‘I love my wife more than life’

When local wedding chapel representatives approached him about renewing his wedding vows to defend Las Vegas' "marriage capital" status, Mayor Oscar Goodman was all for the idea.

His wife, Carolyn, needed some convincing.

"Who in their right mind would want another 47 years with this man?" she asked Wednesday, standing on a stage at the Fremont Street Experience. "He changed one diaper on four kids!"

She reportedly needed coaxing just to be on the stage. Jesse Garon, the Elvis impersonator who spearheaded the event and acted as minister and master of ceremonies, composed a poem, sang to her, delivered bouquets of roses and even got on bended knee -- basically, he did Oscar's job.

All so that on Wednesday, Goodman could, without reservation, restate his vows and declare, "I thee wed."

Once again, Mrs. Goodman hesitated.

"I," said Carolyn Goodman when she reached her part of the vow.

"... I ... uh, I ...."

The moment stretched. And then, in a rush, she took the plunge: "I thee wed."

"I'm the happiest mayor for a lot of reasons," Goodman said after the ceremony, and briefly appeared to be choked up. "I love my wife more than life itself. I can't say anything more than that."

The Goodmans were married June 6, 1962, but Wednesday's event was scheduled to coincide with Sept. 9, 2009, or 9/9/09.

The economic downturn and tourism skid has hurt chapels and related business, as has increased competition from other "destination" wedding locales.

Through July of this year, the Clark County recorder's office documented just over 55,000 weddings, only slightly down from the same period in 2008.

It's down sharply from 2006, though, when more than 68,000 weddings were recorded from January through July. In 2007, that figure was 65,769 -- almost 20 percent higher than 2009's number.

If those statistics depressed anyone, it was not on display at Wednesday's lighthearted ceremony.

"Marriage was ordained by God -- and Elvis," Garon said.

"A wise man once said, 'Until a man is married, he is incomplete. Once a man is married, he is finished.' "

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