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Vegas bliss: An ethnography of the wedding industry in Las Vegas

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Vegas bliss: An ethnography of the wedding industry in Las Vegas

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Content INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type o f computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand comer and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. 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VEGAS BUSS: AN ETHNOGRAPHY OF THE W EDDING INDUSTRY IN LAS VEGAS by Young-Hoon Kim A Thesis Presented to the FACULTY OF THE G R AD UATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN C A LIFO R N IA In Partial Fulfillm ent o f the Requirements for the Degree Master o f Arts (Visual Anthropology) May 1996 Copyright 1996 Young-Hoon Kim Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number: 1380444 UMI Microform 1380444 Copyright 1996, by UMI Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. U N IV E R S IT Y O F S O U T H E R N C A L IF O R N IA TH E G RADUATE SCHOOL U N IV E R S ITY PARK LOS AN G ELES. C A LIF O R N IA 9 0 0 0 7 This thesis, written by m iN G cH fm .ia M ........................................... under the direction of Al.5 Thesis Committee, and approved by all its members, has been pre sented to and accepted by the Dean of The Graduate School, in partial fulfillm ent of the requirements fo r the degree of Master of Arts THESIS M IT T Chairman Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. VEGAS BLISS: AN ETHNOGRAPHY OF THE W EDDING INDUSTRY IN LAS VEGAS A bstract This thesis is an ethnographic study o f a contemporary wedding form found in Las Vegas, Nevada. The study explores the significance o f this unique ritual form, and considers its relation to the fabric o f contemporary American culture. My analysis o f the Las Vegas wedding ritual w ill offer a "decisive key to understanding the social realities perceived and lived” by Americans by exploring both the meaning of such a choice for one's marriage, and the impact of the I^s Vegas wedding itself as a contemporary ritual. (Turner, 1969:9) Utilizing several levels o f analysis, I examine those characteristics peculiar to the Vegas wedding, and relate those specific characteristics to the larger culture in terms o f their function in the expression o f individuality and the subsequent negation o f the most essential socially cohesive aspects of the wedding ritual. ii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. A cknow ledgem ents I would like to express my deep gratitude to all the members o f my committee for their insightful criticism and persistent support: Drs. Alexander Moore, Andrei Simic, J. Diego V ig il, Edward Ransford, and Gary Seaman. My special thanks must go to Professor Gary Seaman who has supported me with unfailing encouragement throughout my graduate training at I ISC. My fieldwork was made possible by many individuals. I like to thank David Ballard who was a great host, w illin g to share his living space along with his valuable ideas about the city o f I>as Vegas and the wedding chapel. My sincere thanks also go to Jean Paul DeLeon, manager at the Candlelight Wedding Chapel, who not only was my key informant, but graciously provided me with unlimited access to the chapel. I also wish to extend my thanks to the many ministers, wedding directors, limousine drivers, florists, and other chapel employees who always welcomed me and shared their expertise on the topic o f Vegas wedding. In addition, I am grateful to many individuals I met in Las Vegas during my fieldwork: Gordon Gust; Rev. Jim Hamilton; Rev. Dolores D. Gilster; Dr. Ken Knight; Ms. Loretta Bowman, a Clark County clerk; Dr. Simon Gottscharlk and iii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. other faculty members at U N LV : and the staff at Marriage License Bureau and Marriage Commissioners Office. W ith no doubt, I am most indebted to people who were married at the chapel. They answered my survey and accepted the interview requests at a most unexpected and sometimes inopportune time, often on their wedding days. W ithout their acceptance and understanding, this study would not exist. Finally, I like to thank Michael Sims for his friendship, and Robyn Frandsen, whose editorial assistance was greatly appreciated. And my deepest gratitude must go to my parents and my wife, Kyoungsik, without whose support I could not have come this far. i v Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Table of Contents Page Abstract ij Acknowledgements iii List o f Tables vi List o f Figures vii Introduction 1 Chapter 1: Beginning the fieldwork 8 Chapter 2: The Setting 15 The City o f Las Vegas 15 Wedding Chapels 18 Chapter 3: Who Comes To I^as Vegas To Get Married, And Why? 29 Demographics 31 How do people plan their weddings and what are their concerns? 37 What draws people to Las Vegas to be wed? 39 Chapter 4: “ This is Business." 55 Conclusion 67 Appendices 75 Bibliography 78 v Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. List o f Tables Page Table I. Geographical Origins Among Respondents 34 Table 2. Educational Level O f Respondents 35 Table 3. Income Level 35 Table 4. Period o f Planning A Wedding 37 Table 5. Most Important Concern In Planning A Wedding 50 Table 6. Choice o f Vegas As A Wedding Location/ Number O f Times M arried 52 Table 7. How Do You Rate the Vegas Wedding For Yourself? 52 v i Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. List of Figures Page Figure I. Daily Distribution O f Weddings 25 Figure 2. Hourly Distribution o f Weddings 25 Figure 3. Age Variation By Age Group 33 Figure 4. Number O f Marriages 36 Figure 5. Number O f Guests 37 Figure 6. Who Gave You The Most Advice? 38 Map 1. locations O f Wedding Chapels on the Strip 20 v ii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Introduction “ Family values” is a key concept in American political and cultural discourse these days, and as if in response, there are more weddings than ever performed in the United States. The increase in the number of divorces over recent decades is far from indicating that American people are losing their faith in marriage as an institution; if they were, there would be fewer weddings as well. Actually, we are seeing the opposite. Over 2.3 m illion marriage licenses are filed annually in the United States, and this number remains strong, according to the Census Bureau Report in 1994.' Considering that the average cost for American weddings is about $19,000, it is not so d ifficult to imagine how big the wedding industry is in the United States (Chapman 1993). “ The purchases of wedding-related goods and services generate more than $30 billion in annual sales for American retailers (Chapman 1993).” (requoted from Otnes & Lowrey, 1994:165) Consequently, the wedding couples-to-be are one o f the most zealously targeted group o f consumers. The commercial interests o f the wedding industry are fed in magazines on shelves in every market and bookstore. It is not a coincidence that the February-March 1992 issue o f 1 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. “ Bride's and Your New Home" magazine was the heaviest magazine ever published. Through colorful photographs o f marriage merchandise and the radiant images o f bride in pristine white gowns, the wedding industry create, stimulates, and finally organizes the desire o f the wedding couples for the kind o f wedding the industry wants them to dream of. Every fifteen minutes, a local radio station in Las Vegas announces: Las Vegas is probably the easiest place in the world in which to get married and a new record is set almost every year fo r the number o f marriages licenses issued. In 1993, the Clark County clerk's office issued 86,608 licenses. That's an average o f 7,217 a month, or 237 a day, or one license every six ■ > minutes - a lot o f “ I do’s. (K X N O 1140) The number o f marriage licenses issued in Las Vegas since 1985 has more than doubled and these remarkable numbers grow dramatically every year. According to the marriage license bureau in Clark County, Nevada, 99,727 weddings took place in Las Vegas in 1994 alone ( See appendix A). And, the wedding business in Las Vegas is projected to gross more than 4 100 m illion dollars in 1994. As one owner o f a wedding chapel In Las Vegas claims, “ The chapel business is actually the second largest industry in 5 Las Vegas behind the hotel/ gaming industry." Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Due to their growing popularity, weddings in l^as Vegas has attracted the attentions o f the American public, becoming a perennial topic in popular culture. Some Vegas-style weddings have been depicted in books, film s, and magazines.'1 A 1992 film , “ Honeymoon in Vegas,” illustrated a wedding in which multiple HI vis impersonators parachuted into a couple's wedding during the ceremony. This film not only intensified public interest in the bizarre aspects o f Vegas weddings, but likely increased their social acceptability as well. In fact, each time a celebrity marries there, the concept becomes a bit less strange. Thus, the “ Elvis” wedding has become a piece o f contemporary Americana -- a bit of modern, unfolding folklore. As is typical, this cultural phenomenon seems to have been accepted by the public simply due to their increased exposure to it. But it is surprising that scholars o f popular culture have done little research on the subject, investigating neither its origins or its social impact in depth. In fact, compared to the number o f anthropological studies on weddings in other countries (W ilson, 1972, Barker, 1978, Kendall, 1989, Edward, 1989), the American wedding in general has been largely overlooked by anthropologists. And as far as I could discern, no studies at all prior to my own have been conducted specifically on weddings in Las Vegas. 3 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. This neglect might have to with the fact that American anthropologists, as “ insiders,” find it difficult to achieve a distanced perspective in order to read this cultural phenomena. It is well known that early, insightful observations on American culture were made by some foreign interpreters such as de Toqueville (1835) and Crevecoeur(1782). If cultural estrangement is necessary to a certain degree for comprehension, I as an Asian am better suited for the task. It was my “ foreign” eyes at the scene, an observer whose countenance reflected the same curiosity and excitement as was perhaps in our anthropological forefathers' endeavors in “ prim itive” cultures. To me, getting married in Las Vegas was now far from a shallow clich e - it had become as fascinating to me as the Trobrianders' rites were to M alinowski, and at least as deserving o f earnest scholarly inquiry. Thus, I investigated this phenomena as a foreigner in a venerable anthropological tradition o f researching “ the other.” '' M y first interest is to identify my area o f inquiry: How big is the wedding chapel industry? What o f their history? Who comes to Las Vegas to get married? What draws them? Wedding, like any other rituals, reveals the values and norms o f the members o f given society where it is performed. (Munn, 1973) Borrowing from Turner, the analysis o f the Las Vegas wedding ritual w ill 4 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. offer a "decisive key to understanding the social realities perceived and lived” (Turner 1969:6) by Americans vis-a-vis the meaning o f marriage in general, and the wedding as a ritual in particular. Thus, this was a unique chance to learn how Americans perceived the meaning o f marriage, and how their weddings as rituals reveal that perception. For my work, I utilized Walter Howard's study on Japanese weddings, Modern Japan Through its Weddings (1989), which shows how the form and content o f