Columnist John Katsilometes: Chapel ready for V-Day invasion

John Katsilometes is the Sun assistant features editor. His column appears Mondays. Reach him at [email protected] or 259-2327.

Charlotte Richards is percolating, adrenaline pumping and her heart all aflutter.

"I love this time of year," she says. "I can't help it. I'm bubbling over with excitement."

Today is Richards' Super Bowl.

The proprietor of the legendary Little White Wedding Chapel on Las Vegas Boulevard, just a bouquet toss from the Stratosphere, Richards has presided over too many weddings to count. Several thousand, at least. She's officiated weddings of the rich and famous, including Michael Jordan and Joan Collins (but not to each other). The chapel is adorned with signed photos of Tom Jones, Mickey Rooney, Stacy Keach and Lynda Carter, and Bruce Willis and Demi Moore.

"I pray for Bruce and Demi every day, that they'll get back together," says Richards, who presided over their nuptials. "There was so much romance coming out of them and they seemed like the perfect couple."

Then she went and shaved her head for "G.I. Jane." But anyway ...

The Little White Wedding Chapel is the most famous of the quickie Las Vegas wedding chapels. In the days preceding Valentine's Day Richards conducted nearly 30 interviews with media outlets around the world.

What's her secret? Volume, volume, volume. On Valentine's Day 1999, 459 couples were married by 10 pastors in a 24-hour period in the Little White Wedding Chapel's five chapels. The outdoor gazebo and limousine drive-thru services were also kept busy, with ceremonies lasting between five and eight tear-jerking minutes.

Today's total nuptial count should approach the total of last Valentine's Day. By Friday more than 300 couples had booked ceremonies.

"And with walk-ups, we'll have a lot more," Richards says. "We have a couple couples who booked midnight, on the dot, so they could be the very first on Valentine's Day."

The chapel has been conducting ceremonies since 1954. Richards took over the business 24 years ago when the property was a residence with a single chapel, and soon renovated the building into a full-service wedding factory.

"Where Michael Jordan got married was literally my living room at one time," Richards says proudly.

Across the parking lot is a refurbished 10,000-square-foot, two-story building with three chapels, a hair salon and makeup room, changing area and a sea of wedding gowns (around 250) and tuxedos (around 300).

It's a marriage conveyor belt, to be sure. Richards admits she can't hope to remember all the couples she's married. "I have people who come in two years later to renew their vows and ask if I remember them. In many cases they do look familiar, but I can't remember them all."

But there's still a lot of love in this room. Richards and the staff pray each morning for the health and well-being of every couple who are scheduled to be married that day. She insists the casual atmosphere and quick-shot services do not cheapen the special moment.

"You could be getting married in the desert under a Joshua tree and God will recognize your union," she says. "When I look into a couple's eyes and read them their vows, it is done with love and sincerity."

It's a warm feeling, and one that every couple hustled in and out of the Little White Wedding Chapel today -- all 400 of them -- should take to heart.

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