♪♪ -It's just completely different.

There's no place like it, and it was the first chapel to do anything like that.

♪♪ (Jaclyn Marfuggi-Caprio) Welcome to Downtown Las Vegas.

I'm Jaclyn, and this is my husband, Tommy.

(Tommy Caprio) Most people know that Las Vegas is the "Entertainment Capital of the World," but did you know it's also the "Wedding Capital of the World"?

And now since we're both new Las Vegas locals, we figured that we'd renew our vows and experience it for ourselves.

-Yeah, but this isn't just about us.

We're gonna take you along as we explore the history, the chapels, and find out why Vegas is the wedding capital of the world.

Come on.

Let's go.

♪♪ (Melody Willis-Williams) Hi.

Welcome.

Come on into the world famous Little White Wedding Chapel.

♪♪ -We brought our cameras here because we're interested in renewing our vow.

-How fun.

How many years?

-Three?

-Three.

-My God.

I'll take you on a tour and just show you our spaces.

♪♪ My name is Melody Willis-Williams, and I am the president of Vegas Weddings, Viva Las Vegas Weddings, and the world famous Little White Wedding Chapel.

I knew from day one as a little girl that weddings were my calling.

The first wedding I ever organized was a happy accident.

My dad's a pastor, and he officiated a lot of weddings.

There was a disaster of a wedding that he was doing, and I think I was about 14 years old.

And I just kind of stepped in and took charge, and it went off without a hitch, literally.

And he was much happier having me in charge.

I absolutely adore seeing those couples exit the chapel and that kiss and that love and that energy that's in the room.

I love seeing wedding dresses every day, and I love to see a beautiful, happy, vibrant couple seal the deal.

♪♪ Come on in.

I'll show you guys around.

-Wow!

♪♪ -This is it.

This is the Little White Wedding Chapel.

-Oh, my gosh.

-The founder, Miss Charolette Richards, she really, really did love love.

She absolutely adored this.

Charolette Richards is the founder of Little White Wedding Chapel.

She was brilliant in marketing.

I mean, she is the one that put Las Vegas as the "Marriage Capital of the World" on the map.

I hope to make her proud.

I hope she looks down and thinks, that's the best person to turn my place over to.

-It's much more cozy when you're in here than you think.

And the ceilings are low.

Is this where she lived, too?

-She did, yes.

It dates back to about 1951.

And it's, it's such a fun Vegas experience, truly.

Since we have the Little White Wedding Chapel, we also have the Tunnel of Love.

We have the Amore Chapel.

We can do multiple weddings at one time.

So again, we're equipped to do six and ten weddings, you know, every hour.

There's a lot of-- -Every hour?

- --couples who want to get married.

-It's a very famous chapel.

Tell us some who've been married here before.

-Spill the tea, girl.

-So many.

Well, Joan Collins was the first name on that sign, and then Michael Jordan, second.

And I'm telling you, this goes back to Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward were also married here.

I always like to use Buffy the Vampire Slayer--she's one of my favorites--and Freddie Prinze, Jr.

They were also married here.

-Sarah Michelle Gellar?

-Yes.

And we even had Ed Sheeran pop in and crash a wedding, but not in a bad way.

Like, he brought a gospel choir and his guitar.

It was really romantic.

-I also heard Bruce Willis and Demi Moore.

-Yes.

-Married right here?

-Yes.

-I have a question.

-Yeah.

-I am, I am a Britney girlie.

So we need-- We love Britney.

[impersonating] We need to know was Britney Spears married here?

-She was.

Walking into the Little White Wedding Chapel, it's very intimidating.

You got big shoes to fill because Charolette Richards is world renowned.

So inventing a drive-thru wedding chapel, genius.

[laughter] It's the perfect kind of kitsch for Las Vegas.

-Is this the Tunnel of Love?

-I guess so, but where's Melody?

-I don't know.

She said to meet her right around here, I think.

-Hi!

-Hi, Melody.

-You are in the world's first drive-thru wedding chapel.

-Very cool.

-Thank you.

-This is a true piece of Vegas history.

The story goes, she had an elderly couple that had mobility issues and were struggling to get out of the car, so she came out and she married them.

But then she went and had her son go ahead and build-- cut a hole in the wall and build a little drive-through window.

-This is so cool.

There's a lot of cherubs.

-There's a lot of cherubs.

There's a rumor that that's Miss Charolette's face.

