New vows for old wedding chapel

By Joe Schoenmann

Monday, June 9, 2008 | 2 a.m.

This is no longer the chapel that Cheryl Luell built.

Inside what was once known as the Garden of Love wedding chapel, the Rev. Charles T. Gordon takes pains to demonstrate how his new chapel is miles apart from the old.

A flat-screen TV will greet couples in the foyer of the new place. Another room will feature a TV studio to produce live streaming wedding videos.

“We even painted over her name on that wall,” Gordon said, pointing to an exterior wall that used to display Luell’s name. “She had some devils, or angels that looked like devils — we painted over those, too.”

A year ago the reverend’s new business, now called The First Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas — the first as you drive north into downtown Las Vegas — would have brought a collective sigh of relief from competitors. They said they had grown tired of intimidation by Luell’s handbillers and of the damage Garden of Love’s shenanigans was inflicting on the industry.

But a year is a long time. And about 100,000 Clark County marriages later, new furies have beset an industry accustomed to battle.

This time, the fight isn’t against one bad owner. It’s against a government some think wants to be rid of small-fry wedding chapels.

“They are trying to run us out of business,” said Joan Bojorquez, co-owner of Vegas Adventure Wedding Chapel, between downtown Las Vegas and the Strip.

“They” refers to the Clark County Marriage Bureau, which collects $55 for each marriage license it issues to more than 100,000 couples each year.

Bojorquez claims that employees of the Marriage Bureau have been telling couples that chapel handbillers who stand outside the bureau work for “illegal” chapels. In fact, the handbillers are allowed to hand out chapel brochures and answer questions, but are not supposed to solicit or pressure couples for business.

“These couples are being told to ignore us — ‘Ignore those people down there, they aren’t legal,’ ” Bojorquez said. “Now that is horrible. Why in the world would they be putting us down like this?”

County Clerk Shirley Parraguirre, whose office oversees the Marriage Bureau, denied the allegation. But she doesn’t disguise her dislike of the handbillers, saying couples taking cabs to the Marriage Bureau “can’t even get out without being accosted by these people.”

In just the past week, Parraguirre said, one woman “took off her shoes and ran up the steps (to the Marriage Bureau) because she wanted to get away from them and could run faster that way.”

She said, however, that the only thing her employees tell couples is “our office ... does not have any relationship with the handbillers. They are through private chapels.”

“Well, what else is she going to say?” Bojorquez replied. “Our handbiller says something entirely different.”

She might be able to say that to Parraguirre’s face Tuesday, when chapel owners and other interested parties are expected to meet with City Attorney Brad Jerbic and Councilman Ricki Barlow to discuss another point of contention.

The meeting is one of the last aimed at hashing out differences before the Las Vegas City Council is asked to vote on ordinances that would change the way downtown chapels do business.

One measure would limit how close chapel handbillers may be to the steps of the Marriage Bureau at 201 Clark Ave. Another would require chapels to obtain “privileged” business licenses, which require more intensive — and expensive — background checks of business operators.

Bojorquez said privileged license background checks could cost $750 or more, compared with the $400 chapels now pay for licenses. But like other established chapels, hers would be grandfathered in. She would have to pay the more expensive fee only if her chapel draws police attention or citizen complaints.

That’s not good enough for Bojorquez, who fears other chapel owners would file bogus complaints just to force competitors into “discretionary” renewal hearings.

In Bojorquez’s mind, a scenario goes like this: If the city enacts an ordinance to force handbillers 150 to 200 feet from the Marriage Bureau’s door, they might end up blocking the storefronts of chapels near the Marriage Bureau. If that happens, those chapels might file complaints, leading to renewal hearings and, perhaps, the expensive licenses.

“Once they get their teeth into this, anything’s possible,” Bojorquez said.

Last year, after the city council affirmed the revocation of the Garden of Love’s business license, chapel operators talked of rebuilding their image, of trying to undo the damage done.

At The First Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas, Gordon seems unaffected by the hand-wringing over at Vegas Adventure Weddings, just a few blocks north.

He says he won’t employ handbillers.

“We don’t want to be associated with that,” Gordon said. “That’s why we hired a marketing person.”

He stops several times during a tour of his chapel, stressing that he has no contact with the former owner and “wouldn’t know her if I saw her.”

“This is a new regime, a whole new concept,” he said. “A whole new era — we’re leaving all that old stuff behind.”

As he speaks, a young couple walk into the chapel. Last year they were married here — at the Garden of Love — but never received their wedding photos.

“We’ll take care of them, give them a renewal wedding, free photos,” Gordon said. “We’ve gotten others who have called with the same problem. But we’ll take care of them. We’re cleaning up the image.”