Excerpt:
First Kiss
Grace McGee was Clark County’s first bride. And apro-pos to the times in which she lived, she took her husband’s surname, Bright. As in Mr. and Mrs. William C. Bright—a fitting name for a pair of lovebirds married in the city of glitz, glamour, and neon yet to come. The joyous event occurred in July 1909, mere days after the county came into exis-tence. Seven other couples followed suit that year. The rush was on!
In 1945, the county recorded its 100,000th wedding. Fifty years later, Clark County surpassed the threshold of 100,000 weddings in a year for the first time, and there’s been no retreat since. By the end of 2003, the overall tally reached well in excess of three million weddings on the books. That’s nearly 100 weddings each and every day, on average, for 95 years.
Sin City is wedding heaven.
Las Vegas’ matrimonial magnetism is easy to under-stand: affordability, ease, diversity, kitsch, excitement. You can show up on the spur of the moment, get a license, find a chapel, and have it done all in less than an hour, for $100. You can say “I do” on one of several rides set atop the tallest freestanding tower west of the Mississippi. You can have Elvis, of several vintages, belt out “Viva Las Vegas” while you head down the aisle. There’s literally something, some-where, and some just-right way for every bride and groom.
It’s a brave new nuptial world from the one experienced by Grace and William Bright. And Neon Nuptials: The Complete Guide to Las Vegas Weddings sorts through the tacky, the wacky, the so-so, and the best way to go in Las Vegas weddings to help you get a bright start in Glitter Gulch.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Neon Nuptials is a guidebook to Las Vegas weddings. It does for you, a Las Vegas-interested bride (or groom), what a good travel guide would do for a vacationer: Namely, it sifts through a huge volume of information and suggests how to get the most out of your Las Vegas wedding experience—from a bridal perspective, of course.
You have enough anticipation in your life right now, so the first section, Courtship, cuts right to the altar with some suggestions as to the best in outdoor wedding sites, free-standing chapels, casino-based chapels, chapels you probably want to avoid, honeymoon spots, and, as an added bonus, the one place that represents the best of the best.
Married life begins at the altar; weddings start much earlier. So to get you to the “church” on time, Chapter Two out-lines how and where to get a license, ceremony options, what to be aware of when choosing a chapel, when to go, and some fun facts and anecdotes about getting married Las Vegas-style. This section is titled Proposal.
Fifty-six wedding sites are featured in the next two chapters—I Do and I Do … Too. Most are chapels, some are outdoors, many are part of hotel-casinos, and a few defy categorization. Contact information, a quick-reference guide, and a critical review of each chapel or venue are intended to get you behind the obligatory smiling face and cutesy façade that greet you at almost every door. These listings are the heart of the book and are alphabetized within two groupings: freestanding venues and hotel-based.
All chapels are wedding facilities, though not all wedding facilities are chapels. Some wedding facilities are mobile, as in the case of a helicopter or a horse’s back. Therefore, I frequently use “venue” to denote a place where weddings are conducted. Chapel, venue, facility, site, whatever … ultimately, they’re all the same—a place to wed in the Wedding Capital of the World.
After you figure out how to get to the altar—and which altar to get to—you might just want some insight into where to stay and eat or what to see and do, and Chapters Five and Six, Honeymoon in Vegas … Good Bets in Beds, and Honeymoon in Vegas … Eats and Treats, touch on some choice selections. The book closes with a select listing of publications and Web resources.
A CAVEAT
Despite the obvious distractions and excesses, when you get off the Strip and into the ’burbs, Las Vegas is a town like any other—a place where people live, work, worship, raise kids, heck, even get married. There are supermarkets, schools, libraries and office complexes, Little League games on the weekend, and trick-or-treaters running amok on October 31. As you and your guy are likely to be tourists as well as newlyweds-in-the-making, with only a few exceptions this book does not look at places at which (mostly) locals wed—churches, country clubs and other private hospitality venues, the Elks Lodge or similar fraternal organizations, or, for that matter, the convention/ballroom facilities that you can expect every hotel to have.