-On all of them?

-All of them.

-I thought I recognized that cherub.

-She loved her poodles, and she loved her little baby angels.

-So what's with the pink Cadillac over there?

-Well, Miss Charolette was obsessed with Elvis, and Elvis had a pink Caddy.

-It's a great photo op.

-One of our most popular packages is to get married and have photos at the iconic pink Cadillac, just like Elvis did.

-No, I love it.

-I mean, even Ben and J.Lo did; they got married in the Little White Wedding Chapel and had their photos taken in the pink Cadillac.

-I love the idea of a Cadillac.

-I want it.

Put it on the tab.

-I mean, who doesn't love a pink Cadillac?

-I love these flowers.

Like, does everyone get this bouquet when they do this?

-Girl, you can have any bouquet you want.

Let me take you to my favorite spot at the Little White Wedding Chapel, the flower shop that's in our lobby.

Let's go see pretty flowers.

-Yes, let's go.

♪♪♪ -So this is the main lobby.

This is where all of our wedding couples check in.

I love it, because you're greeted by all the pretty florals, right?

So the couples will bring in their marriage license, they can buy if they don't have rings, if they don't have flowers.

Anything that they need, we can basically provide to them at that point.

We're a one-stop shop.

We can get you a tux, a gown, we can get you a tiara.

-Oh, my God.

-Literally, it's a one-stop shop.

The same with the flower shop.

This is the largest floral shop in Las Vegas in terms of quantity, because it services all three of our wedding chapels.

So, I mean, we're seeing thousands of roses roll through here, and the ladies are just amazing at what they do.

-Now, it looks stunning.

-I love seeing when the flower shop has all their deliveries coming in.

There's so much color.

It's so vibrant.

It just makes for a pretty presentation.

-So do I get to pick out flowers later?

-Of course.

Yes, absolutely.

-I'll take them all.

-Right?

And this is our Amore Chapel.

Now, this space is our largest.

Our maximum capacity in here is going to be about 60 people.

Do you guys have that many coming?

-Absolutely not.

-I think it's just gonna be us today.

-Okay, all right.

-We're gonna fill it with love.

-I love that.

That's the whole purpose, right?

Sophie Turner and Joe Jonas were actually married in this chapel.

-Here?

-After the Billboard Awards.

-Yes, I remember that.

-So were all the Jonas Brothers here?

-All the Jonas Brothers were here.

It was a celebrity-filled event, for sure.

All right.

Hey, have you ever heard of Kim Kardashian?

-Unfamiliar.

[laughter] -Right?

Well, this is a fun fact: She was actually married here.

-[gasp] -Yeah.

♪♪ -Wow.

This is so like vintage Vegas vibes.

This definitely screams Kardashian, actually.

-So Kim Kardashian got married for the very first time right here.

-Was that a preplanned wedding, or did that-- -It was completely not preplanned, because I don't think anyone, to include her parents, knew about it.

-Wow.

-It's a piece of pop culture history.

I mentioned this chapel has a long history of celebrity weddings here.

Let's go check out some more places.

You guys gotta go the bathroom?

♪♪ We definitely don't do weddings in here, but you said you love a good pop culture moment.

Well, you got to get a selfie in Ben's bathroom.

-Oh, my gosh.

Wait.

Is this where the whole like Ben selfie before the J.Lo wedding happened?

-Yes.

This is where he-- -I don't know anything about this.

-This is Ben Affleck's bathroom.

Right before the wedding, he wasn't ready to go.

He had to quickly get in here, change his clothes.

He took this famous selfie in this graffitied mirror, and we kept it because it's Ben's bathroom.

-I gotta do that.

-It's such an iconic prewedding selfie.

You have to do it.

-Such a fun story.

♪♪ -Each of our venues is very unique.

Viva is completely different.

You can get married by Spider Man, Darth Vader.

It's just completely different.

There's no place like it, and it was the first chapel to do anything like that.

It's the only wedding chapel where a pink Cadillac will drive you inside the wedding chapel.

I want to introduce you to Ron DeCar, the man, the myth, the legend.

-Tommy.

-How you doing?

-My wife, Jaclyn.

-Ciao.

I'm Jaclyn.

-Hey, Jaclyn.

Nice to meet you.

Hi.

My name is Ron DeCar.

I'm the former owner of Viva Las Vegas Wedding Chapel in fabulous Las Vegas.

