Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Canyon, or while chugging down Las Vegas Boulevard in a white stretch limo,
those adventurous weddings can be arranged as well. See the box on p. 164 for
many of the available options.
OFF-STRIP CHAPELS
Below, I'll be listing the price for a basic ceremony at each chapel to give readers
a general look at price differentials. But let's be real: Very few people ever take the
“basic” because it's flowerless and photoless. So be sure to add up all the numbers
when booking a chapel; sometimes, one that's among the cheapest on its basic cer-
emony may be among the more expensive for packages.
I happen to think that the
A Special Memory Wedding Chapel
555
(800 S.
4th St.;
%
800/962
-
7798; www.aspecialmemory.com; basic drive-up package
$
25,
basic chapel
$
49; Sun-Thurs 8am-10pm, Fri-Sat 8am-midnight)
is the prettiest of
the off-Strip chapels by a hair, but then I have a thing for classic, clean-lined New
England churches, and A Special Memory was built from scratch in 1996 to evoke
that “Cape Cod” look. Handmade stained-glass windows, solid oak pews, and
soaring, gabled ceilings put a button on the ambience. Do your best to book the
“Special Memory” chapel even if you have a small party (it can hold up to 110
people), as it's a much more attractive space than the tiny, wild-west-themed
Royal Chapel. And in the larger chapel, the bride makes her grand entrance down
a pretty circular staircase from a private dressing room—you can't beat that! Out
back is a sweet gazebo where couples can incorporate dove and butterfly releases
into their ceremonies. This being Vegas, it can't all be “Kennedy-esque,” of course,
so those couples who enjoy a good laugh can choose to drive through the mar-
riage “takeout” window at back. A menu above it spells out your options, the
“appetizer” ceremony being the cheapest, with those buying “breakfast” getting a
rose, a photo, and the wedding march (lunch and dinner guests get even more
amenities). During the 2006 Las Vegas marathon, 30 couples held “jog through”
ceremonies here in the middle of the race.
A Special Memory's major competitor in the looks department is the
Little
Church of the West
555
(4617 Las Vegas Blvd. S;
%
800/821
-
2452 or
702/739
-
7971; www.littlechurchlv.com; basic ceremony
$
75 weekdays,
$
100 week-
ends; daily 8am-midnight),
a comely, smaller chapel that's on the National
Register of Historic Places for its “California Mining Town” design. If you can
ignore the highway just outside, you'll feel like you've been transported back to
Little House on the Prairie
days, the gleaming California Redwood interior, lit by
four antique Victorian lamps (probably taken from old railway cars), being the
perfect setting for a traditional ceremony. In fact, this may be the only chapel in
town that doesn't have Elvis on speed dial; while they won't ban “the King” from
appearing at your ceremony, they don't book impersonators (a sign of how unusu-
ally classy this place is). Originally part of the Last Frontier Hotel, it debuted in
1942, moving to its current site south of the Strip in 1996, and has seen more
celebrity weddings than just about any chapel in Vegas (see box on p. 161).
Lollapalooza, theatrical, imaginative, outrageously fun weddings are the forte
of the
Viva Las Vegas Wedding Chapel
555
(1205 Las Vegas Blvd. S.;
%
800/
574
-
4450 or 702/384
-
0771; www.vivalasvegas.com; basic ceremony
$
150; daily
9am-10pm),
so if you're hoping for a ceremony your family will talk about for
years, you come here. “I look at weddings as a production,” says Ron de Car, the