There are two reasons for this. One, such spots don’t represent the typical Las Vegas wedding aesthetic that draws 100,000-plus couples to the desert each year. Secondly, a country club’s pretty much a country club, and while its members may, you likely don’t care how Canyon Gate’s facilities measure up to Anthem’s; you’re not going there. And while I do address some of Las Vegas’ more freeform and unusual wedding options, I don’t go into any depth about, say, getting hitched in a hot-air balloon, since many chapels—particularly the standalones—offer extreme or adventure packages as standard fare.
In a similar vein, although Sin City might be unparalleled when it comes to putting together a wedding reception—being the Entertainment Capital of the World, with many of the world’s largest hotels and a culinary sophistication that’s a far cry from the billboards touting $9.95 lobster dinners and two-for-one all-you-can-eat buffets—I don’t tackle reception sites or facilities that require a wedding/reception combo. This was a matter of cutting through a lot of unnecessary fluff; any place in town with a room big enough for six and a kitchen can claim to be a wedding-and-reception site and that’s not what most fly-in/drive-in brides want from their neon nuptial. If a dance-and-dinner-type reception is your ticket, talk to your wedding coordinator. Or call on any of the town’s gazillion great eateries. Finally, I pass right by wedding-related service providers. There are too many limos, too many tux rental shops, too many DJs, too many hair salons—that come and go with the wind—to do them, or you, any justice.
Anyway, you’re here to get married, then quickly run off to eat at Emeril’s, see Mystère, and hit the blackjack tables.
GETTING DOWN THE “AISLE”
As you read through the book, you’ll notice a format to the chapel and venue reviews. Each opens with boilerplate information—name, address, phone number, and Web site—and closes with a narrative review (a few places are so, well, yucky that the narratives are purposely terse). In between is a “snapshot” of the place, and the following is an explanation for each part of the image.
Kitsch Factor: One, two, three, four, or five little Las Vegas signs signify the relative “cheese” factor of the venue. They tell you in an instant if the place screams Las Vegas, whether that’s because you can dress up like Guinèvere and Arthur or because someone went berserk with lace and a can of pink spray paint. High kitsch does not necessarily mean déclassé; if you choose a ceremony over-looking the fountains of Bellagio with the Eiffel Tower in the background, how much more cool and prototypically Las Vegas could that be? High kitsch also doesn’t necessarily mean a reason to get married at a particular place.
Romance Quotient: Now it’s a heart, and if three are lined up, it’s a nice kiss; five and the flames are scorching. (One? You don’t really need an explanation, do you?)
Fresh Test: One bar of soap tells you the place is two bars short of passing the freshly scrubbed test and four below perfectly prim and tidy. This also takes into account the fit-and-finish of the chapel: Are the carpets clean or worn? Is the paint peeling? Are the acoustical tiles stained? Is stuff scattered everywhere?
Comfy/Cozy Rating: This is an assessment of how well the whole package works. If the chapel is garish for the sake of being garish, if the employees are lovelorn and cranky, if people are flying about and weddings are stacked up back to back, if you’re required to navigate rows of slots and the kid’s arcade just to get to the door of the chapel, you won’t feel very comfortable. And what signifies comfy and cozy more than a welcome mat? There’s your icon.
The One Way to Go: If the chapel offers a superlative, unique, or even wacky ceremony—or if there really isn’t a service that is anything out of the ordinary, yet you still need to get hitched there because the place is just so cool or cozy—it’s highlighted here.
In a Nutshell: This is the venue encapsulated in one paragraph that pretty much tells you what you’d need to know about the wedding facilities and services if you only had seconds to decide how and where to take the plunge.