Vegas weddings, where Melody is the president, came in, bought the chapel.

I sort of thought I was going into semi-retirement, but they've asked me to come out.

Now I sing more than I've sang in my entire life.

I impersonate Dracula.

We do a Star Trek wedding where I play Spock.

I play Merlin, Beetlejuice, Darth Vader, Batman.

We have so many different themes.

We have a James Bond, Game of Thrones, Camelot, rock and roll, Egyptian, Gothic.

You name it, we'll do it.

We will not say no.

-Originally, I grew up in Kansas City, Kansas.

I came to Las Vegas in 1981.

Las Vegas was very small at the time.

There was only about 350,000 people.

Originally, I opened up a business called Wedding Singers of Las Vegas.

I was in 42 different chapels singing, you know, in a tuxedo or as Elvis, and then it became kind of too much to go from chapel to chapel all the time.

I had a production trailer with, you know, a dressing room, and this building came up for rent in '99 from Bob Stupak who built the Stratosphere tower.

And we kind of decided to go with Viva Las Vegas themed weddings as the title of the chapel.

To be honest with you, we were the only place in town doing anything of its kind where the minister would dress up in costume and marry the couple.

There was nothing like it at the time.

Other people have tried to copy us or emulate us, but it's not the same thing.

♪♪ -What do you think of this?

-I mean, do people actually get married right here?

-Yeah.

I stand here on the stage, my first step here.

My bride and groom are here.

If you guys were getting married, you'd be here.

All their audience is here.

We've got a big rockabilly crowd here in town.

-Could you show us some of the other places?

-Sure.

I'll take you into the main chapel, kind of show you around there.

-Okay.

-Meeting Ron DeCar a few years back, he and his partner, Jamie, were the former owners of Viva Las Vegas Weddings.

And they were the first LGBTQ+ wedding chapel on the Strip, before same-sex marriage was legal.

-We were doing commitment ceremonies for couples who wanted to get married, who had been together for years, and no other chapel in town would allow them to come and have a ceremony.

So we've been doing that way before it ever was passed that you could legally get married in Las Vegas.

-So Jaclyn, Tommy, this is the main chapel.

This is where we do all of the themes.

At the time, when we first opened up, back in 1999, it was the largest freestanding chapel on the Strip.

Fast forward, we made it about 22 years until the pandemic, and then we sold the business and the property and got out from underneath everything.

-And you, you're still working here, right?

-Well, I thought I was going to semi-retire, but that didn't happen.

The company that bought us has asked me to come out of retirement, so I sing literally all day long.

-So you're busier now than when you own it?

-Exactly.

I don't have the crazy responsibility that I had, you know, running the business end of it, but I have the fun part.

To be honest, I have the best job in the world.

I could be digging a ditch, I could be working as a mechanic, or on the railroad, like my dad, putting spikes into railroad ties.

But I literally am around people in a good mood every single day of my life, and, for me, it's the best stage in the world.

I'm up close and personal.

I meet people from all over the world.

It's-- honestly, people are jealous of me, and I hear that from them.

I think I'm most proud of the longevity of my career.

You know, in this business, I don't really think it would have lasted this long, but it's crazy, but it's been good.

-So what other types of weddings are done in here theme-wise?

-Okay.

Well, we have Egyptian, rock and roll, gangster, Beetlejuice, Gothic.

Gothic, to be honest with you, I would say is our second strongest wedding of anything we do.

The Elvis wedding is definitely number one.

The pink Cadillac is the number one out of all the Elvis packages that we have.

Gothic is a strong second.

All the girls come in black wedding dresses or black fingernails.

You know, everything's black and red.

But yeah, we bring in sets and props, lights, fog, whatever, everything, all of it, all of it.

-Well, we have a few more places to look at with Melody.

And then when we're done, we'll make a decision on what is best for us.

-Yes.

Thank you so much.

-Oh, you're welcome.

Thank you very much.

-Thank you very much.

-Well, Jackie's back at the chapel.

I'm here at the Marriage License Bureau.

I'm going to talk to people from Clark County to learn more about marriage history in Las Vegas and figure out how to get a marriage license.

Come on.

(Lynn Marie Goya) So if you think about Nevada, we have two resources: We have minerals, and we have tourism.

And so since the beginning of the founding of the county in 1909, weddings have been a cultural mainstay for what brings people to this town.

We had no waiting period, no blood tests.

