If you are planning a trip to Las Vegas with someone you could see spending the rest of your life with, take heed: don’t expect to make a spontaneous trip to the alter in the wee hours of morning. Sin City is eliminating early morning quickie marriages. After years of approving hastily made weddings, the Las Vegas marriage bureau plans to close its all-night counter.
Beginning next week a new schedule will go into effect: the counter will be open from 8 a.m.-to-midnight, eliminating 24-hour marriage license service on Fridays, Saturday and holidays. County officials said the move would “affect less than 4 percent of the licenses issued by the bureau and save $200,000 a year.”
But how will the cost-cutting move affect Vegas’ self-proclaimed title of “Marriage Capital of the World?” Fter all, look at all the high profile celebrities who have tied the knot in Vegas after midnight: Britney Spears, Nicky Hilton and Demi Moore and Bruce Willis…
Just to be clear, Vegas’ dime-a-dozen chapels will remain open 24-hours-a-day, it’s just that enamored couples will no longer be able to run down to the marriage bureau at 2 a.m. and be married by 2:15 a.m.
Workers at Vegas’ Little White Wedding Chapel (where Spears was married) told a local newspaper they marry about 15 couples after midnight on a typical weekend. In fact, the company actually provides a stretch limo to shuttle the betrothed back and forth to the courthouse to obtain a license for the ceremony. Workers say, “Pre-dawn weddings are popular among members of the military, lovers driving in from Southern California and celebrities.”
So the bottom line on this new change–county officials say don’t change your plans to visit Las Vegas (especially if you are in the market for a quickie moonlit wedding). After all, you can still tie the knot after midnight; you will simply have to plan to obtain a license in advance.