weddings reveals not only the values but also the relations on gender, class, selfhood in contemporary Japanese society. His study showed how a single ritual-w edding— was connected to the larger context o f Japanese society. In a similar vein, I looked at what Las Vegas weddings told me in relation to American culture in a broader context. This work shows that the analysis o f Las Vegas weddings touches on many themes across a broad spectrum o f American society. More importantly, the careful analysis o f the content, form, and function o f Las Vegas weddings reveals the primary and pervasive forces o f American Life. Las Vegas wedding reflects some fairly widespread, common characteristics o f the contemporary American culture: Individualism and Commercialism. As w ill be shown in the later section, the Las Vegas weddings can be considered to be basically the celebrations o f the self. 77% o f all 5 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. weddings observed at the wedding chapel where 1 did my fieldwork involved less than tw o or fewer wedding quests. The individualistic notion toward marriage and in preparing a wedding is well documented in my interviews with American couples who chose to come to I^ s Vegas for their wedding. Since the United States is a country o f many different ethnic, cultural, social regional cultural groups, there are huge variations in marriage customs. Consequently, this study does not-could not-discuss every form o f wedding ritual being performed within the boundaries o f the United States. Rather, with a comparative perspective, I focus mainly on weddings performed in the wedding chapels in Las Vegas in their unique significance to the study o f American culture. Through briefly investigating the history and significance o f wedding chapels in Las Vegas, then using that foundation to inquire into the symbology, form, and function o f the weddings themselves, I attempt to open a doorway into contemporary American culture. The aim o f my research was to understand the cultural meanings o f these weddings in I>as Vegas, and then to situate them in relation to the structural and symbolic processes o f contemporary American life. 6 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. N otes 1. In 1992, 2,392,000 marriages according to Vital Statistics o f the United States, annual. From Statistical Abstract o f the United States, 1994. 2. A local A M radio station which provides various information about the events, show schedules and local news. K N X O 1140 3. 1993: 86,608 1992: 79,235 1991: 74,655 1990: 76,060 1989: 75.002 1988: 72,475 1987: 52,415 Source from Marriage License Bureau In Clark County 4. The current projection is based on the previous report from Time (July 7, 1986:55-59) by Jay Cocks and the interviews with the local wedding business executives. 5. From an interview with Greg Johnson who owns Candlestick Wedding Chapel and two other wedding chapels in the city. 6. People W eekly. "A Day in June." p. 72 in July 26. 1993 Maclean's "Banking on Bliss." By McMundy, D. in June 28. 1993 Publisher's W eekly, p.37 in October 25. 1993 Harper's Bazaar, p.157. in June 1993 Fortune. "Welcome to the New Las Vegas." in January 24. 1994 Interview . "Chapels o f Ixwe" By Rochlin, M. p.298 in September 1986 Forbes. "Easy Nuptials: Get Married in Las Vegas?" in A p ril 25. 1994 7. Among the studies on American culture by a Korean, I found An Asian Anthropologist in the South (1977) by Jung-Soon Kim . 7 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Chapter 1. Beginning the Fieldwork My first encounter with Las Vegas weddings was in 1992, and was largely no different from the experience of m illions o f other tourists visiting the city. I had traveled to “ the entertainment capital o f the w orld," both to have fun and to see the sheer spectacle o f it all. I suppose it goes without saying that I was initiated into the act o f gambling with the hope o f quickly gaining a quantity o f extra money, if not actually winning m illions! M ercifully, it did not take me too long to lose my stake; so I began to turn my attention from that o f a participant to the more earnest perspective of the observer who wants more than just to appreciate his surroundings — he wants to interpret them. Before long, I began to see the scattered signs o f wedding chapels, one o f which read, ’’Marriage Info, Open 24 hours, Visa, Master Card Welcome. “ Out o f curiosity, I was drawn into one o f these wedding chapels and was soon spotted by one o f the chapel employees. W ith no time wasted after my introduction as a student anthropologist, the employee, who later became my key informant, told me, "You should have been here yesterday. We married over 100 couples." I learned later that this was an average figure for Saturdays; the record was 350 weddings in a i 24-hour period on Valentine's Day a few years ago. 8 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Since that initial encounter, the anthropological fieldwork on this subject extended over five years. M y fieldwork began in 1992 with several sporadic visits to the city, each o f which lasted from two days to two weeks. During those visits, I was able to gather general information about the wedding industry and get myself familiarized with this somewhat ‘exotic’ environment. I visited most o f the wedding chapels on I^as Vegas Boulevard, usually called, "the Strip," and whenever possible, talked to the people at the scene: wedding couples, wedding directors, wedding chapel owners, tourists on the street. It was such an unusual advantage for an anthropologist to be capable o f going in and out o f the field at w ill without much difficulty. A fter each visit, I came back to Los Angeles, which was my home base, and prepared for the next trip with a more focused research agenda. In fact, I never left the field in a sense that coming back to Los Angeles could be taken as an extension o f my fieldwork. In January o f 1995, I began my full-scale fieldwork at Candlestick Wedding Chapel, where I worked until A pril of the same year when my study was completed. This particular wedding chapel was chosen for several reasons. First, it is one o f the busiest wedding chapels in the city, where an average o f 200 weddings a week are performed. W hile the number o f weddings in each chapel varies from one to another, based on the popularity, size, and merits o f each chapel. Candlestick Wedding 9 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Chapel is widely recognized as one the most famous in Vegas, along with the Little Chapel o f the West. Also, Candlestick Wedding Chapel is one of the oldest wedding chapels, operating since 1954. Another important factor is that Candlestick's owner also owns two other major wedding chapels in the city. A t one time, this man operated four different wedding chapels and was known among people in the industry as the "K ing of the Wedding Chapels." He played a major role in forming the Wedding Chapel Association whose members are wedding chapel owners in town. The main objective o f the organization was to make sure that the state laws and regulations stay unchanged to secure their business. Thus, he has been recognized as a leader in the wedding business for his efficient management style, and his wedding chapels are both well known and often emulated by other owners. M y study is not based solely upon this fieldwork at Candlestick Wedding Chapel. I often went to the other wedding chapels for comparative purposes and overall understanding o f the wedding industry in Las Vegas in general. Doing fieldwork includes a set o f procedures; my fieldwork was no exception. 1 relied on various fieldwork techniques: interviews, surveys, library research, and videotaping. Through my preliminary research, I 10 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. collected relevant information and established a rapport w ith the people in the field. In fact, it was critical for me to gain access to the wedding chapel and involve myself in weddings. The first day o f my fieldwork, in fact, I actually attended over forty weddings — likely a Guinness W orld's record for marriages seen in one day by a non-professional. I was always welcomed by people working at the wedding chapel even after they realized I was not getting married. Some o f the chapel employees showed enthusiastic interest in my work, thrilled that someone had had the idea of studying their profession. Perhaps my presence as an outsider further intensified their curiosity and willingness to contribute to my project. I was often taken into the "employees only" office, where I had the chance to hear many interesting anecdotes and gain insights through their description o f their jobs. The same was true when I stopped the wedding couples to ask questions. People seem strangely w illing to tell secrets to an outsider. (This phenomenon is purported to also be experienced regularly by taxicab drivers.) A wedding as a rite o f passage is expected to be one o f the most celebrated moments in life, along with the birth o f a child. It is an occasion to bring a new member into the group and solidify the tie between two families. Especially for the couple, it is a passage into a new stage. 11 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. According to Turner, a wedding ceremony as a rite o f passage contains a critical and liminal state in which danger and lim inality are supposed to exist. This danger and lim inality in a wedding as a rite o f passage are often manifested as nervousness, tears, laughters, excitement. Sitting in what became my corner o f the wedding chapel, I could witness the whole array o f human emotions on display. Often, I was asked to act as sound operator, playing the wedding march by turning on a CD player hidden at the corner. Since I was also sometimes asked to act as a photographer, I was able to feel the communal celebration o f the people involved in a wedding. I briefly became part o f people’s lives when I was asked to be a legal witness for a couple who had come by themselves. I was more like a participant observer than a passive spectator. In a sense, what I observed during my fieldwork was not just weddings, but social dramas. They provided me with an opportunity to see how American people interact with one another in such a personal moment for the couple. Thus, the follow ing ethnographic study is the outcome o f those numerous encounters between myself and people I met at the wedding chapels and around the city. In addition, this ethnographic text is written from a multiple perspective: from the vantage point o f a male Korean in his early thirties, weaned on American images, schooled in American 12 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. universities, and resident in the United States for more than eight years - and a tourist through it all. 13 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. N otes 1. From an interview w ith Jeff Dalton at Candlestick Wedding Chapel “ Q: How many weddings do you have?” A: Tw o hundred a week. The majority are on the weekend — about, let's <ay, 70-80 weddings on Saturday alone, which is the busiest day o f the week. And you have Friday; and Sunday we have about twenty to thirty. During the week we have about fifteen, twenty weddings a day. We broke some records in Las Vegas. We did 350 weddings on Valentines day in 1988. Q: How is that possible? A: We have three gazebos outside, and the wedding chapel going on at the same time in a 24 hour period. So four weddings are going on at the same time.” 2. The footage I shot during my fieldwork became a 20-minute long documentary titled, “ Vegas Bliss.” (1996) Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Chapter 2. The Setting The City o f Las Vegas: Las Vegas in Spanish means “ The Meadows." Up to the early 1900s, the desert “ meadows" o f Las Vegas functioned as mainly a transitory point