And soon after the town was established, we started having standalone chapels.

They first started out in people's homes.

There was even some stories of couples, celebrity couples, flying into the airport, getting their marriage license, getting married on the tarmac, and then going right back home.

I think Las Vegas weddings have remained remarkably consistent in that they are stress free, easy, simple.

You can come to the Marriage License Bureau 8 a.m. to midnight, 365 days a year, and then go and get married that same day.

That's very attractive.

You don't have to go through all the stress and all the angst of putting on a big production.

You can focus on yourselves.

You can focus on your family and friends and really make the wedding of your dreams simple, easy, and stress free.

♪♪ Las Vegas is known as the "Wedding Capital of the World" all over the world.

Marriages are calculated in the number per thousand of population.

So around the country, about 6.5 is the marriage rate.

Las Vegas is about 30 per thousand.

So we are the number one destination wedding place in the world.

No one in the world has a marriage rate anywhere close to that.

We do about 80,000 marriage licenses per year, and that's more than most states and certainly more than even some countries.

-Hi.

Welcome to Vegas Weddings.

This is my home.

This is where I got my start.

I mentioned to you that we had both drive-throughs in Las Vegas.

Well, let me show you our Fast Lane Drive-Thru.

-Oh, my gosh.

That Cadillac is amazing.

-All right.

So this is our Love in the Fast Lane Drive-Thru chapel, the other one.

But what makes this so special is this vintage white 1966 Cadillac.

-Look at that.

-Yeah!

-Usher was married in this Cadillac right here after the Super Bowl.

-Wow!

That was two years ago?

-Wait.

Are you-- this is so ionic.

-This is the Cadillac.

And so they brought this car in, and I loved it so much we had to buy it.

-Wow!

-You guys bought this from Usher?

Can I touch it?

-Do you wanna get in?

You gotta get in.

-Say less.

Oh, chic.

-You're sitting in the car that Usher and Jen got married in.

-Oh, my gosh, yes.

-And so the proximity to the Clerk's Office actually helps this as well.

-It absolutely does.

This is why people just walk up or drive up, and they can get married in 10 minutes or less.

-Wait.

Do people always go, "Peace up, A-Town," when they're in the car?

-This is super fun, but I have some other beautiful locations I want to show you, too.

-This is so incredible.

-And this has to be probably one of my favorite, favorite venues.

Come on in.

Do you hear the angels singing?

[laughter] Come on in and check out our gorgeous wedding chapel.

-This is huge.

-Yes, this holds 100 guests if you want that.

You can have a hundred.

-This is the biggest so far.

-Yes.

-And so tell me about these glass windows, and what was the inspiration for this?

It's got Charolette written all over it.

-Well, we took notes from her playbook.

You know, she was a brilliant lady, and everything she did kind of oozed love.

So we wanted to mirror that when we chose these stained glass windows.

It's the story of love.

-Yeah, and the chandelier, like everything's blinged out.

It's still got that Vegas touch to it, but it's like, subtle and chic.

-This is great.

We have a lot of thinking to do.

-I know.

I love the candles on the ground.

But we're not done?

We have more?

-I haven't showed you our cute little romantic gazebo.

It's on a rooftop.

All right.

Come check out our gorgeous, romantic terrace gazebo.

This is a rooftop gazebo.

-Wow!

-This is hugely popular.

The weather in Vegas is gorgeous in the spring and in the fall.

Sunset, it's so romantic, right?

But this is, you're going to notice this one's a little bit more intimate.

This is going to hold a max of 30.

And, I mean, there's something for everybody.

If outdoor is absolutely the way to go, you've got this cute little rooftop gazebo.

-And there's really good energy in here.

It feels like light, like romantic, and I love it.

It feels like you're on a stage.

-Well, we've got decisions to make.

-Yeah, there's a lot.

Yeah, all right.

-So let's go, let's go and figure this out.

-So we toured some amazing wedding venues today and we also learned a lot of history, but it's decision time.

-It is.

-We got to decide where we'll renew our vows.

What do you think?

-I think we start right here at the Little White Wedding Chapel.

-Yes.

-Stained glass windows, but I kind of like the idea of keeping with the history of the things that happened in that room.

-I feel like you're forgetting the most important thing, the star power that has literally walked through the Little White Wedding Chapel and the fact that it just feels very classic.

And I definitely could see us renewing there.

-Yeah.

Now let's talk about Chapel Amore.

