If you are willing to roll the dice on love and get married in Sin City, your options have become much more luxurious as of late. Las Vegas, known for its fly-by-night ceremonies performed by Elvis and witnessed by cocktail waitresses, is becoming a hot destination for brides looking for more than a drive-through wedding reception – although that too is available.

With Steve Wynn and other big Las Vegas developers came class and style the strip hadn’t seen since the Rat Pack. Ritzy hotels, such as the Bellagio, Paris, Venetian and now Wynn’s Las Vegas, have been popping up left and right during the last decade, offering couples extravagant chapels, secluded elegant honeymoon suites and opulent wedding packages that seem anything but the indelicate Vegas nuptial stereotype.     

The Bellagio

Tracey Kumer-Moore is the owner and principle wedding consultant of Your Las Vegas Wedding Concierge. A destination bride herself, Kumer-Moore was married at Treasure Island Hotel five years ago. She says couples considering Las Vegas may be surprised at the options and value. 

Las Vegas is not the hokey, tacky town where people run off to get married anymore, she says. We are truly a world-class destination that can provide an incredible wedding day or wedding weekend experience. It is not inexpensive to be married in Las Vegas anymore, but the value is certainly still very good compared to places like New York and Los Angeles.

Instead, she says, there is something for everyone.

Most of the resorts with chapels have packages with fairly similar services and many of the options are geared to the resort, she says. You can have a beautiful roman gardens ceremony at Caesar’s and an intimate gondola wedding at Venetian. Some of the high-end resorts with chapels offer packages that include personal amenities for the bride and groom before and after the wedding — such as hair, makeup, massages, champagne, show tickets and dining credits, to create complete wedding experiences.

Kumer-Moore says she has worked with many resorts when planning clients’ weddings and Las Vegas-bound destination couples should have a few things in mind before arriving for their special day. For one, Las Vegas is a convention town and space for a large ceremony and reception may be an issue. 

Most of the resort wedding chapels and staff can offer space/venues and wedding services that can accommodate, at most, 170 (on the high side), but mainly cater to more intimate number of guests, she says. A very important factor is booking banquet space. The sales departments are certainly going to defer to book large conventions first. Often, rooms cannot be released for a wedding (especially on a Saturday evening) until anywhere from 6 months to 90 days prior. That can cause some people pause to think, especially those from areas where you can and have to contract with a venue more than a year in advance.  However, she says this shouldn’t be discouraging. With the right planning, your Las Vegas wedding can be exactly as you’ve envisioned. 

We can provide everything you could possibly dream of and many things you couldn’t even begin to, she says. We have some of the worlds’ best restaurants, chefs and pastry chefs, magnificent and talented hotel catering and special event departments that have put Las Vegas on the map as major style trendsetter. For those who are looking for an elopement, or marriage vows sung by the King himself, these options are still thriving and available too. 

You can get married by Elvis at a fun independent strip chapel like the Viva Las Vegas Wedding Chapel — they do a fantastic job — or you could get married or serenaded by Elvis at the Bellagio or the Four Seasons! That is the beauty of being married here. You can have a very elegant, stylish and high budget wedding, and still have fun doing it. If you can’t enjoy and have fun getting married in Las Vegas, then, where can you?

For more information about Kumen-Moore’s services, visit: http://www.lvweddingconcierge.com