Wedded bliss: Las Vegas continues to enjoy reputation as marriage Mecca

Jennifer Knight

Thursday, Jan. 8, 2004 | 11:04 a.m.

The lure of a no-hassle wedding was the draw for Alexis and J.J. Fischer.

"Actually we didn't want to have to deal with upsetting all of our friends by not having a big wedding, so we just flew here," said Dallas resident J.J. Fischer while waiting in line at the county clerk's office on Monday for a marriage license. "This way we'll just go home and tell everyone and have a big party."

Jessica and Richard Harmer drove more than 1,000 miles from Texas to have their own secret wedding ceremony.

"It's an easy stop-off," said Jessica Harmer, who was also applying for a marriage license Monday. "We just thought it would be romantic. It's kind of a secret though, because we will have the big ceremony later."

Whether it is for love, for money or, like pop star Britney Spears' quickie marriage, a joke that goes too far, weddings in Las Vegas are rebounding from slower economic times.

In 2003 Clark County issued 120,193 marriage licenses, up from 119,759 in 2002. The numbers have not yet matched 2001 figures, when 121,547 licenses were issued.

DeeDee Duffy, owner of Graceland Chapel, said business is good.

"We seem to be doing just as well or better than the last year," Duffy said.

Of the 60 to 100 couples getting hitched in Duffy's chapel each week, about 75 percent are married by an Elvis impersonator, a popular theme in Las Vegas.

For many couples, Las Vegas is wedding Mecca. Hot air balloon weddings are one offbeat option. And couples who want to role play can dress up as Renaissance characters or even get married by Star Trek characters.

"It's easy, it's inexpensive and beyond that Las Vegas has really become one of the premier honeymoon destinations in the world with fine dining, shopping and health spas," said Rob Powers, a spokesman for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

The wedding industry in Las Vegas is just a cog in the economic machine. Even though honeymooners make up a fraction of the 35 million visitors each year, they also add to the local economy by spending on gambling, hotels and food, said economist Keith Schwer, director of the Center for Economic Research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

"It's kind of a unique market and we're really good at that market," Schwer said. "There's so many things here for them to do."

Chris Heavey, an associate professor of psychology at UNLV, said just because it's a Vegas wedding doesn't mean it won't last.

"Certainly we've all heard stories like Britney Spears," Heavey said. "All but the most impulsive people, which are the very fringe, take the decision to get married very seriously."

Heavey said most people marry in Vegas not because of impulse but because they are free from pressure by family or friends.

"I think Las Vegas is a city that is about freedom," Heavey said. "It is built to give people what they want. A lot of the time couples say, 'Let's go to Vegas so we can do it under our own control.' "

Along with the upbeat marriage statistics, the other end of the spectrum is on the rise too -- divorces. With just a six-week wait in Nevada, the rate of divorces increased proportionally higher than weddings, with 12,586 divorces granted in 2003 compared with 11,980 in 2002. Annulments went up too -- from 708 in 2002 to 795 in 2003.

Heavey said the marriages that don't last are typically between couples who are younger, have no religious affiliation and have a short courtship.

"Those factors make the chances of divorce much more likely," Heavey said.

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