Wedding Bells Will Ring

Tom the backroads traveller hosts this weekly meme.

UPDATED February 2023

As of June 2022 - A company that controls the name and image of Elvis Presley has warned wedding service companies in Las Vegas not to hold ceremonies centered around the singer.

The licensing company, Authentic Brands Group, has sent cease-and-desist letters to several wedding chapels, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports. A cease-and-desist order is a legally enforceable order from a court or government agency that directs a person or organization to stop an activity.

The letter states that the company will no longer permit unapproved use of Presley’s name, likeness, voice image or other materials related to the music star. The letter also said that “Elvis,” “Elvis Presley,” and “The King of Rock and Roll” are legally protected names.

So...Couples dreaming of an iconic Las Vegas wedding may feel all shook up if Elvis isn’t allowed in the building.


ORIGINALLY POSTED February 2017 - Las Vegas NV

Wedding Bells

I thought I'd show some of the wedding chapels around Las Vegas for Valentine's Day.
These are from several visits over the last few years.

Let's Go To Vegas - Faith Hill

The majority are in the downtown area.

Las Vegas, Nevada is a popular place for people to get married. And many wedding service companies in the city offer Elvis-themed ceremonies.
Presley has longstanding ties to Las Vegas. His 1964 movie, Viva Las Vegas, led to a music hit of the same name that became the city’s unofficial theme.

Presley himself got married in Las Vegas in 1967 to his wife Priscilla.

We walked around The Little White Chapel and even though there was a security guard he encouraged us to walk in.

A Little White Wedding Chapel has been the site of many quick celebrity weddings. It is noted for its Drive-Thru Tunnel of Vows. It was established in 1951 or 1955, and has married about 800,000 couples. It employs ten ministers.
Charolette Richards, the owner, also has had association with the Little Church of the West.

Richards has worked at the chapel since the late 1950s. She came into the wedding business after her first husband abandoned her in Las Vegas, and Merle Edwards, who worked in the wedding chapel business, rescued her from the street and soon after became her second husband. He died in 1982. She has presided over the marriages of Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney, Michael Jordan, Britney Spears, Bruce Willis and Demi Moore.

There were cars parked in the "tunnel" and as I was taking photos I heard someone say "and now the fun part...Do you NAME take NAME to be your lawfully wedded wife?" 

Well, I turned around in surprise, and realized that a couple were actually being married at the drive-through!!

As we walked back to our car there was another drive-through wedding taking place. Elvis was just walking into the office, you can see him in the corner of the photo.

At another chapel Kathleen and Monte had just tied the knot.

Built in the 1950s, the venue was host to hundreds of thousands of weddings as Silver Bell Wedding Chapel, including the celebrity weddings of Burt Bacharach and Angie Dickenson in 1965 and Rodney Dangerfield to Joan Child in 1993.The venue was also featured in the television movie Saved by the Bell: Wedding in Las Vegas and the film Lost in America. In 2002 a fire damaged most of the building. It was sold and renovated under new ownership and re-opened as Mon Bel Ami Wedding Chapel in 2003.

Chapel Bells

No worries if you decide to tie the knot in the spur of the moment you can rent a tux.

Chapel of the Flowers is known for being the wedding location for Dennis Rodman and Carmen Electra, as well as the setting for the reality TV show "Happily Ever Faster" on TLC (TV channel). Ronnie Vannucci, the drummer for The Killers, worked as a photographer at the chapel while the band was recording their first album, "Hot Fuss. Additionally, Chapel of the Flowers has also served as the location on several celebrity occasions, including for the music videos "Last Name" by Carrie Underwood filmed in the Victorian Chapel and "Why Wait" by Rascal Flatts starring David Arquette as the groom and comedian Ron White as the minister. 

Mogul Richard Branson also orchestrated a publicity stunt where he served as Best Man for a UK couple, with the wedding taking place at Chapel of the Flowers.

Elvis is always available to perform your ceremony.

On the other side of town.

Originally built as part of the Last Frontier Hotel located on an isolated stretch of highway that would one day become the famous Las Vegas ”Strip”, the Little Church of the West upholds the heritage of Las Vegas with its unique architecture. It’s a freestanding replica of an old west mining town church. With an exterior of cedar and an interior of California redwood, the chapel looks much the same today as when it was first built. As the town grew with the population boom caused by the construction of near by Hoover Dam, Fremont Street began to pulsate with wall-to-wall casinos. As first class resorts began to dot the desert skyline and big name entertainment lit up the beckoning marquis, the stage was set for the Little Church of the West to take its place in the annals of Las Vegas history.
Attesting to its historical significance, the Little Church is listed on the National Registry of Historical Places, the only such place on the “Strip” with this honor.