Newlyweds Jackie McCafferty, left, and Janell Menard McCafferty watch fireworks at the Plaza in Las Vegas, Friday, Jan. 1, 2021.
Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021 | 2 a.m.
The revelry off Fremont Street on New Year’s Eve was sparkling with relief and optimism after a bruising year. For one couple, it was also a wedding reception.
Still in their traditional finery hours after they wed at a chapel a few blocks away, Jackie McCafferty and his bride Janell Menard McCafferty stood on Main Street to watch the fireworks burst off the roof of the Plaza, beers in hand and smiles in their eyes. Even among the crowd of revelers thrilled to put 2020 in the rear view, on New Year’s Eve in the heart of Las Vegas, a radiant bride and loving groom were hard to miss.
The newly pronounced Mr. and Mrs. McCafferty came here from Lubbock, Texas, to marry. They thought it would further the joy to stay in their traditional formalwear all night. They knew Vegas would be a fun time.
“I didn’t know it would be this fun,” Menard McCafferty said.
Couples like the McCaffertys are part of a healing of an industry battered by the coronavirus pandemic.
The Clark County Marriage Bureau issued about 56,000 marriage licenses in 2020, a 23% drop from the 73,000 of 2019. But much of that loss came during the hard spring shutdown, and the fall and winter have inched closer to normal, even as the pandemic and a statewide “pause” continue. October 2020 licenses even outpaced the prior October by about 10%, according to county data.
At Graceland Wedding Chapel, trends have shifted to couples coming from within driving distance: California, Arizona, Texas, even Vegas locals, said chapel spokesman Rod Musum.
Though Graceland is famous for being the first chapel in the world to offer Elvis Presley-themed nuptials, starting in 1977, the chapel is lately offering more traditional ceremonies than usual, along with vow renewals. The latter don’t require licenses, and have been the booster that has kept the chapel going, Musum said.
“A lot of people — I can’t tell you how many — have told us that they had to cancel their weddings wherever they were from for COVID reasons, so they were just thrilled to be able to come here and have what I would call a semi-Vegas experience, and be able to have the ceremony that they were waiting for, on the date that they wanted to do it on,” Musum said.
Newlyweds Jackie McCafferty, left, and Janell Menard, depart after watching a fireworks show over the Plaza Casino, downtown, Friday, Jan 1, 2021.
In 2019, the last year data is available, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority estimates 4% of the 42 million visitors to Las Vegas came for a wedding. County Clerk Lynn Goya in late 2019 said the wedding tourism industry generates $69 million in annual tax revenue. The marriage license fee is $77 in Clark County, $14 of which goes toward the Wedding Tourism Fund to market Las Vegas’ wedding industry.
Musum said international business, which accounts for about half of their couples, is still at a halt, and Graceland has had to cancel more than 1,400 ceremonies. But he still remains optimistic.
“It’s not going to be a banner year, but we’re very happy with what we’re doing under the circumstances,” he said. “But I think all of us are looking forward to more people flying in here from all over the world because for a lot of us chapels, it’s a numbers game.”
Tourism officials anticipate a spike in visitors in the late-spring as the coronavirus vaccine is further distributed, as would-be visitors let loose after months of being quarantined. The same can be said for weddings as many couples have delayed nuptials until the ceremony could be safely attended by family and friends.
“There are couples who have planned two or three weddings already and don’t want to go through the pain of telling everyone and rescheduling again. So they say ‘Enough, let’s go to Vegas,’” Melody Willis-Williams of Vegas Weddings told the New York Times. “With the way things are going, people don’t want to wait to express their love.”
Mid-winter is typically the slow season, but Graceland hosted more New Year’s Eve ceremonies than he expected, Musum said. Nightlife was limited this year, and the epic Strip fireworks were canceled, but people could still get married. And they did.
Janell Menard McCafferty, the bride from Lubbock, said she and her husband waited in line for two hours to get their marriage license.
Soon they officially sealed their love. Then, in the street bathed in neon, more love came to them.
“I have been told I’m beautiful more tonight than any other time in my life,” Menard McCafferty said.
“To the newlyweedddsss!” one passerby cheered, the second in less than a minute to pause and seek a selfie. The couple good-naturedly obliged.