Cost: Prices are presented in U.S. dollars and represent the range of fees (before tax and gratuity, if applicable) for wedding packages at the time this book went to print. Add-ons and upgrades are always available—from an extra boutonnière or a jazzy video to Caesar and Cleopatra as attendants—although given the many options, I haven’t listed the prices. And be aware that many “complete” packages don’t include the cost of a minister; a rabbi usually comes with an upcharge. Want a unity candle? It could be 50 bucks. Want to light it? Shell out a few more bills. The moral? Ask a lot of questions and take good notes.
Number of Weddings Performed Annually: The wedding industry, as a whole, is tight-lipped. Some chapel pro-prietors aren’t worried about over-inflating their numbers; some won’t disclose any at all. Therefore, these figures represent best guesstimates for each chapel. Take them for what they’re worth, which to me is a telltale sign of popularity, affordability, or good geography. And if the number is big and it portends trouble—such as rapid-fire nuptials—I’ll tell you.
Hours: When the love masters are on duty. This is really only important to the drop-in-without-a-reservation crowd, an approach that precludes nuptials at some of the bigger fancier establishments.
Ceremonies: “Nonreligious” means a minister officiates, but doesn’t use the G-word.
Languages: If ceremonies can be performed in lan-guages other than English, those languages are listed here.
Bride/Groom Rooms: Everything from nothing at all to dressing areas with bathrooms that would put some homes to shame. The thing to remember here is that broom closets are often passed off as bridal rooms. In any case, most chapels with rooms, however trashy or lavish, ask that you arrive with hair and makeup done, although many allow you to change into your dress.
Commitment: Whether the place offers same-sex com-mitment ceremonies.
Location: Downtown, north Strip, edge of the valley, etc.
The review that follows the boilerplate information is an unbiased, no-holds-barred critique of the chapel (venue, garden, wedding site). If it’s the kind of place where you could anticipate meeting a cockroach, the review spells that out—and that’s exactly what happened at one chapel … stay tuned. If the staff copped an attitude when I asked a ton of questions or if the chapel gives off a warm-fuzzy feel, you’ll know. Because it’s so difficult to plan a wedding from faraway—relying on Web depictions, brochures, or Cousin Louie’s hazy recollection of a wedding he attended between bouts of blackjack and bourbon in ’97—Neon Nuptials is your eyes and ears. (And please note the absence of advertising; this is a guidebook, not a glossy throwaway paid for by the chapels.)
I visited every venue, often with my wife. I snapped pics, took notes, caught a few weddings here and there, pored over flyers, brochures, and Web sites—in fact, it’s buyer beware when it comes to how some chapels represent themselves—checked out the neighbors, and developed a rash caused by excessive exposure to Doric columns twined in faux ivy, mauve wall trim, forest-green carpet, and twinkle-light-bedecked trellises. I talked to breathy doe-eyed coordinator after doe-eyed breathy coordinator, was growled at a few times, and was frequently felled in anticipation of the unequaled bliss that doubtless would ensue if I were to marry at the Tiny Chapel of Exquisite Love … and no place else. Yes, I stifled more than a few laughs. And I believe I captured it all in the pages that follow—the good, the bad, and the excessively cherubic.
Few places in the world can compete with Las Vegas when it comes to entertainment, nightlife, food, accommoda-tions, and electricity. Toss in gambling and it’s hardly a match. Add an altar and there are no other suitors.
But enough with the flirtation. Let’s get on with the courtship.
Description:
Neon Nuptials is the first book of its kind, a no-holds-barred, independent, critical, and fun look at how and where to get married in Las Vegas, the Marriage Capital of the World. It visits all the venues and tells you exactly what’s in store. With this guide, you’ll know everything you need to know about the beautiful, the bad, the kitschy, and the cruddy in Vegas’ nearly 60 wedding chapels.
Yet
Neon Nuptials is more than a Vegas wedding primer; it’s also a guidebook that will add to the travel experience of even the most frequent Sin City visitor, with sure-fire bets on where to stay and eat as well as what to see and do.
