Garden of Love chapel looking for new home

The Las Vegas Garden of Love wedding chapel is no longer welcome in the city of Las Vegas, but that doesn't necessarily mean owners Craig and Cheryl Luell are out of the wedding business.

On Tuesday, Craig Luell's application for a home-based marriage planning business in Henderson was put on hold for the city attorney's office to review, Henderson spokeswoman Cindy Herman said.

"It was in the process of being issued. Then it was brought to the attention of the city attorney's office," she said. "It is not an active license. Mr. Luell cannot conduct business at this time."

The city will review the lengthy hearing concerning the Luells that concluded Monday before the Las Vegas City Council. Las Vegas council members decided the chapel was a public nuisance and did not renew its business license.

The Henderson city attorney will "look at what kind of business he was conducting in the city of Las Vegas," Herman said. "Does that indeed compare to the license he applied for here?"

Herman and Stephen Stein, the Luells' attorney, said the Henderson license would not authorize the couple to open a new place to conduct weddings. "That does not mean he could open a chapel and run a chapel," Stein said. "Far from it."

The scope of the license would include "personal services -- planning and setting up weddings, photos, video, flowers, limos," according to the city of Henderson's Web site.

The Garden of Love ran afoul of Las Vegas leaders because of numerous allegations of harassment and violence aimed mostly at driving rival chapel workers away from the downtown marriage licensing office.

Granting the Henderson license shouldn't mean a return of the Luells to the Regional Justice Center, said Jim DiFiore, manager of Las Vegas' business services division.

That's because they'd need a handbilling license from the city of Las Vegas -- a license the City Council already decided to pull.

Contact reporter Alan Choate at achoate@reviewjournal.com or (702) 229-6435.