Forty years ago a young girl could well have received her first hints about marriage in Las Vegas from a Life Magazine. One issue of that magazine contained pictures of a divorced Happy Rockefeller, a woman who went after a marriage in Las Vegas. At least one young girl saw that Life Magazine and she wanted to know why Happy had gone to Las Vegas.
That issue provided young people with evidence that one could go out-of –state to get married. That issue introduced many young girls to proof that a woman in love could get a quick and easy Las Vegas wedding.
The article in that Life Magazine did not discuss any wedding packages in Las Vegas. The absence of reference to such packages could well suggest that such packages were not available to guests back then. Back then someone who wanted a marriage in Las Vegas would undoubtedly need to design their own wedding package.
Today, when ready-made packages are available, some couples continue to develop a self-styled wedding package. Some couples fail to use the existing wedding packages in Las Vegas, because they are trying to save money. Some couples feel certain that they can design their own package.
While such self-styled packages can save a couple some unneeded expenses, they can also create problems. A self-styled package will usually not have the printed information that is available to purchasers of a wedding package. A self-styled package could keep a young couple in the dark about how to actually have a marriage in Las Vegas.
In fact, one young couple in California asked the groom’s father to plan their wedding package in April of 2006. He got them an excellent deal—a low price on a suite at one Las Vegas hotel. He did not, however, help them to learn where they could get information about obtaining a marriage license.
For that reason, the groom returned to California with a form that he and his wife could not use. The groom and his wife had hoped to complete a simple ceremony in California. It had not occurred to them that a California ceremony would require a California license.
The form that that couple sent to Nevada was promptly returned. The couple then had to go after a second marriage certificate. They also needed to arrange for a second wedding ceremony. All of that trouble could have been avoided, if they had had a marriage in Las Vegas.
Instead, they had simply enjoyed their self-styled wedding package, and had then picked-up a Nevada marriage certificate. They discovered the hard way that a fun and romantic Las Vegas weekend, even one spent in a “honeymoon suite,” is no substitute for a wedding ceremony that has been conducted in the proper location.