12/31/23: At Las Vegas wedding chapels, this ‘specialty date’ creates a New Year’s Eve surge

LAS VEGAS — For better or worse, a wave of couples saying “I do” in Las Vegas on New Year’s Eve could set a record for the busiest wedding day in the city’s history.

That’s because 12/31/23 is known in the huge Las Vegas wedding industry as a “special date,” thanks to the repeating 1-2-3 1-2-3 pattern, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported. .

The icing on the cake? This special date coincides with a holiday famous for its full-blown celebrations.

“It’s a double whammy,” said Melody Willis-Williams, president of Vegas Weddings, which operates several venues. “Whenever you get these special dates, they are always very popular. But if we combine it with New Year’s Eve, it will be spectacular.”

The number to beat on New Year’s Eve is 4,492 – the single-day record for Las Vegas weddings set on July 7, 2007. The second-most popular specialty wedding date recorded by the county’s marriage bureau is the 11th. November 2011. when 3,125 couples got married.

Typically, New Year’s Eve has drawn between 450 and 550 couples to get married in Las Vegas since 2018, the Review-Journal reported.

But not this year for Vegas Weddings. The company is fully booked for midnight at its multiple locations, including its brown brick chapel in downtown Las Vegas with a white steeple and red awning.

Willis-Williams said her company alone expects to marry more than 120 couples on New Year’s Eve. Five of those couples will get married just as the clock counts down to midnight.

Clark County Clerk Lynn Marie Goya said couples married on a special date in Las Vegas have described them as “magical dates” that are easy to remember.

“I think the celebration that has a group dynamic is very attractive,” said Goya. “When everyone is lined up and everyone is getting married and excited about being in love, it just enhances your own experience.”