between Utah and Southern California where people stopped to water their animals and resupply their journey. The area was first discovered in 1829 by Spanish travelers exploring the region en route to California. (Paher, 1971) In the mid-1800s, the first settlement at I^as Vegas was made by Mormons, who had come to the area from Utah. They expanded their settlements to the west while farming and looking for resources. The town o f Las Vegas was established by the auctioning o f land in 1905. The initial growth o f Las Vegas can be traced to two occurrences in the 1930s. It was in 1931 when the desert town received its greatest windfall: legalized gambling. The Nevada Legislature legalized gambling in an effort to finance public education at a time when the country was experiencing the Great Depression. Secondly, the construction o f Hoover Dam began in 1931 nearby in Black Canyon and provided a tremendous economic boost by creating more than 5,000 jobs. W ith the subsequent, huge influx o f workers, the seeds o f current, modern day Las Vegas were planted. Las Vegas began to develop as a 15 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. recreational area. Once the first casino in Vegas, the Flamingo, began to realize some financial success, new casinos sprang up downtown, gamblers flooded the city, and Las Vegas was on its way to its present state. A fter W orld War II came the big resort hotels, and w ith them big-name entertainment. Investors began to see Las Vegas' real potential: cheap land, * > a solid transportation infrastructure, and a nice, hot climate. In the decades since, hotels and casinos, consistently enriched by increasing gambling revenue, have grown in capacity to attract guests by providing technologically fantastic displays. As they continue to attract top names in the entertainment industry, their shows grow bigger, the Strip — a three- and-a-half mile long stretch o f Las Vegas Boulevard where most of the casinos and hotels are located — becomes flashier, the casinos wax fancier. Visitors to Vegas come in an ever-growing stream. The hotels, o f course, want you to gamble, so they make the rest o f your trip as affordable as they can. Due to these inexpensive accommodations, Vegas has become a reasonably priced weekend getaway destination for thousands upon thousands o f people. Huge numbers o f retirees travel to Vegas for weekend group excursions on a regular basis, chipping in for bus transportation. According to Las Vegas Visitor Profile Study published by Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, more than 23 m illion 16 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. people visited Las Vegas in 1993, and an estimated 29 m illion were expected in 1994. Gaming revenue in Clark County surpasses $5 billion annually. (Las Vegas O fficial Visitors Guide, 1995) Las Vegas has earned its title: the great gambling and entertainment capital o f the world. Demographically, Las Vegas reads "young,'’ and is the fastest growing city in America. According to the latest report available, dated 4 July, 1993, the population o f Las Vegas, also the Clark County seat, is 323,000. An estimated 4,000+ people move to Las Vegas annually, 5 prim arily because o f job availability. As the hotels grow, so increases employment. A single hotel, for instance, generates 1.5 jobs for every guest room. When the five-thousand-room M G M Grand opened, more than 9,000 new jobs were created overnight. The impact of this cycle on employment and income in the surrounding community is enormous. Many hundreds o f additional jobs are subsequently created in housing, construction, schools, and dozens o f service-related businesses. Associated entrepreneurial potential is also high. W ith a constant influx o f new customers and little attrition o f old ones, small businesses with decent start up capital have an excellent chance for success. The unending and rapid growth in Vegas does raise environmental concerns among local residents. In particular, they are concerned 17 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. regarding their water supply, for which the city is largely dependent on neighboring states. As Ken Knight, a local researcher and a Las Vegas native, puts it, “ |The growthj is a lot like riding a w ild horse. The problem is how to balance the growth and quality o f life here.” Wedding Chapels There are 35 wedding chapels in Las Vegas that are intensely competitive, each claiming to offer better, faster, and by implication, more sincere service than the next. Prior to covering the spatial arrangement inside a wedding chapel, we first need to understand the overall spatial distribution o f the thirty-five 7 independent chapels in Las Vegas. The chapels are structurally rather simple. Most o f them are located along the three and half mile-long Las Vegas Boulevard, usually called “ the Strip,” and they are randomly placed between the major casino hotels.* The following map illustrates the Strip, showing the wedding chapels with reference to the location o f major ') hotels. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Like the convenience stores nearby selling postcards and batteries, wedding chapels are mixed into the streetscape without any particular spatial demarcation. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ■ wedding chapel Fremont St. ■ I - Sahara Ave ■ ■ 15 ■ ■ ■ ■ ^ Sahara Circus C irc u s i StardustB ■ ■ Flamingo Rd ■ Caesar’s Palace ■ Desert Inn Tropicana Ave ■ ■ M G M ■ Las Vegas * Tropicana Blvd. “The Strip” Figure 1. Locations o f Wedding Chapels on the Strip 20 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. a. Architecture As far as the architecture o f wedding chapels is concerned, with a few exceptions, most o f the chapels do not sport particularly notable architectural designs. There are only a couple o f free standing chapels, one 10 o f which is the Little Chapel o f the East. Even though it is known to be the most beautiful and oldest chapel, it cannot be said to have a unique architectural design. It is, rather, a small churchlike building o f the type commonly built in the early decades o f this century throughout the United States. The Candlestick Wedding Chapel, where my study was conducted has a very similar look. The remainder o f the chapels are located in small buildings which do not seem to be designed for wedding chapels at all. b. History The early history o f wedding chapels is not well known at all, and is difficult to unearth. Among documents o f local histories, wedding chapels were not covered much, although the development o f casinos certainly was. There are only a few photographs available o f chapels in earlier years, and these are without many attendant facts. Consequently, 1 relied upon oral histories in most cases, although at times, people even disagreed about the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 11 basics, including the age o f the oldest chapel. Thus, the early history o f wedding chapels remains mysterious. Jeff Dalton, manager at Candlestick Wedding Chapel, responds to my question concerning the chapel business history: Q: Do you know how it started? A: No, I don’t. That is something you probably have to go... there is nothing like a Wedding Consultant 101 class. Basically {the history| is a myth you know. Sounds like it started as a myth and became a reality. c. Space Ritual does not occur in a vacuum, but is an event happening in a specific environment and time. Identifying the time and space o f a ritual is thus among the first questions to be asked in studying ritual. The interiors o f most wedding chapels are quite sim ilar to one another. This space is basically divided into two areas: an altar area for a minister and the couple-and-guest seats. A ll that distinguishes each chapel is the way its interior is decorated. This decor varies from a traditional church interior to a carefully created design for a medieval type wedding. The size o f each chapel also varies from maximum capacities o f 30 to 100 people. The free-standing wedding chapels have an obvious spatial advantage for attracting wedding candidates. They are easily recognized 22 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. and provide extra space for people who want to have a wedding procession after the ceremony.. d. Time Another dimension to be considered is time. According to Grimes in his book, Beginning in Ritual Studies, there is a list of questions one should ask relating to the issue o f time in ritual: "A t what time o f day does the ritual occur— night, dawn, dusk, midday? A t what season? Does it always happen at this time? Is it a one-time affair or a recurring one? When w ill it next occur? Are solar, lunar, or other natural cycles significant for the tim ing o f the ritual?" (Grimes 1982:25) Time is a construct in Las Vegas, with rhythms unlike those of ordinary time. The entire city seems to run on the time dimensions dictated by the Strip hotels. Since Vegas is essentially open 24 hours a day with non-stop activities in gambling, the wedding chapels also adapt to this kind o f time. In most chapels, the ministers and other employees work in different time periods, with constant changes o f shift. The wedding is an extraordinary event for couples, and marks a major life shift for them; but their wedding is just an ordinary time for people working in the wedding chapels. 23 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. In addition to the 24-hour year round operation o f the chapels, the Clark County Marriage License Bureau is open from 8 am to midnight, Monday through Thursday, from 8 am Friday morning through midnight Sunday, and on legal holidays, for 24 hours. Weddings in Las Vegas are not evenly distributed throughout any time period. Historically, Valentine's Day and New Year's Eve are the two biggest and busiest days, followed by Thanksgiving Day. As far as which season is the most popular, summer — specifically the month o f June — is preferred over other seasons. For the daily and hourly analysis, the following chart w ill show details o f the distribution o f weddings in 24 hour period during 13 weeks o f time. The data was collected at Candlestick Wedding Chapel. For accuracy, I compared my findings with the chapef s schedule book which covers the weddings performed during those time periods when I was not on site. The period covered is 91 days (13 weeks) beginning Monday, November 14, 1994 through Sunday, February 12, 1995. During that period, the normal chapel hours were kept except for four hours on January 19, when a memorial service for one o f the ministers was held. There were 2310 weddings held in total. For the purpose o f this statistical presentation, the data were averaged. 24 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Figure 1. Daily Distribution o f Weddings 70 62 60 - 50 - 40 - 29 _ 30 H 1 1 ■ 26 20 -16.53 16.53 14 23 14 Mil I ---------------1 i l l 1 I Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Satuday Sunday Figure 2. Hourly Distribution o f Weddings 0a la 2a 3a 4a Sa 6a 7a 8a 9a 10a 11a Noo Ip 2p 3p 4p Sp 6p 7p 8p 9p lOp lip 12 m mm m m m m m m m m m n m m m m m m m m m m m M i d Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. In setting the date and time for a Vegas wedding, Americans do not appear to be very superstitious. My findings show that Saturday is the busiest day, indicating that the wedding couples are considering the convenience o f having a wedding on Saturday, both for themselves and for people who w ill attend their weddings. The peak time during the day is around 4 o ’clock in the afternoon. The couples seem to like to get married right before dinner, so they can take their wedding party out to eat afterwards. But, there are a few exceptions in their preferences and taboos. Americans generally avoid Friday the 13th. In addition, a small number o f people prefer to reserve the beginning o f the “ upstroke time,” like 2:31 or 3:31, instead o f “ downstroke time” such as 2:01, since they seem to believe i: it brings good luck. Irish-Americans often choose St. Patrick's Day. But in most cases, people selected the day and time o f their weddings based on practical considerations rather than sacred or symbolic reasons. W hile these findings may or may not hold true for marriages taking place outside o f Vegas, it is clear from this information that convenience, a powerful motivation for a wedding in Vegas in the first place, also governs couples' selection o f a particular time o f day for the ceremony. 