an option when purchasing entry, prices range from a couple hundred dollars to under a thousand dollars.
Second in popularity to the wedding chapel option is to have a ceremony performed outdoors somewhere in the surrounding Las Vegas area.
Las Vegas, often known simply as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-largest in the Southwestern United States. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city, known primarily for its gambling, shopping, fine dining, entertainment, and nightlife, with most venues centered on downtown Las Vegas and more to the Las Vegas Strip just outside city limits. The Las Vegas Valley as a whole serves as the leading financial, commercial, and cultural center for Nevada. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city had 641,903 residents in 2020, with a metropolitan population of 2,227,053, making it the 25th-most populous city in the United States.
A Little White Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas, Nevada has been the site of many quick celebrity weddings. It is noted for its Drive-Thru Tunnel of Vows. It was established in 1951 or 1955, and has married about 800,000 couples. It employs ten ministers.
The Las Vegas Strip is a stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard in Clark County, Nevada, that is known for its concentration of resort hotels and casinos. The Strip, as it is known, is about 4.2 mi (6.8 km) long, and is immediately south of the Las Vegas city limits in the unincorporated towns of Paradise and Winchester, but is often referred to simply as "Las Vegas".
A wedding chapel is a building or room, other than a legal court, where marriages are regularly performed. Usually wedding chapels are for-profit venues to host weddings in resort areas to encourage hotel room stays, catering and gambling by the guests. The buildings are generally religiously themed and imitate church architecture. In some cases, religious institutions have chapels that are used specifically for marriages or closed churches are converted into wedding chapels.
El Rancho Vegas was a hotel and casino at the north end of the Las Vegas Strip in Winchester, Nevada. It opened in 1941, as the first resort on the Strip, known then as part of Highway 91. It was located at what is now the southwest corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Sahara Avenue. The El Rancho Vegas was conceived by Thomas Hull, who owned several hotels in California and wanted to expand his operations to Las Vegas. He decided to build his new resort along Highway 91, on desert land located just outside of city limits. Hull intended to target motorists traveling from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, although his remote location was met with skepticism.
The Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign is a Las Vegas landmark funded in May 1959 and erected soon after by Western Neon. The sign was designed by Betty Willis at the request of Ted Rogich, a local salesman, who sold it to Clark County, Nevada.
Westward Ho Hotel and Casino was a casino and hotel located on the Las Vegas Strip in Winchester, an unincorporated area of Clark County in the U.S. state of Nevada. The Westward Ho occupied 15 acres, and was the last large motel style property on the Strip. It was a two-story building with parking surrounding the buildings. The casino had many slot machines, and a gaming pit with live dealers.
Klondike Hotel and Casino was a hotel and casino located on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada, in the United States. The property began as the Kona Kai Motel in 1962, and was purchased by Ralph Engelstad in 1969. The motel was sold to John Woodrum, who renamed it as the Klondike Inn in 1976. A casino was eventually added, and the Klondike became popular among local residents. In 2005, the Klondike was sold to Royal Palm Las Vegas, which planned to replace it with a casino and condo hotel resort known as Paramount Las Vegas. The Klondike closed in June 2006, and was demolished in March 2008. Royal Palm Las Vegas had difficulty obtaining financing for the Paramount project, and the land was put up for sale later in 2008. A Harley-Davidson dealership opened on the former Klondike property in 2014.
The Moulin Rouge Hotel was a hotel and casino in West Las Vegas, Nevada, that was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 1992. Although its peak operation lasted only six months in the second half of 1955, it was the first desegregated hotel casino and was popular with many of the Black entertainers of the time, who would entertain at the other hotels and casinos and stay at the Moulin Rouge.
Little Church of the West is a wedding chapel on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada, United States, that is listed on the United States National Register of Historic Places. Built of redwood, it was intended to be a replica of a typical pioneer town church. It is the oldest building on the Las Vegas Strip.
Joseph Michael Lombardo is an American politician and former law enforcement officer serving since 2023 as the 31st governor of Nevada. A member of the Republican Party, he was the 17th sheriff of Clark County from 2015 to 2023, capping a 34-year career in law enforcement.
The Marriage Bureau is part of the Office of the City Clerk of New York City. The Bureau provides Marriage Licenses, Domestic Partnership registration, civil Marriage Ceremonies, registration of Marriage Officiants, and copies and amendments of Marriage Records issued by the City Clerk. It is the site of more marriages than any other venue in the United States.
Texas Station was a casino hotel in North Las Vegas, Nevada. It was owned and operated by Station Casinos. Texas native Frank Fertitta Jr., the hotel-casino's original owner, chose the Texas theme to appeal to customers from his home state. Fertitta sold the hotel-casino for $95 million to Station Casinos, his former company, prior to its opening on July 12, 1995. It was the largest hotel-casino in North Las Vegas at the time of its opening, with a 60,000 sq ft (5,600 m2) casino and a six-story, 200-room hotel.
Same-sex marriage has been legally recognized in Nevada since October 9, 2014, when a federal district court judge issued an injunction against Nevada's enforcement of its same-sex marriage ban, acting on order from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. A unanimous three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit had ruled two days earlier that the state's ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional. Same-sex marriage was previously banned by an amendment to the Constitution of Nevada adopted in 2002. The statutory and constitutional bans were repealed in 2017 and 2020, respectively.
Clark County Museum is located in Henderson, Nevada and is owned and operated by Clark County. The museum includes the Anna Roberts Parks Exhibit Hall and Heritage Street which contains eight historic buildings from the county.
Chapel of the Flowers is a wedding chapel located at 1717 Las Vegas Boulevard South in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States.
Graceland Wedding Chapel is a wedding chapel located in Las Vegas, Nevada that has been the site of many celebrity weddings. It is one of the oldest wedding chapels in Las Vegas and claims to be the first chapel ever to conduct weddings performed by Elvis impersonators.
The marriage of Billie Ert and Antonio Molina took place on October 5, 1972, in Houston, Texas, United States. Ert and Molina's marriage was called the first legal same-sex marriage in Texas and one of the first in the U.S., and their marriage license was the first granted to a same-sex couple in Texas. Ert, a drag queen, and Molina, a shipping clerk, received the license through having Ert dress in drag; the county clerk's office did not ask for their sexes and issued them a marriage license, which they used to marry one day later. At that time, homosexuality was illegal in Texas. Although it was later declared null and void by the Texas Attorney General after a long legal battle, the union made international headlines and became a media sensation. The failed lawsuit sparked Texas legislation that specifically defined marriage as between a man and a woman, which it had not yet done, and was seen as a large setback for LGBT rights in the United States.
The Algiers Hotel was an Arabian/Persian-themed hotel located at 2845 South Las Vegas Boulevard on the Las Vegas Strip in Winchester, Nevada. The Algiers opened on November 25, 1953, as a 110-room sister property to the adjacent Thunderbird hotel and casino. The Algiers was noted for mostly retaining its original design throughout its operation, giving it the appearance of an older Las Vegas hotel. In 1991, the property was earmarked for possible condemnation, allowing for the realignment of nearby streets in order to reduce traffic.
The Aladdin was a hotel and casino located on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada. Toy manufacturer Edwin S. Lowe originally opened the 450-room Tallyho Hotel on the property in 1962. The Tallyho was the only major hotel in Nevada to not include a casino; it closed at the end of the year and was sold to Kings Crown Inns of America, a hotel chain which reopened the property a month later as the King's Crown Tallyho. The company added a casino and showroom but plans to open the casino were halted when the Nevada Gaming Control Board declined to issue a gambling license because of concerns about the resort being inadequately financed.
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