A Las Vegas wedding. Just the words conjure up a variety of images, from the kitschy to the sublime, from the cheesy to the elegant. Yes, it’s true. You can have an elegant wedding in Las Vegas. You can also have an Elvis impersonator at your wedding.

You know, it’s all about choices.

And perhaps nowhere else in the world will you find more choices for your wedding than in Las Vegas. It’s the true wedding capital. Made famous by a variety of high-profile celebrity weddings and its own courting of the engaged (and impetuous) set, Las Vegas is known perhaps more for its weddings than anything else. Add to that the ability to get a marriage license 24 hours a day and no requirement for a blood test or waiting period, and you have the recipe for wedding central.

Consequently, most hotels have a chapel on-site and there are, of course, a multitude of choices in stand-alone chapels, throughout the Vegas region.

Most Las Vegas wedding chapels will offer a host of services, from flowers and photography to live web cams so your family can watch from wherever they are. If you didn’t plan the wedding, but make a quick Vegas decision to do the deed, you can get a gown, rings, videotape and anything else you can think of, truly. Depending on your needs, one of the great benefits of a Vegas wedding is the “all inclusive” philosophy that permeates most chapels. Since you can package a wedding with many details included, paying for the wedding can certainly be less stress than organizing all the details on your own for a “traditional” wedding.

There are a variety of choices in Las Vegas wedding chapels:

Hotel Chapels

You can have an elegant wedding at a high-end hotel like the Bellagio or Mandalay Bay. Both offer a variety of wedding services and packages in elegant and refined surroundings. Both also offer vow renewal ceremonies. Like most Vegas facilities, you won’t have a wedding for 500 guests here. Most hotels can comfortably accommodate up to 130 guests or so.

Depending on your budget, a hotel wedding might be a bit much to stomach. Most weddings are in the $2,000 range, with some of the most elegant costing $5,000, $10,000 or even $15,000.

Nearly all hotel casinos on the famous Vegas strip will have some sort of wedding facilities, with a variety of amenities offered and in a variety of price ranges.

Chapels on the Las Vegas Strip

Now, if you want to have the “classic” Las Vegas wedding, you’ll head down the strip for one of the many wedding chapels. Here, you can have themed weddings ranging from the ubiquitous Elvis wedding to the less-traditional NASCAR wedding. You might choose to be Cinderella for a day, or get married in biker garb or your bathing suit. That’s cool… in Vegas weddings, pretty much anything goes.

Baby, Elvis typifies so much about Vegas that there are any number of ways you can incorporate The King into your wedding. He might make an appearance, or your beloved might want to dress in a fine white polyester suit. Even better, you can have that old Hound Dog perform the wedding.

At the Elvis Wedding Chapel, it’s all Elvis all the time. This chapel is the largest in Las Vegas and can seat up to 120 people. Be sure to make room for The King, though, as he will be an integral part of any wedding there.

Most wedding chapels in Las Vegas will offer a full range of wedding services, but if you want a reception, that’s extra and sometimes can’t be had at the chapel itself. Many Vegas wedding experts recommend reserving a room in a nice restaurant for the reception, if you want one.

If you want to be a part of history when you get married, consider the Little White Chapel. This is a true Vegas experience that also features the famous “Tunnel of Love” wedding drive-through. Like many Vegas chapels, this chapel offers a live webcam so your friends and family who aren’t with you in Las Vegas can see your wedding.

Wedding prices on the strip are quite a bit lower than at the hotel casinos. At the Little White Chapel, for instance, the most expensive wedding package (the “Honeymooner”) is a mere $811.

Resources

Bellagio Hotel and Casino

Caesars’s Hotel and Casino

MGM Grand

Excalibur Hotel and Casino

Little White Chapel

Elvis Wedding Chape

Cupid’s Wedding Chapel

About the Author Gabriel Houston is a wedding planner in Las Vegas Nevada specializing in fun, inexpensive Las Vegas weddings customized to your tastes. Read her latest article on finding the perfect Las Vegas wedding cake.