To have and to hold’em

Can’t help falling in love

Great news for potential elopers and ordained Elvis impersonators alike: more people are saying “I do” to Las Vegas weddings again following a brief pandemic slump, according to marriage data from Clark County, Nevada.

Indeed, the number of marriages filed in Vegas’ home county totalled 7,963 in April — more than 35x the amount seen in the same month 4 years ago when Covid halted the states “quickie wedding” industry. That worked out to an average of 265 marriages per day, a post-pandemic record.

While it’s taken time to bounce back fully, the waking-up-in-Vegas approach could be increasingly attractive as “speedy” and, crucially, “cheap” have become ever-more desirable requisites for those planning ceremonies — with Forbes reporting that the average wedding in the US now costs $33K. That’s $4K higher than the year before. Chapel packages, like those at the famous A Little White Wedding Chapel, start from as little as $80 for a “Drive Thru Tunnel of Love Ceremony”... although they can hit as much as $495 for a full “Elvis Tribute” wedding.

Although inexpensive by wedding standards, all of those ceremonies soon add up: wedding-related tourism in Las Vegas accounted for some $2.5 billion in spending in 2022, supporting 18,000 jobs in Sin City.

As well as saving considerable costs and hassle, many are also drawn to the cultural cliché of the Vegas wedding, made famous by the likes of Frank Sinatra and Britney Spears. In fact, Bumble recently offered 50 free weddings in Las Vegas to US couples who’d met on the app for its 10-year anniversary, and a new Friends experience at the MGM Grand will allow fans to recreate the iconic “The One in Vegas” drunken chapel scene.