Las Vegas is known for its speedy weddings, and many consider getting married in Las Vegas tacky. However, it shouldn't surprise anyone that the wedding capital of the world is changing to include more elegance.
Brides can still get married in Las Vegas for $50 at a speedy drive-thru chapel, but many brides are choosing to make their Las Vegas wedding more elegant, planning 9 months to a year in advance and choosing medium to extravagant ballrooms to host their event.
Casinos have always had the capacity to host large extravagant weddings in their ballrooms, but until recently, they used those ballrooms for corporate events. Casino owners didn't think twice about using the ballrooms for a Las Vegas wedding reception or Las Vegas wedding chapel.
Now, elegant Las Vegas wedding chapels are the most competitive Las Vegas wedding business out there. All the major casinos and even small hotels have a chapel and / or ballroom in their Las Vegas venue, and they all advertise heavily online for brides to choose their Las Vegas wedding chapel.
According to "TradeBit," the average wedding cost in Las Vegas is $24,860. This is quite a bit different considering Las Vegas was known for its $50 dollar Elvis weddings at the Little White Wedding Chapel.
Las Vegas is often the middle state of couples getting married from opposite ends of the United States. Long term relationships where the bride lives in California and the groom lives in New York, many times end up married in Las Vegas with family present.
Couples getting married in Las Vegas soak up everything they can get their hands on with a Las Vegas theme for their Las Vegas wedding. Las Vegas wedding favors with a Las Vegas theme include poker chips with a bride and grooms name on it. Las Vegas wedding invitations now feature photos of the venue that the bride and groom are getting married in, as well as Las Vegas wedding invitations that feature photos of the Las Vegas city lights from the strip and the "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign. Even toasting glasses and guest books are being engraved with the phrase "Las Vegas" or "Viva Las Vegas" instead of the couples names.
Couples are now planning to elope instead of spontaneously getting married in Vegas. Because of this those couples order their announcements weeks in advance so when they get back from their Las Vegas wedding they can immediately send out their Las Vegas wedding announcements.
While celebrities like Brittany Spears and others have eloped to Las Vegas and were married in a small Las Vegas wedding chapel, other celebrities are choosing to get married in Las Vegas at extravagant hotels, and they are still calling it "eloping."
Whether a bride gets married in a small Las Vegas wedding chapel or a large Las Vegas wedding ballroom, whether they plan their Las Vegas wedding for one year or five minutes, every couple married in Las Vegas can say that they have eloped to Las Vegas.
Thus, what happens in Vegas … stays in our hearts.
Renae C. Judkins is the owner of
VegasWedlock Invitations, an online resource for
Las Vegas themed wedding invitations.