26 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Notes 1. The Flamingo hotel opened in 1946. In 1991, a film entitled “ Bugsy,” depicting the creation o f this first o f the gaming hotels was released. 2. The city is located only about 300 miles east o f Los Angeles. Las Vegas receives only 4 inches o f rain and an estimated 320 days o f sunshine annually. Figures from A A A . 3. Other names: Electric Sodom, Modern Gomorra, C ity o f Sin, Great Fraud, Green Felt Jungle, Zoom Town 4. I m s Vegas official Visitors Guide. 1995. According to a local research company, Ken Knight Associate, it is estimated to pass one m illion mark in A pril 1995 5. ibid. 6. M G M Grand Hotel opened Dec. 18, 1993, with 5,005 rooms and a 171,500-square-foot casino: up to that date, the largest resort hotel- casino in the world. 7. According to Las Vegas Chamber o f Commerce. But, there are a few more wedding chapels that are not listed in the Las Vegas Chamber o f Commerce report. 8. Most o f these hotels now also run in-house wedding chapels: As o f January, 1995, B ally’s, Circus Circus, Excaliber, Imperial Palace, M G M , Plaza, Riviera, Tropicana, Treasure Island. During the 1970's, the hotel industry discovered that wedding chapels were a fabulous adjunct to their existing businesses, and many o f them opened chapels on-site, which are kept very busy. However, although these chapels provide most or all o f the same general services as the independent chapels, I have confined my study to the independents. 9. The locations o f each hotels in Las Vegas have unique stories. Their development is often associated with famous figures such as Howard Hughes or Frank Sinatra. These kinds of stories are well presented in David Spanier’s Welcome to Pleasuredom, 1992. 27 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 10. The chapel was registered as a historic building in 1989. 11. I was informed o f a death o f the oldest and longest- working minister in the wedding chapels. People told me that he was the person who could have answered those questions. 12. Based on the interview w ith a wedding director at Candlestick Wedding Chapel. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Chapter 3. Who Comes To Las Vegas To Get Married, And Why? A survey on the characteristics o f people who come to be married in the wedding chapels in Las Vegas is long overdue. Despite their immense popularity as a site for weddings, they has been generally ignored as a subject for a serious study by social scientists. Even the most comprehensive study extant on Las Vegas visitors. Las Vegas Visitor Profile S tu d y published annually by the Las Vegas Convention Authority, include no relevant data on the wedding chapels in Las Vegas. Thus, this deficiency o f information on the weddings in Las Vegas led me to conduct a survey o f the chapel clients myself. In-person surveys were conducted with 103 selected wedding couples who married at Candlestick Wedding Chapel. Approximately 12 surveys (6 couples) were conducted each day for eighteen days from February 28 through March 17 in 1995. The attempted size o f sample was 103 wedding couples. Only one bridegroom chose not to participate and there was no • > same sex wedding observed. Selected couples were given the survey questionnaires separately, and were asked to respond without consulting each other. A few times, there was disagreement over an objective question such as, "Whose ideas was it 29 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. to come to Las Vegas?” to rectify this, I followed up with additional questioning right after each survey was finished. A random probability method was not employed. In fact, conducting a survey or an interview on someone's wedding day posed an ethical dilemma for me. A wedding is supposedly a private occasion, and no one is likely to expect a survey or an interview. Facing this difficu lt situation. 1 had to ask myself several questions, both ethical and methodological: What entitled me to disrupt one o f the most important moments in people's lives? How can I avoid an invasion of their privacy? If such an intrusion was inevitable, how can I minimize its effect? Ultimately, I struck a compromise between reality, manners, and my task as a researcher. I always tried to ask for permission after briefly introducing myself and my project. Many times, I even withdrew from asking for permission at all, because just asking seemed disruptive, especially to larger groups. Surveys were coded for analysis and then analyzed using statistical software available to the researcher.1 (The questionnaire administered to the wedding couples is appended at the end o f this thesis.) M y survey questionnaire divided generally into two categories.4 The first category (question 1-10) deals with demographics: race, ethnicity, education, income. The second category (question 11-18) addresses both economics and motivations, joined because o f their frequent dependence on one 30 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. another: Who is paying for the wedding? Why did you come to Las Vegas? The questions and choices were carefully formulated out o f preliminary interviews and observations from my early fieldwork. Most questions also provided respondents with an additional, possible response such as OTHER, please specify. Throughout this report, pie and bar charts are used to illustrate the data. The charted results are based on the total sample o f 207 respondents unless otherwise specified. In charts using proportions, those proportions may not add to 100 % because multiple responses were permitted. A detailed interpretation o f survey results is offered in the follow ing according to the three main lines o f inquiry: demographics, economics, and motivation. D em ographics In my preliminary interviews with people on the subject before my fieldwork began, many tended toward a belief that certain stereotypes exist among those who go to Las Vegas to marry. The respondents assumed that people who had chosen a Vegas wedding must have had peculiar reasons or unusual circumstances precipitating their choice. They presupposed that a majority o f those people should be in their early twenties, if not teenagers, 31 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. some perhaps runaways. M y survey results, however, along with my own observation, prove that this is a total misconception. In fact, as shown in the results, the wedding chapels in Las Vegas draw all groups o f people based on race, ethnicity, nationality, and socio-economic status cutting all across the board. I found no peculiar concentration o f any racial or ethnic groups, the racial composition o f people who married at Candlestick Wedding Chapel being commensurate with national statistics on racial and ethnic composition in the United States. (No such data was available for marrying couples specifically.) As far as the geographical origin o f the people was concerned, half o f my respondents were residents from the Southwest regions o f the country such as California, Arizona, and Texas, having come there, according to them, due to its geographical proximity. Also, there were many foreigners who seemed to come from all different nations o f the world, Germans making up the largest number o f these. Age: From the oldest, 80 years old, to the youngest, 17 years old, all age groups were represented in a typical pattern. The group between 25 to 35 was the majority. 32 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Figure 3. Age Variation by Age Group 17-25 26-35 36-45 46-55 56-80 Ethnicity: Ethnic composition among survey respondents showed more or less the national average: White, non-Hispanic 78%, Black, non-Hispanic 9%, Asian 1,4%, Hispanic 6,3%. The slightly higher number for Hispanic has to do with the fact that Nevada is close to the states with high Hispanic concentrations. G eographical Origin: Most people came from California, along with other states in the Southwestern region. Texas was the second most frequently mentioned origin among respondents. Ohio and Illinois were the two most common states o f residence for the Upper Midwest group, 33 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. which had the second largest group. International visitors were from, among other nations, Canada, Europe, Australia, Japan. It is interesting that Canadians were outnumbered by Europeans, who obviously chose to come to l^ s Vegas despite the geographical disadvantage. Among Europeans, Las Vegas was most favored by Germans, followed by English and Swiss. Las Vegas is obviously well-known to many foreigners, who chose it as their wedding site mainly for its exotic appeal and its fast service. Table 1. Geographical Origins among respondents Frequency percent US - NORTHW EST 5 2.5 US - SOUTHW EST 87 43.3 US - UPPER MID 51 25.4 US - LOWER MID 15 7.5 US - NORTHEAST 4 2.0 US - MID ATLANTIC 6 3.0 US - SOUTHEAST 9 4.5 C A N A D A 6 3.0 EUROPE 12 6.0 FORMER SOVIET UNION 2 1.0 A U STR ALIA 4 2.0 Not Answered 4 Missing Total 205 100 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Education & Income: High-School graduates and 2 year college graduates combined comprise 68 % out o f the total. 5% o f the respondents reported an advanced degree. Eleven percent opted not to respond to my question concerning their income, but only four and a half percent did not respond to my inquiry into their education level. W hile this allows for a certain amount discrepancy in the comparison, still income levels seemed higher than I would have predicted based upon education levels. Table 2. Education I^evel o f Respondent Frequency Percent Less than High school 9 4.3 High school 93 44.9 2 year college 49 23.7 4 year university 31 15.0 advanced degree(M A, P h .D .) 5 2.4 Professional Schools 11 5.3 Not Answered 7 4.3 Total 205 100 Table 3. Income Level o f Respondents Frequency Percent Under 12,000 24 11.6 12,000 - 29,999 66 31.9 30,000 - 39,999 44 21.3 40,000 - 49,999 1 1 5.3 50,000 - 59,999 14 6.8 60,000 + 24 11.6 Not Answered 22 11.1 Total 205 100.0 35 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Number of marriages: For more than half o f my respondents, this was the second-or-higher marriage for one or both parties. □ Unknown: 3% ■ Married Once or More Before: 54% □ Never Married before: 43% Figure 4. Number o f Marriages Num ber of Guests: Most couples in my survey had no guests at their weddings, or two at most. Only once during my research was the wedding chapel Filled to its full capacity o f 50 persons. As pointed out earlier, this survey was ultimately weighted towards wedding couples with fewer-than- two or no guests, in order to avoid disruption o f the wedding by the researcher. But survey results generally coincide w ith the fact that overall, there tend to be few guests in Las Vegas weddings. The number o f guests usually goes up during the weekend; I surmise that guests are most likely to be able to get away overnight themselves at this time and spend more than just a few hours at a wedding. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 36 U No More than 2: 77% a More than 2: 23% Figure 5. Number o f Guests How do people plan their weddings and what are their concerns? The average time spent planning a wedding is shown to be quite brief. O f the respondents, 40% spent under a month, and 20% less than a week. Table 4: Period o f Planning A Wedding Value Label Frequency Percent one year or more 32 15.5 months 76 36.7 weeks or week 40 19.3 a few days 27 13.0 spontaneous 15 7.2 other 3 1,4 unknown 12 6.8 Total 205 100 37 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Most people seemed to rely prim arily upon themselves concerning planning their wedding, rather than consulting fam ily members or professional wedding consultants. This may reflect that Americans marrying in Las Vegas consider their wedding a private matter, more so than those who marry in another location. This result also relates to the fact that Vegas weddings require very little preparation. I parents friends lea lives wedding by yourself other unknown consultant Figure 6. Who gave you the most advice? 38 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Not all couples fit neatly into one of groups that I categorized above. It was not surprising to see some couples who admitted to having gone to Vegas to get married “ on the spur of the moment.” And sometimes during a wedding, one o f the wedding directors might whisper to me that this one might be a so-called immigration wedding, one in which the sole purpose was to gain legal citizenship. What draws people to Las Vegas to be wed? Historically, the city o f I^ s Vegas and the state o f Nevada have been known for divorce. Due to its lenient law since 1930s, people come to the state and been granted their divorce after staying for a six week in order to establish a residency. And Nevada took economic advantage o f their law as well. A 1940 film entitled “ The Women” depicted a sort o f country ranch near Reno, Nevada as a location for women to enjoy a brief holiday while awaiting the end o f their six-week waiting period. The divorce o f Clark Gable was one o f most publicized cases, which in turn promoted the town as a “ divorce capital.” s Since other states began passing sim ilarly lenient laws. Las Vegas gradually lost its name as a divorce capital and slowly earning a new reputation, that o f the marriage capital o f the w orld.'1 As pointed out earlier, number o f marriages grows dramatically every year. The wedding chapel industry makes every effort to expand to 39 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. meet this need. As Greg Johnson, the owner o f three wedding chapels in town, recalled: A t the time, there were only fifteen, sixteen chapels. Now we have like thirty or forty wedding chapels. When we started, we had weddings wedding a week ... in a matter o f a year o r so, we are up to 150 or so... Candlestick by itself was doing between 23 - 30 % o f weddings all the time. We had a big week , the week o f Thanksgiving from Monday to Thursday...We did like 654 wedding in a week! One Valentines day one year, we did 350 weddings here He continued to give a compelling case why people come to Las Vegas for weddings, particularly those who have already experienced the traditional ceremony: We have all kinds o f people. People come to wedding chapel, a lot o f them married before. They don’t want to go through big church wedding again, that type o f the things. And also a lot o f first time people come to the chapel because, 1 think, average wedding today is in the neighborhood o f $20,000 o r something like that. They come here and get married with $300 or $400, and have same kind of wedding without going through all the hassles. Onetime, for instance, one guy from California, he has nine daughters. One o f his daughter married in a church— cost him — back then, you k n o w - fifteen grand. And he said by the time he got done with relative and everything, he said, I think I ’ve lost about 10 years o f my life. So he has 7 or 8 other daughters ...Right up here at $300 or 400 apiece... Many conversations I had with individuals during my survey indicated a common belief that a traditional church wedding is actually the 40 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. “ ideal" for most Americans. As a distinct example o f this, the following is excerpted from an interview with a group o f female college students from the Midwest, visiting I^ s Vegas during the spring break. Q: What is your ideal wedding like? S tudent 1: To me, ideal wedding is to be married iri the church where I grew up in. I want all my friends and families to be there. It's gonna be a big affair and there's gonna be reception afterward. It's like a celebration, a celebration o f your life. Student 2: I want to marry at the same church where my parents got married. And I want to have it a! the end o f the summer, the pretty time of the year— have everyone I know there. The important thing is to share that special, special day together, and I want my mother and father there behind me, and I want his parents right there. I want all o f us to jo in together, I want my mom and his mom walk together hand in hand together (big laugh by everyone) like there are good friends < d iffic u lt to hear> both families getting along so well, and no conflict. Everybody just being < d ifficu lt to hear> me such a happy day. I want my husband to cry when he sees me because he is so overwhelmed, (more laughter) Student 3: When I grew up, I thought about a big wedding, but right now I think, I mean its not gonna be a big a wedding.... It's gonna something just, like, two o f us in the church and people I love there w ith me... Many respondents also said that they prefer a faster wedding ceremony for one reason or another. In particular, couples remarrying want a faster, simpler type o f wedding than a big church wedding. Having gone through such a ceremony the first time, their dream wedding no 41 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. longer incorporates this fantasy. For others, all they needed was just a legal document o f their marriages. An example from Judy M axwell, a photographer at Candlestick Wedding Chapel: I heard many reasons and I asked, asked many people. Umm, for a lot o f them, it is a romantic notions o f running away and getting married and sometimes when they are here in town, it is like “ Lets get m a rried r You know,” just go and get married” . Uh, another thing— for other people, it is convenience. I know my mother and her husband, when they were closing their house they’re buying together, they needed to married by certain date. They just drove out, and they live in California, just drove out to Las Vegas. That was quick, simple and easy, you know. How quick is a wedding in Las Vegas, anyway? Actually, a standard wedding design in many chapels takes an average o f 15 minutes from start to Finish; and the participants expend no time, effort, or money in arranging the event in advance. Candlestick Wedding Chapel, for instance, is famous for its lightning-fast 2 minute ceremony. After an almost instant wedding services, a new husband attired in Hawaiian dress and rubber sandals stood outside the chapel and asked, “ Whadda we do now?” A ll wedding candidates need do is to show up at any chapel, at any time o f day or night and wait for their turn. Marriage in this manner is almost as fast and reliable as a vending machine. As Jeff at Candlestick likes to explain: “ People come here cause it’s easy and it’s fast. If you 18 and older w ith valid ID, you don’t have hassle with any paperwork or 42 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. anything. Once you have license, that's it. You can get married in hour and a half." Many couples have concerns other than sheer speed o f the ceremony, foremost among these usually being cost. As mentioned earlier, the cost for a wedding in the 1990s can easily reach nearly twenty thousand dollars. In I^ s Vegas, by contrast, the least expensive service can cost as little as $129. ( the cheapest package at Candlestick Wedding Chapel) Obviously, whether cost is a couple's only concern or simply one o f many, this enormous fiscal advantage likely weighs very heavily in stimulating a couple to even consider Vegas in the first place. In addition, for most marriages after the first, the bride's fam ily no longer contributes to covering much at all in the way o f wedding expenses, and this certainly holds true in the chapels. In second-or-higher marriages, parents typically play little or no financial role at all. “ Your dad may walk you down the aisle and give you a nice gift, but that's about it." says one wedding director. This, o f course, places a direct financial burden on the couples who are there to be remarried, a group which comprised 54% o f my total. According to the survey, the cost is covered either by both partners (45%) or by either partner (50 %). When it is covered by one partner, men pay slightly more often. Here, too, Vegas offers an alternative that holds the prospect for a far less draining “ happy day." 43 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. In addition, there are sometimes social reasons why people prefer wedding chapels. Many couples whom I interviewed expressed their desire to avoid “ hassles." O f these couples, especially those in their second marriage emphasized the need for “ privacy” in their wedding. They sometimes expressed dissatisfaction about their first-wedding experiences, referring to them in negative terms such as “ impersonal,” “ hurried,” “ too noisy.” This time, they were determined that no mistakes should be made- they were going to have this “ real” wedding, just for themselves. This aspect calls attention to the fact that many couples seemed disengaged from their families or community when they married for the first time. Their recollections o f the experience indicated that they had perceived some lack o f support from their close relationships concerning their weddings, and now wanted to seek out the wedding that met their own needs. This strong sense o f individualism was an early, key issue in my exploration o f the Vegas wedding phenomenon. This independence may also be reflected in the desire o f some couples to circumvent not only the traditional ceremony, but the usual legal logistics as well. By going to Vegas, many legal “ hassles” are avoided. Chapel wedding candidates do not have to fill out, file, submit, and wait for documents, a process which many interviewees complained was mindlessly time-consuming. To be married in Las Vegas, both bride and bridegroom 44 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. must be 18 years old or older, or if not, they must show parental permission or have a parent present. This is all that is required. The growing number o f German couples who come to Las Vegas to get married also seem to deeply appreciate the lack o f red tape. In Western Europe, according to these interviewees, it is not uncommon for the entire premarital documentation process to take as long as six months. For these couples, a trip to Las Vegas is hugely convenient, allowing them to get married, have a wonderful vacation, see some fabulous entertainment, eat very inexpensively, and return home, with only a brief stop at the German Consulate on the way out to inform them o f the marriage. Even the expense o f an international journey is well worth what these couples receive in return. Wedding chapels in Las Vegas, along with the help o f Nevada state law, have excised much o f the hassle from their weddings. Nevada does not require the blood tests mandatory in most other states, and no "waiting period” occurs either before or after license issuance. Marriage licenses can be issued instantly at the local court, which is open nearly all the time. This great convenience is a financial boon for the government as well. Thirty-five dollars per license, multiplied by the number o f couples marrying in Vegas per year, made for a sum o f nearly three and a half m illion dollars in revenue for the county in 1994. 