LAS VEGAS– For better or worse, a wave of couples saying “I do” on New Year's Eve in Las Vegas could set a record for the city's busiest wedding day ever.
That's because 12/31/23 is known in the massive 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 falls on a holiday known for eruption celebrations.
“It's a double whammy,” said Melody Willis-Williams, president of Vegas Weddings, which operates multiple venues. “Any time you get these special dates, they are always extremely popular. But couple that with New Year's Eve and it's a showstopper.”
The number to surpass on New Year's Eve is 4,492 – the record for Las Vegas weddings in a single day, set on July 7, 2007. The second most popular special wedding date on file with the province's marriage bureau is November 11, 2011, when 3,125 couples tied the knot.
Typically, New Year's Eve has attracted somewhere between 450 and 550 couples to get married in Las Vegas since 2018, the Review-Journal reported.
But not for Vegas Weddings this year. The company is booked solid at midnight at its various locations, including the brown-brick chapel in downtown Las Vegas with a white tower and a red awning.
Willis-Williams said her company expects to marry more than 120 couples on New Year's Eve alone. Five of those couples will tie the knot just as the clock counts down to midnight.
Clark County Clerk Lynn Marie Goya said couples who got married on a special date in Las Vegas described them as “magical dates” that are easy to remember.
“I think the celebration with a group dynamic is very attractive,” Goya said. “If everyone lines up and they're all getting married and they're excited about love, it only enhances their own experience.”
