Friday, June 10, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

100 couples say 'I do' to centennial celebration event

'Once Upon 100 Weddings' continues Las Vegas' nontraditional tradition

One hundred couples clasp hands Thursday before their wedding ceremony as wedding bells play under the Fremont Street Experience canopy. The "Once Upon 100 Weddings" event was part of the city's centennial celebration. Photos by Craig L. Moran.

By Vegas standards, it was a traditional wedding. Along with white gowns, tiaras and proud fathers, there were tourists clutching plastic beer cups, grooms in baseball caps, and 40-foot digital wedding bells swinging overhead.

The "Once Upon 100 Weddings" event, part of Las Vegas' year-long centennial celebration, wed 100 couples Thursday night under the Fremont Street Experience canopy.

The wedding was officiated by the Rev. Duane Williams of the Special Memory Wedding Chapel and was witnessed by Mayor Oscar Goodman. Speaking against a backdrop advertising "Wedding Crashers," the new Owen Wilson movie, Goodman said, "Remember Las Vegas as the place it all started. With Lady Luck on your side, you are all destined to have the brightest of futures."

The couples, who came from as far away as Germany and Korea, won their wedding packages with a 500-word essay on the topic: "What's the secret of the perfect marriage?" Entries were judged by a panel that included a divorce attorney, a marriage counselor, and a longtime married couple.

UNLV history professor Hal Rothman said weddings have long been an integral part of the Las Vegas mystique.

"People come to Vegas to make themselves whole and new, and that's what a wedding is," he said. "It's not the traditional view of Las Vegas; but it's a city of hope, as well as a city of excess and pleasure."

The exchange of vows celebrated a long Las Vegas tradition.

Since Clark County's founding in 1909, Las Vegas has hosted more than 3 million weddings. This year, more than 120,000 couples will wed in the city's 50 or so chapels, churches and casinos.

Thursday's wedding was the culmination of a four-day event sponsored by the city of Las Vegas and dozens of local and national companies. All 100 couples received airfare, three nights at the Golden Nugget, and wedding gifts from local businesses.

A bachelorette party was held at New York-New York's Coyote Ugly, and a bachelor party was held at MGM Grand's Studio 54. According to one bride, several grooms also made an unsanctioned trip to Treasures strip club.

The celebration wasn't without a few bumps.

Tragedy was averted on Thursday when event promoters quickly replaced a wedding gown destroyed by a disapproving mother-in-law.

And the event almost failed to meet its 100-couple quota when several out-of-town couples got cold feet. A call by City Manager Doug Selby to city employees on Tuesday was answered by 12 local couples willing to get married on short notice.

Among the late comers was Shantel Pickrel, 31, a city dispatcher, who said her fiance took the news gracefully. "I just decided to do it, and then I called him and said, 'We're getting married in two days.' "

The mood was tense earlier Thursday as the brides got their hair and makeup done.

As brides competed for a seat in front of one of the half dozen hairdressers, some dropped the occasional catty comment.

"Boy, do I see some hair in here," bride-to-be Cynthia Pace said as she surveyed the room. "No puffy hair for me, no ringlets, no way."

Pace, 38, who moved to Las Vegas with her fiance five years ago, said the event was a step up from what she had planned for her nuptials.

"We were going to ride down the Strip in a pink Cadillac with Elvis, so it's good they called us," she said.

Like most grooms, Robert Lange, 27, had a more nonchalant attitude toward the big day.

"I'm just along for the ride," said Lange, who married his longtime girlfriend, Serena Howard, 31, who works for a local health care company.

Lange said the cattle-call nature of the event hadn't detracted from his desire for a traditional wedding.

"Vegas doesn't have a real tradition," he said. "You just do whatever seems like a good idea at the time, and that's the tradition."