45 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. In comments from wedding participants and wedding consultants, I learned that for many, a wedding should still be sacred, a quality well beyond the mere legitimacy conveyed by the power o f the state. In my conversations with couples in Vegas before my fieldwork began, I learned that a blessing from God, from a supernatural being, is often the key ingredient which makes a wedding truly “ legitimate” in the minds o f newly married couples. This, o f course, is always an option in the chapels, since all faiths are catered to by request. A Las Vegas wedding can also be an alternative for people who are Christian, but do not find their niche in their local church; perhaps they have not established connections with a particular congregation, or just think that they would feel like outsiders getting married in a close-knit community church. So, a Vegas wedding allows the couple to indulge their religious leanings without creating any stress for themselves about the issue. As Steve White, one o f the ministers at Candlestick Wedding Chapel, explains: Q: How long have you been working in the chapel? A: I ’ve been an ordained minister fo r thirty-tw o years. But I've been working in a wedding chapel for the last fourteen years. Q: Did you keep track o f how many weddings you conduct? A: Oh, yeah. I’ve done about forty thousand. Q: 40.000? Maybe you hold the Guinness w orld’s record fo r that. 46 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. A: W ell, could be. Q: Why do you think people come to Las Vegas and get married? A: W ell, there are two or three reasons. Number one there is no waiting period and no blood test. So a lot o f people come because o f that. Then people come because o f the fact that this is nice place to spend their honeymoon. It is kind o f magic city. And I think another reason is, a lot o f people don't have church, so... the church makes it so d ifficu lt fo r people to get married. You have to go through all kinds o f counseling, that kind o f thing. So a lot o f people come to Las Vegas because they don’t want to go through the hassles o f renting a church, ...of who's going to be best man, who's going to be the maid o f honor, ring bearers. They just come to Las Vegas, just two o f them to get m arried." Most o f the weddings in the chapels in Las Vegas are performed by government-licensed ministers, some o f whom were indeed full-tim e members o f the clergy prior to this form o f employment. The wedding chapels strive to maintain a constant flexibility, allowing the choice of a variety o f religious weddings-Jewish, mainstream Christian, Catholic, or any combination one may like— and likely any unusual request for a certain religious ceremony would be honored as quickly as the chapel manager could locate a licensed practitioner from your faith. The chapel atmosphere itself also draws people to be wed. Most people expect their wedding to be one of most festive occasions in their lives. Flowers, special costumes, and fancy decorations contribute to the festivity o f the occasion. Needless to say, the whole city o f I^as Vegas is up 47 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. and running for that very purpose — festivity. Streams o f tourists always fill the sidewalks day and night, and every corner o f the city is illuminated by neon lights. This place is ready to party, and the wedding candidates certainly come to take advantage o f it. Another appeal o f a Vegas wedding is its convenience. A ll you have to do is just to show up at the chapel. (If you don't feel like standing, you can stay in the car and get married outside the Drive-up window.) In fact, the phrase used by many o f the wedding directors whom I met to describe the Vegas wedding was. "It is care-free.” Everything is already set up for you in any time o f any day. What if it rains? What if the minister is ill? It doesn't matter— there are several other locations to choose from where it is not raining; the three other ministers w ill be happy to fill in. You never need to go to Plan B— in a Las Vegas wedding, there is always another Plan A waiting. Wedding chapels are often open 24 hours a day, with a full complement o f employees standing by, of course always including a minister. It is as convenient and reliable as getting cash from a bank A TM . If, o f course, you do want to create a more elaborate wedding, wedding consultants are there for the very purpose. They w ill provide ideas and arrange your wedding to suit your taste, as long as it meets the finances o f the wedding party. Another interesting aspect o f Vegas weddings is that the chapels 48 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. offer a number o f different wedding packages, with their cost based on how elaborate they are. There are a variety of packages available— the Economy, Regular, and Deluxe; and some are named after the weddings purchased by famous stars who were married there, such as the Michael Jordan or the Joan Collins. Despite a slight difference in packages from one chapel to another, all wedding packages include these basics; the use o f the chapel; the services o f a minister; and courtesy limousine service. By adding more services such as flowers, garters, or a live wedding march instead o f a recording, the package increases in price. The most economical wedding packages among wedding chapels cost between $120 and $200. W ith a conservative estimate of the cost o f a "traditional” wedding, this is still only one tenth o f the expense that couples incur if they get married almost anywhere else in the United States. This does not mean, however, that all Vegas weddings are economical; you can order any number o f extra services for your wedding, making it as lavish as you can imagine. As one wedding director remarked, " I f you want to spend some money in your wedding, then the sky is the lim it.” Making the choice to have a Vegas wedding seems to satisfy the wedding couples in several other ways. As shown below in the survey result, the motivations for marrying in Las Vegas vary, but are usually 49 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. some combination o f a number o f primary reasons, the degree o f appeal for each rationale varying from one couple to another. The ability o f a couple to marry synchronously w ith their vacation plan is a primary motivator, although it is likely that they planned their Vegas vacation destination carefully to coincide with wedding plans, and are not simply vacationing and getting married incidentally. This reason is followed by the cost o f the Vegas wedding, and then by its speed, indicating that no single reason compels a couple to come to Vegas to get married. Table 5. Most important concern in planning a wedding. Frequency P ercent cost of wedding 48 23.2 tim e 38 18.4 vacation plan 50 24.2 relig io u s w edding 1 1 5.3 specific w edding style 19 9.2 other 30 14.5 unknown 9 5.3 Total 205 100 In my survey, forty-four of the 103 couples I interviewed answered that they learned about Vegas weddings through word-of-mouth. The owner o f Candlestick Wedding Chapel is confident when he says that more 50 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. people continue coming due to the reputation of his chapel — and due to the 800 numbers he lists in most major telephone directories. And word- of-mouth is widespread in many cases — according to his estimate, his chapel has hosted over 300,000 weddings since 1973; this means, he stated, that easily over a m illion people have visited the chapel during his ownership. Traditionally, weddings are arranged by the bridal fam ily. But, in the case o f a I>as Vegas wedding, both parties are actively involved in the process. When asked whose idea it was to choose Las Vegas as a wedding site, the response was almost evenly divided between the men and women, with only slightly more brides responding that they had made the choice. Almost 20% o f these couples also mentioned that their decision had been totally spontaneous. When asked why they chose Las Vegas, many people gave multiple answers to the question, w ith the most popular choice being fast service (28%), followed by the “ image” o f Las Vegas (22%) and third, the cost o f a wedding (14%). These findings also show a correlation with an earlier question about selecting a spot which would allow for a combined vacation. People marrying in Vegas want to save time for their honeymoon by coming to the city with the fast wedding service and the location for their vacation right outside the chapel door. 51 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Table 6. Choice o f Vegas as a wedding location/Number o f times married cost clo se location faster service len ient law in Nevada image of Las V egas N ever M arried B efore 19 7 18 12 17 M arried once or m ore b efore 9 4 39 17 28 Table 7. How do you rate Las Vegas Wedding for yourself? Frequency P ercent Ideal W edding 74 35.7 Satisfied 92 46.0 Som ewhat Satisfied 10 4.8 Not At All Satisfied 1 0.5 Not Answered 28 14.0 T otal 205 100.0 Las Vegas weddings is considered just as an alternative among many wedding couples who chose to get married in Las Vegas. Las Vegas wedding styles are far from the ideal wedding fantasy cherished by these 52 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. people. Yet, I was surprised to learn that the majority o f couples are pretty satisfied despite this was their second choice. I suppose this degree o f satisfaction has to do with the fact that this was is their wedding, after all, and no one want to have a negative feeling toward it. They knew why they came to Las Vegas, and they got what they wanted, even though it was not their first choice. 53 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. N otes 1. It contains various information concerning the visitors: Frequency o f visits. Transportation to Las Vegas, Type o f Lodging, Hours o f Gambling, Average Bet, Satisfaction w ith visit, etc. 2. The same-sex marriage is illegal in the state o f Nevada. 3. SPSS, Macintosh Version 4. It is formulated and based on preliminary researches and interviews conducted prior to the survey. 5. Las Vegas Review. P. 103. December 20th, 1992. 6. In terms o f the rate o f marriage per 1,000 population, in 1992, Nevada already had the highest rate in the nation: 86.1. Source: US National Center for Health Statistics, Vital Statistics o f the United States , annual. 