John Locher / AP
In this Aug. 1, 2017, photo, Eddie Powers, right, performs as Elvis during a wedding for Wil and Sarah Wilson in Las Vegas. Powers works full-time as an Elvis tribute artist performing at weddings and leading Elvis themed tours around Las Vegas.
Saturday, April 3, 2021 | 2 a.m.
It is shaping up to be a good day to get married in Las Vegas, a city that knows a thing or two about lucky numbers.
That’s because today is April 3, 2021, or 4/3/21. If you’re a fan of numerical sequences, that’s a pretty good one — and definitely easier to remember your anniversary.
The Little Vegas Chapel had 36 ceremonies booked and expected to take more including walk-ins, venue manager Chrissy Jimeno said.
April is already peak wedding season, with its mild weather and spring blooms.
“It’s one of the most perfect wedding dates right now,” Jimeno said.
The Clark County Marriage License Bureau, a division of the county clerk’s office that handles the legal specifics in one of the busiest wedding destinations in the world, knows this is going to be a big one. It’s even issuing 4/3/21 keepsake certificates.
“Couples planning their wedding in 2021 will have plenty of special dates to explore,” Clark County Clerk Lynn Goya said in a statement. “We exceeded our expectations this past Valentine’s Day with lines around the block all weekend long leading up to and on Valentine’s Day ... and one-of-a-kind dates like 4/3/21 are always immensely popular, with more to come as we enter the last year of the decade with palindrome weeks.”
Clark County typically issues more than 75,000 marriage certificates a year. Even with last year’s temporary shutdown because of the pandemic, the county still issued 56,331 marriage licenses, with weddings picking up in earnest toward the end of the year.
This Valentine’s Day even outperformed Valentine’s Day in 2020, which fell pre-pandemic, 811 weddings to 660, the county said. And 10/10/20, another numeric specialty day, saw 1,599 couples married in Las Vegas.
That set the all-time record so far at the Little Vegas Chapel, with more than 50 couples churning through the Arts District chapel.
With only one room outfitted for traditional, 30-to-45-minute ceremonies plus a small space for brief, courthouse-style nuptials, today promises to be hectic, with back-to-back weddings in addition to the COVID-19 cleaning and screening protocols that have become standard over the past year.
The chapel — which opened Nov. 12, 2013, or 11/12/13; it knew what it was doing — is leaning into it with a 4/3/21 package and extended hours to accommodate the demand.
“Our couples make our jobs really fun and really easy,” Jimeno said.
Graceland Wedding Chapel, the world’s birthplace of the Elvis Presley-themed ceremony, was almost fully booked as of Thursday, with just under 50 appointments. The Vegas institution, which has been marrying couples with Elvis impersonators since 1977, has exactly calibrated its typical daily maximum at 56 ceremonies, but would also consider expanding its hours, chapel spokesman Rod Musum said.
“I don’t know if it’s going to happen this year, but if it does we will totally open the doors,” he said.
Musum said he was happy to accommodate couples, including those who had to reimagine large weddings in response to the pandemic, and pleased for Graceland staff to experience a normal rush again. That includes the squad of Elvii that are on deck.
In addition to holidays like Halloween and New Year’s Eve, the county also expects the rebound to continue with a string of palindrome dates in December. Palindrome dates are always popular: 11/11/11 was the second-most popular wedding date of all time here, with 3,125 couples married in Clark County. The countywide record-setter was, of course, the 7/7/07 jackpot, with 4,492 marriages.