-Aka where the Jonas Brothers got married.

-Yeah, but it's a really big, bold room.

It's like, it's classic.

It's got a lot of space.

-Ginormous, gorgeous, vintage chandeliers, and they just give vintage Vegas vibes.

-I liked it.

I like that room.

Okay, so there's also the Tunnel of Love, the infamous Tunnel of Love.

I kind of like the idea of using that pink Cadillac or maybe, you know-- -Such a photo op.

And I felt like the Cadillac and that whole tunnel just like, really gives celebrity vibes.

-Something to consider, for sure.

-All right.

We gotta talk about Viva Las Vegas.

I mean, I loved that you could do theme weddings there, like Harry Potter, just Halloween, vampire, like Game of Thrones?

Like, that's, to me, so cool.

And that kind of felt like the rock star of wedding chapels.

It's definitely the rock star place where we can get married and like anything goes; we can pretty much do anything.

But I also, I also really liked Ron.

-Ron told us they can open up the doors to the chapel and just drive right into the wedding.

I honestly can't picture how that is going to be possible, but it sounds so epic.

Ron was the best.

Ron is the best, coolest Elvis we've ever met, and I loved where we got to meet him.

Like, that was really cool, like, in like a '50s diner setting.

I felt like Marilyn Monroe was gonna pop out.

-Yeah.

Another option, too, is we can do a '50s, we can do like poodle skirts and turn the jukebox on, and Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley music.

-So cool.

And then we checked out Vegas Weddings.

It's classy, it's elegant, and my favorite thing, Usher got married there after the Super Bowl.

And it just gave me all the vibes.

I would totally be down to get married in that Cadillac.

-Yeah, I like the Cadillac.

There's so many other options.

What I really like about that chapel, as well, wedding chapel.

-Yeah.

-So elegant, really big.

And I like all the little touches that are there.

And the way those doors open up when we come upstairs, it's the reveals.

-Bling.

-Yeah, the reveal is amazing.

And then right outside those doors is also the option of the outside gazebo that's on the roof deck.

So you get, you get rooftop views.

-The views of downtown.

-Like an intimate garden as well.

-We have so many incredible options.

I mean, we're renewing our vows, so I want to have fun.

I don't want to do just like the traditional like, what we did, like, hold hands and say how much we love each other.

-You're more of a get-up-and-move type.

-Yeah, I like moving.

-Yeah, but it definitely has to be something that's very Vegas, rock star, and have a little fun, a little movement.

-I think I know what I'm leaning into.

-I think I know, too, but I also, I have my suspicions of what you're going to do.

-All right, let's go.

-All right, let's go do it.

♪♪ -Oh, my God.

There was smoke.

There was a pink Cadillac inside of a chapel.

-Yeah, I don't know.

It all happened so fast.

You never drive into a wedding chapel, but we drove in with Elvis.

-With Elvis.

-Smoke, Elvis music.

He pulled us out of the car.

-I'm not gonna lie, like I got choked up when we were coming.

Like it just, emotionally, like it hits you when you're just in the smoke in the car with Elvis, the songs playing.

Like it was-- -Yeah, I think it's kind of cool, because we moved here to Las Vegas, we feel like-- I feel like I'm part of some cool fraternity that, you know, that we just got initiated.

-I really do feel that way.

It's like a Las Vegas wedding fraternity.

Sorority actually, thank you.

-And the best part about it is when you put these glasses on, they're so dark that you almost forget anyone else in the room.

And thank God, because I kept picturing all the cameras looking at us, and I was doing some awkward dancing.

-Yeah, we were awkward.

But, like, so fun.

-Yeah.

It was a fun awkward.

-It was so cool.

I think we picked the perfect venue for our energy.

-This felt right for us, and we're really glad we did this.

-I loved it, and like knowing who actually got married elevated the whole experience in every venue.

Like you do feel a certain kind of vibe when you walk in.

There is such like a vintage Vegas feel to it that you're like, Oh, yeah, let's do this.

I could see why people get married-- -Well we did it.

- --all the time here.

-Yeah.

The car, the car in a chapel.

Man, that's just the coolest.

♪♪ -That's the show.

Watch more Vegas All In stories and moments whenever you want to.

Go online and search Vegas All In PBS, and we'll see you there.

♪♪ -I'm all in.

-You know, we're talking about Las Vegas, so, yeah, yeah, I'm all in.