Singing wedding bell blues

It's been an unnerving and sometimes rough-and-tumble few years for the local wedding chapel industry, complete with allegations of intimidation, beatings, even a stabbing.

Now, several wedding professionals want to impose tighter regulation and enforcement on themselves, because without changes, they say, Vegas could lose the title of "wedding capital of the world."

"It's been so sad," said Charolette Richards, who owns the Little White Chapel. "I've been in this business for almost 49 years now, and to see this is horrifying. It's almost heartbreaking."

Weddings hit at all-time high of 125,967 in 2004, but over the next two years declined almost 10.7 percent, including a 7.2 percent drop from 2005 to 2006.

Last year, there were 112,531 weddings, fewer than in the travel-averse years immediately following the 2001 terrorist attacks.

Some chapel owners place the blame directly on the aggressive handbillers who badger soon-to-be-newlyweds outside the Las Vegas Marriage Bureau, hoping to steer customers into waiting limousines and stretch Hummers.

"They say, 'Oh, my God, it was like vultures. Attacking vultures,'" Richards said.

It can make a negative impression, said Cliff Evarts, who owns the Vegas Wedding Chapel.

Evarts said he discontinued his handbilling last month.

"If they come here and have a bad experience, they're going to go home and say, 'Go to Vegas, but don't get married there,'" he said.

That could be bad for the city, since there would be fewer visitors who must leave the Strip and actually enter the city limits to obtain a marriage license.

"The city of Las Vegas is the one who benefits from the wedding business," Evarts said. "If you get married, you have to go downtown."

Rough estimates from visitor surveys say that 3 percent to 4 percent of visitors come to Las Vegas for a wedding, either their own or someone else's, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

That adds up to about 1.2 million visitors with an $875 million economic impact, and that doesn't include any gambling they might do.

To protect that slice of the pie, a group of about 10 chapel owners has been pushing city officials to curb the abuses downtown.

They're also looking at ways to make people in the industry more accountable.

One of the key steps could be requiring wedding chapels to obtain privileged business licenses, which require background checks as well as approval by the Las Vegas City Council.

"That would be the best of the best," said Jodi Moss, a local wedding consultant.

She also is a vice president of the Nevada Wedding Association and is coordinating the local effort.

City staff are researching that requirement, city spokesman Jace Radke said.

Moss said other goals include a code of ethics for chapel owners and a membership-driven organization that could offer, and enforce, a "Good Housekeeping seal of approval" so customers could identify the industry's ethical practitioners.

Those steps could curb the abuses that have been reported over the last five years.

In addition to the aggressive pamphleteering, employees have reported being threatened by rival chapel workers.

Evarts said one of his employees was stabbed (the charges were dropped when the victim didn't show up on the court date) and another badly beaten.

The Rev. Stephen Smith of the Downtown Community Church also said he'd been beaten up, and there have been reports of thrown elbows, intimidation and cigarette burns.

Though many chapels have workers at the courthouse, much of the anger and blame for the situation is directed at the Las Vegas Garden of Love chapel.

In the past, owner Cheryl Luell has dismissed her critics as people who are jealous of her success. She did not respond to a request for comment Friday.

Chapel owners, meanwhile, have been frustrated with what they see as a muted or nonexistent response by city officials to these complaints.

There are existing prohibitions on soliciting, parking and other offenses that aren't being enforced, Evarts said, despite years of lobbying by people in the industry.

Moss said recent meetings with city officials have driven home the point that the local wedding industry could be in peril.

"They're not closing their eyes to it," she said. "Do I believe they don't have enough staff? Sure. ... Do you want them to take care of people who are getting murdered and robbed? Sure."

Mayor Pro Tem Gary Reese's ward includes the area around the marriage bureau and most of the city's chapels, and he's been coordinating the research and response to the complaints, Radke said.

Reese did not return phone calls seeking comment on Thursday and Friday.

Moss said she's compiling recommendations for action from chapels both in Las Vegas and on the Strip.

Those are expected to be delivered to the City Council by December.

Any action is long overdue, said Evarts, who is building a $3 million chapel, but wishes he wasn't.

"It's worse now than it was five years ago," he said. "When I bought the land ... I hoped they would resolve the problem by now.

"If I knew then what I know now, I wouldn't have invested $3 million in this project."