54 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Chapter 4. “This is Business.” Weddings are widely thought to be one o f the most intimate and personal moments in one’s life, uniquely so in that they are so often attended by the loved ones and large numbers o f friends o f the participants. Some believe they go beyond being merely personal and are truly sacred. And in America, nearly as sacred as the wedding itself is the right to make one's own choices concerning the marriage, from the person one marries to the style o f ceremony. But in order for the wedding couple to enact their desired version o f this jo yfu l ritual, their personal and even sacred experience must become one o f the carefully orchestrated operations o f the wedding industry, whose motivation emanates from their business interests. In the Vegas wedding industry in particular, an often-repeated motto is, ‘'Your happiness is our business." The main goal o f all wedding chapel operations is, o f course, to make a handsome profit; and they do this by recognizing the need to make the wedding events ever more memorable and pleasurable for the wedding couples and their guests, if any. From the receptionist to the limousine driver, chapel employees are taught what the wedding couples expect and how to meet those expectations. For wedding couples, a wedding is expected to be one o f their life time events. It is supposed to be special, and thus is by nature Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. extraordinary. But for the employees at the wedding chapel, it is an ordinary, everyday routine. To them, the wedding chapel is nothing more than their workplace. It is a business in which they make a living, and the owners make a profit out o f which their salaries are paid. The Reverend Steve White, one o f five ministers working at the Candlestick Wedding Chapel, explains: W ell, certainly it is an alternative for people who want to get married in a church. And Las Vegas became the wedding capital o f the world, you know. People from all over the world come to Las Vegas, to be married here. And I think it's their choice, you know? It is easy to get married here. And no hassles. And you know, it’s their business and their choice. That’s one thing I like — you realize this is business, and so I don’t have any trouble with them coming here. One employee in fact made a case and complained about the fact that the couples do not understand that this is just an business for people working at the chapel. Judy M axwell, a photographer w ith four years of experience working in various chapels in town, said: People that come to the wedding chapel expect that, when you say that they’re provided a photographer, they’re expecting same kind o f service. They don’t understand that there is a time lim it. They don’t understand it’s a business. Well I have... a request to follow them to the reception, to take them outside. On Saturdays, it’s impossible to do, because I have to be ready for the next wedding. So, I think a lot o f people have different expectations from a wedding chapel. They don’t understand, exactly, that this is a business, and how it works. I ’m surprised how many people ask me why the minister has 56 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. to have donations. And I am just so surprised. Why, I mean, would you think someone sits here all day and just does it from the goodness o f their hearts? O r is it public service, what Las Vegas does for people? People are surprised to learn that it costs money to get married! Again, 1 am so surprised by that. She continues: They’re expecting a great deal. I have to work very quickly, also, because again, this is business, you know... When you ask |the participants] ‘excuse me, its time to leave the chapel,' or whatever they say to move them on, the guests walk out into the lobby and there are other people waiting, and jthe guests) go “ Next!” like a doctor’s office. W ell, what do they expect? It is not your church. It is not that they are just here for you. There are other people getting married and everyone chose Saturdays. So, obviously, it is a very, very, busy day. It is not just this particular chapel. They are all like that. You can’t do all the things setting up exactly as you wanted it. There are certain structures and rules each chapel has about what you can or cannot do. I am surprised again .... Managing about 200 weddings a week is not an easy task even for the well trained and experienced employees at Candlestick Wedding Chapel. On busy days like Saturdays, the chapel employees have to somehow “ push" around the people in order to manage the continuous flow o f weddings. It is not unusual for the wedding guests to be asked to leave the chapel while they are still enjoying the finale o f their wedding, hugging and kissing and taking pictures. What is d ifficu lt in doing so is that the employee should not let them leave with any bad feelings. The more experienced chapel 57 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. employee is expected to handle the situation in a smooth and efficient way; but there is always certain tension building up during a busy day. One day early in my research, while I was talking with one o f the wedding directors, we were informed by drivers that they were having problems at the County Marriage License Bureau. Soon, we learned that the Bureau was temporarily closed because o f an unknown problem, which we learned later was poisonous gas from an unknown source inside the county building. Rapidly, all the chapel employees were enlisted to reach scheduled wedding parties, explaining about inevitable delays. The anxiety level rose considerably when a wedding couple showed up at the chapel uninformed about the change and began to complain loudly about the situation. Although the chapel employees were able to eventually calm the couple down, nevertheless their own stress levels were at a high. Another incident happened because of an unusual request by a wedding couple. The bride’s father could not attend the wedding because o f illness, and the families came up with an idea. They wanted to give away the bride over the phone. Finally, the request was accepted, but it caused quite a delay and subsequent stress for chapel employees. It was one o f their busiest days, and I overheard one o f them say, trying to ease her mind, “ W ell, this is just ‘one o f those days’ in the chapel.” 58 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Later in another interview, Judy expressed nicely the ironic aspect of working in people's weddings: “ I understand that this is a very important day for the couples, but sometimes I wonder whether they know that what we do here is also a business for us.” She continued, “ I see people who seem to think that we're working for free. Some o f them expect us to do more than what they paid for us to do. Sometimes it is d ifficult to explain this to them.” In order to increase their profits, the wedding chapels in Las Vegas employs different methods: inventing new package weddings, standardizing the operation for efficiency and productivity, and selling wedding-related merchandise. Most wedding chapels create their own special packages that are geared to accommodate the differing budgets o f couples, as well as their needs and personal preferences. Greg Johnson responds to my question. Q: How did the packaging idea start?” A: I don’t know... probably three or four years ago, we started putting the whole thing into a package. It seemed like it took so long— and always when we’ re too busy— to go over things individually. So now, we package a lot o f things, thinking that what a lot o f people want w ill be the most popular... and the least popular is one o f the Deluxe (packages.| So now, they usually start out w ith the smaller package and get an add-on to it. Then they may go to the next package, or if they want an extra thing they go to the next package, and so forth. It would save money— go buy the package! So there are all kinds of people, so they can have most o f the things they want to get a little discount on a package, rather then going a’ la carte, which might cost more. 59 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. And it really, really took off. People kinda like a buffet, so to speak, you know. In fact, the packaging concept has dramatically speeded up the pre wedding procurement process and has helped all of the wedding chapels carry and sell more weddings. They are able to market and produce more “ product” than ever before, and their capacity seems to grow each year as they become more knowledgeable and efficient. As an another way to increase the efficiency and productivity, the wedding chapels have also standardized the chapel operation. It is, so to speak, taylorization o f production. Since the chapel provides full service for a couple, assisting them in the entire wedding process from getting their marriage license to the return trip to the hotel, it is critical that all o f the staff consider themselves members o f a team. Limousine drivers are constantly dispatched to pick up new wedding candidates, while wedding couples scheduled a bit earlier are arriving in other limousines which left before. A ll o f the drivers are carefully monitoring their wireless radio. The florist makes sure there are enough flowers kept in a refrigerator case. Each employee plays a pivotal role in the smooth operation o f this production line, and each phase o f it must be carefully monitored and controlled. 60 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Every week, about 2000 weddings are held in the 35 wedding chapels in the city o f Las Vegas. Around 28 o f these 35 perform a total o f roughly 20% o f the chapel weddings; the remaining five or six are the heavy-hitters, and among them, they are responsible for an amazing 80% of the remaining weddings. An average o f 20 weddings per day are performed in all the chapels; and at Candlestick Wedding Chapel where I conducted my fieldwork, they expect up to one-third o f their week's weddings to happen on Saturdays. On Valentine’s Day, this number can easily double; in 1995, there were 160 weddings on Valentine's Day. It does not require much imagination to picture how busy the chapel may be on a weekend or a romantic holiday. The wedding chapel w ill be operating at its absolute maximum capacity. The experienced chapel employees are expected to work with great efficiency. Like a production line in a car manufacturing company, the work is divided and each employee performs the task at hand with precision. The limousine drivers, receptionists, wedding directors, photographers, and minister all manage the flow o f brides like a skilled assembler. For instance, once the wedding couple chooses the desired wedding package, a wedding director in the office fills the work orders indicating the various services purchased for that particular wedding: music, flowers, photography, video - standard, deluxe, or the celebrity versions. Based on the work order, the employee 61 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. responsible for those elements or items w ill be notified and the wedding is ready to go. Then, the wedding couples are simply asked to follow the instructions given by the employee at each given stage, and after a short period o f time, they w ill come o ff the assembly line as “ Married.” Thus, the operation at the wedding chapels in Las Vegas is an excellent example o f the trend o f standardization outside the manufacturing floor in various American institutions. To borrow from George Ritzer, it is a McDonaldization o f weddings in the United States (Ritzer 1993). In a recent book. The Mcdonaldization o f Society (1993), sociologist George Ritzer poignantly discusses instrumental rationality, found in fast-food chain restaurants (from which his terms "M cdonaldization” derives), and its penetration into other sectors o f the American societal system in education, religion, and government. As discussed above, those sub features such as efficiency, predictability, and control that the author describes under this process are directly operational in the wedding chapels in Las Vegas. The other way to increase the profit is to provide various wedding related merchandises. The industry in Vegas gladly responds to those needs with merchandise. Some chapels have their own floral shops and a facility for tuxedo and bridal gown rentals. These are meant for the 62 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. convenience o f the couples, which equates to more income for the chapel as well. In fact, the chapels sell a plethora o f goods and memorabilia to commemorate your happy day. Much as if you had attended a highly publicized sporting event, you can come away from your wedding in Vegas with any number o f commemorative items. A fter you get married, you can buy a T-shirt or a coffee mug w ith the date and the name o f the chapel on it, or the top seller, a fancy marriage certificate proclaiming love at its most romantic: JUST M ARRIED On this day in the city o f Las Vegas, Clark County, State o f Nevada, this lucky couple became big winners in the game o f life when the pair recited their marriage vows. The Groom laid his chips on the line to bet on his future, and it paid o ff when his bride took a chance and sighed, "I w ill." The Bride, hoping to fill a fu ll house, flushed prettily when her king o f