Reviews/Media Mentions:
Chicago Tribune, Complete Woman Magazine, Kansas City Star, Las Vegas Review-Journal, Library Journal, Nevada Magazine, New York Daily News, Orlando Sentinel, Reviewer's Choice, Small Press Bookwatch, Special-Interest Guides, USA Today, Westways Magazine
"Happy couples eloping to Las Vegas can check travel writer Van Vechten's 'Best of' lists to get a quick idea of the best venue for kitsch, outdoor weddings, standalone chapels, casino options, churchlike chapels, and resort settings. Others with more time to plan can examine his detailed directory listings for over 50 Sin City chapels and ceremony venues. A boilerplate chart compares each place, rating it for kitsch factor, romance, cleanliness, and customer service. At a glance, users see cost, hours, locations, volume of ceremonies performed, languages available, dressing facilities, and whether or not same-sex commitment ceremonies are performed. This book definitely has an audience and should be popular with public library users. Recommended."
—Library Journal
"Not everything that happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. More than 120,000 couples get married in Sin City every year, making it the marriage capital of the world. But with more than 60 chapels, how do lovers choose where to tie the knot? Luckily, Ken Van Vechten, author of the new book Neon Nuptials: The Complete Guide to Las Vegas Weddings (Huntington Press), has visited almost every chapel in town, interviewing the staff, taking pictures and sitting in on services. And since the author knows that your wedding day is one of the most important days of your life (even if you are married by an Elvis impersonator), he spares no detail. If the chapel's proprietor is rude, Van Vechten makes note of it. If the scene is kitschy, he makes sure you'll know in advance, which is important—that might be exactly what you're looking for."
—New York Daily News
"Every year more than 120,000 couples come to Las Vegas to 'tie the knot' in one of the 60 or so wedding chapels. Neon Nuptials: The Complete Guide To Las Vegas Weddings is a unique guidebook to every one of those chapels (and a few other less typical venues for the maritally intended) telling anticipatory brides and grooms just what they can expect. These assessments include not only the physical facilities and their themes, but the service qualities offered by their staffs, whether the attention is individual or couples are treated to a kind of assembly line treatment. Here is the perfect guide to 'the beautiful, the bad, the kitschy,' with attention also paid to some of the best places to stay, eat, and play while enjoying the complete spectrum of what Las Vegas has to offer those who come to wed there.
—Reviewer's Choice
"Here is the perfect guide to 'the beautiful, the bad, the kitschy,' with attention also paid to some of the best places to stay, eat, and play while enjoying the complete spectrum of what Las Vegas has to offer those who come to wed there."
—Small Press Bookwatch
"Author Ken Van Vechten, often with his wife in tow, visited every last wedding venue in and out of the casinos to write The Complete Guide to Las Vegas Weddings, as it's subtitled. His reviews don't mince words. Did the heavily advertised chapel with the cherubic name smell like someone was re-heating leftovers for lunch? Van Vechten says so loud and clear. Will another spot likely leave you feeling like you've just filmed a scene out of Casablanca? That's important too. Each listing covers the basics of prices, facility descriptions, hours, ceremony types, languages spoken; and it rates qualities such as cleanliness, friendliness, romance quotient and kitsch factor. But most valuable are the commentaries, which let you know exactly what to expect. For example: Las Vegas Weddings at the Grove offers 'a park-like setting on three acres with plentiful shade trees, flowers and shrubs, an old almond grove, a trickling stream and pond, lots of grass and big comfy gazebo.' Chapel of the Bells is a 'pretty chapel in a funky building with really ugly neighbors, but that's not unusual for Las Vegas.'"
—Special-Interest Guides
"...deftly leads couples through only-in-Vegas matrimonial choices and provides the basics about tying the knot in Sin City."
—Westways Magazine
"After reading this book, you'll know everything there is to know."
—Southern Gaming & Destinations
Huntington Press
