Branden Paul has the look. The dyed black pompadour. The deluded suit. The sunglasses. An Elvis impersonator, he recently led two young women – Jess Sandoval and Alana Stroebel – through some special vows at the Graceland Wedding Chapel in downtown Las Vegas.
“Jess, I want you to look Alana in the eye and say, ‘I promise to always love you tenderly and never leave you at the Heartbreak Hotel,” Paul said with a laugh.
This is the eighth wedding he has performed today. Las Vegas is in the midst of a wedding boom as the country’s vaccination rates rise and the United States recover from a grueling pandemic. The climb is bittersweet for Paul. He has a hard time singing these days. He caught COVID-19 last October and has some persistent symptoms.
“I find myself short of breath,” he said. “But, you know what? I live. If that’s my worst – I can’t keep a note as long as I used to – I’ll take care of it. “
He’ll have to deal with it this summer. After firing staff due to the pandemic last year, he now holds dozens of ceremonies over the weekends.
In fact, the entire $ 2 billion Las Vegas wedding industry has rebounded sharply since March, when vaccines became widely available and casinos began increasing capacity. About 340 couples were getting married here every day through June, according to the latest available data from the Clark County Bureau. That is more than double compared to last year and even higher than the level before the pandemic.
“We just got bombed, but it’s good,” said Clark County clerk Lynn Marie Goya.
She says the industry employs around 18,000 people in southern Nevada. It is an integral part of the region’s economy, along with tourism and gambling.
“We have so many different ways to get married that it permeates the local economy,” she said.
That economy suffered a major blow in the early days of the pandemic. Casinos and shops have closed, and weddings have also collapsed. In April last year they were down 96%. But now business is booming. It should also be noted that COVID-19 has also experienced a boom in recent weeks. According to the state, the number of hospital admissions has doubled, but it now seems to be declining. Clark County just brought back mask requirements for employees working in crowded indoor spaces.
Las Vegas weddings appeal to the adventurous
But the surge in new cases didn’t stop couples like Shannon Santos and Greg Daly from doing so. They drove into town from Detroit.
“We wanted an adventure,” said Daly. “We wanted to go on a road trip and have real quality time together instead of the hustle and bustle of a traditional wedding.”
They got married on a Wednesday in a small chapel in downtown Las Vegas. They each wore small angel wings. A black couple and a white couple.
“We like to cosplay at home,” said Santos. “We thought of some kind of angel, devil, fairy.”
Randy Rathbun and Sophia Heid want to fly over the city in a helicopter. They met a few years ago through a dating app.
“I know friends who are married from dating websites so I thought I’d give it a try,” said Heid. “Of course he tried. And voila. We’re in a helicopter.”
She says the pandemic has brought them closer together. There was no suggestion. They were walking around a mall last August and just decided to tie the knot together. Heath loves how caring her future husband is. He has a big heart, he’s kind and:
“He’s got a really nice bum,” she said with a laugh. “I like that part a lot too.”
Heid and Rathbun will soon join the 37,000+ couples who got married in Sin City this year.
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNR in Nevada, the O’Connor Center for the Rocky Mountain West in Montana, KUNC in Colorado, KUNM in New Mexico, with support from affiliated stations across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
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