hearts took a stand and said. "I do." No matter what the odds, they both agreed to gamble on the bonds o f matrimony as they promised to share the treasures o f love. This loving couple hit the jackpot and wedding bells rang when they were joined in wedlock as husband and wife. {M ay the wheel o f good fortune always spin in their favor and forever enrich their lives together} Groom__________________ Bride_______________ Chaplain________________Chapel______________ Witness________________ Witness______________ 63 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. One characteristic o f the Vegas wedding as a commodity was its appeal to the different needs o f consumers who are always looking for something unique and special. People want, and are w illin g to pay for, a variety o f choices regarding their wedding form and its contents. As mentioned earlier, a Vegas wedding can be whatever you can afford, and can imagine it to be. Much like creating your own Christmas cards, when you opt for a Vegas wedding you are free to pursue your imagination as long as you stay within the parameters o f the concept. If this is understood, then the chances are that you can invent the wedding o f your dreams, no matter how w ild it is. You can have your wedding in the sky or in the water by visiting one of the wedding chapels which specializes in performing weddings while you are sky-diving, bungee-jumping, driving, or scuba-diving. If you feel the need to have a blessing from Elvis, ask for the Elvis wedding package and an Elvis impersonator— in fact, as many Elvises as you w ill hire— w ill perform during your ceremony. You can request, and o f course pay for, a Middle Ages-style wedding in which you and your guests and relatives w ill be dressed in quasi-mediaeval costumes and w ill marry in a wedding chapel decorated to resemble a castle. If you prefer a “ Rich and Famous” style wedding, you can ride in a 35-foot long limousine with a hot tub. Tie your knots in caviar dreams and champagne wishes! Vegas goes to great expense and effort to purvey their image o f 64 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. possible dreams; and the wedding industry thriving there keeps the same image vivid in the minds o f their potential customers. Just as anything seems possible in this city, the wedding chapels want you to feel that anything goes in a Vegas wedding. In a Bungee Wedding, you can say “ I D o "’ while falling from the top o f alO story-high platform, tethered to life only by an oversized elastic band. For those engaged couples who have a more unusual wedding than this in mind, the chances are that the wedding directors in town w ill be delighted to hear from them . The Las Vegas wedding is thus a cultural product, born o f the interests o f producers and consumers. For people making their living in the wedding chapel business, a wedding is a straight-forward commodity to be sold. Using diverse devices and processes, the wedding industry in I^as Vegas strives for more weddings, and in turn, greater profits. They operate w ith the same basic logic found in any other business— the logic of commercialism. To make their products more attractive to consumers, that is, to the wedding candidates, wedding directors pay careful attention to people's needs and anticipate them with new merchandise as they strive to stay ahead in this competitive market. As a T V commercial for Candlestick Wedding Chapel goes: Welcome to the world famous Candlestick Wedding Chapel. Here on the Strip all the lights, all the glitter, all the dancers are here on the Strip. Come on in, with $55 you can come in and get married in this world famous Candlestick Wedding 65 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Chapel. A ll the stars and thousands o f people married here in Las Vegas. Come on down to Candlestick Wedding Chapel. We w ill give you everything you want, photos, flowers, videos, music, Kmousine service. We w ill treat you like kings and queens as you get married at the Candlestick Wedding Chapel on the Strip, W orld Famous! Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. C onclusion Robin Herron, one o f my interviewees, provided me with some very revealing comments when describing the remarriages of her ex husband: Tom called me and he asked me to house sit for him. When I asked him why, he said he was going to Vegas for the weekend. I asked him if Barbara |Tom ’s girlfriend| was going with him, and he said, "Yeah." Was it vacation. I wanted know? “ No,” he said. “ W e’ re getting m arried." 1 was shocked. I wanted to say something. But for some reason, because it was Vegas, I felt like he was saying to me, “ Stay out o f it.” I felt like they were being really rude by going to Vegas, but I didn't not understand my feeling, and I kind of knew I couldn’t say anything. And so I did stay out o f it. By then we were good friends, you know, it had been ten years, and I really liked Barbara. But the way they were getting married didn't feel fair. I think it was a way for l orn to avoid presenting his decision to the world at large for their input. And, actually, my input would have been, “ Don’t do it!” — not because it was Barbara, but because they were going to Vegas! I felt like Tom was leaving everyone who loved him completely out o f it. We weren't supposed to have an opinion. I know that when you get married, you don't go around asking everybody to vote on what kind o f ceremony you should have. You do it in the church that you grew up in. wear the dress you think makes you look beautiful, do what feel right and all that. It isn’t based on what other think. I've always believed that a wedding is o f the people that are getting married. But I guess it really isn’t. Actually now, looking back at when l orn remarried. I think his wedding should have been for the other -you know, the people who love him. But I still am not sure what I would have said or done differently. I just felt like I was being left out, I wasn't allowed to stand there with them and show, “ Yes, this is a good thing. I support you." I'm not sure if it affected the way 1 treated them after they got married or not. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. The above anecdote illustrates some difficult feelings experienced by someone who felt somehow rejected by having someone close to her go to Las Vegas to get married. Inasmuch marriage is one o f life's seminal events, its ceremonial observance-the wedding-functions not only to jo in the couple, but to affirm their social roles relative to others in the world, and to reaffirm the roles o f those connected to them as well. The bride and groom face a very real transformation by virtue o f their participation in this ritual. Their wedding connotes their willingness to live in new relationship to one another— and to the others about them— from that moment on. Therefor, their wedding also functions to anchor them through their hold upon these relationships, and to stabilize them during their transition. A son becomes a husband; his parents are still his parents, but now they become the parents o f both a son and a husband. Thus, his new role begins with the consent o f those who must understand and support it. In this aspect, the traditional American wedding is o f huge importance to the ongoing strength o f the community around a newlywed couple. It confirms the acceptance o f their changing roles in the group, provides a public mechanism for friend and fam ily o f the couple to show their support towards them, and allows the bride and groom to see the many links they 68 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. have with their society, moving into this new time in their lives knowing where they stand in the world. If weddings are indeed as much for the community as for those marrying, then the Vegas wedding may be tearing down these crucial cultural and social underpinnings, leaving a growing portion o f American society increasingly alienated and isolated, even as their individualism increases. These couples do not have guests, do not have fam ily present, do not actually know anyone there at all except one another. Their connections to their world are not being reinforced, and may, as a result o f not being strengthened, be weakened. In a Vegas wedding, the couple does not see their social connection— they have few, if any, loved ones as witnesses to their ritual. They do not acknowledge their social connections, as there is little planning necessary, so no input is requested. And they do not need their social connections, since no investment o f time w ill be asked o f anyone in preparation for the ritual. The disconnection from the rest o f the couple’s world is quite complete. In marrying in I^as Vegas, they are exhibiting a very high degree o f individualism, expressed through the acceptance o f a commercial product. They are getting married in a vacuum. Much as a funeral is not for the person who has died, but for those who were members o f that person’s world, so the wedding is not merely 69 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. for the two being wed, but for the strengthening or their community and the affirmation o f all relevant ties. The American traditional wedding as a rite o f passage ritual is rich with meaning and purpose. It binds the two individuals together then reinforces and redefines their bonds to their larger culture. The Vegas wedding, by contrast, defines the independence and self- actualization o f the couple, substituting the appearance o f the sacred and the approximation o f the personal for real connectedness. But, for the reasons I have shown in my analysis, many thousands upon thousands o f couples continue to choose to marry in Las Vegas. Cost, convenience, individuality— the evidence is strong that their reasons are not consciously subversive or rebellious, but often practical, making a Vegas wedding a solution to their potential problems. Particularly those marrying for the second time have eliminated parts o f their first wedding which did not meet their needs, but rather the needs and expectations of their families. Their feeling now is that meeting the needs of others rather than their own is a negative result o f a traditional wedding. M y survey results indicate that for may couples who come to Vegas, often their choice was made because o f the amount o f preparation time such a ceremony eliminates. The planning for an average wedding, as pointed out, can sometimes require as long as a year or more. But it may 70 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. be this very investment o f time that helps to imbue the wedding ritual with meaning. Preparation for this rite o f passage is undertaken by many caring members o f the community o f the person to be wed. During this extended period, the members o f the fam ily become adjusted to seeing their loved one in the new role soon to become a daily reality. They have an opportunity to figure out how they are going to fit in w ith this “ new’ person, and to become comfortable with their own shifting responsibilities to that person. In this way, the time needed to prepare for the wedding also prepares the society around the couple to receive them in their new roles. The Vegas wedding requires no such preparation time. And time and time again, I found that both the chapel personnel and the chapel client were pleased with the elimination o f the time-consuming hassles of preparation and planning involved in the traditional wedding ceremony. According to my survey results, it is clear that most people who come to Vegas to marry, they feel this alternative is positive, or at least adequately satisfying to them, because they believe that the traditional wedding is a hassle. As one wedding director was quoted as commenting, wedding couple can “ come here and get married...and have the same kind o f wedding without going through all the hassles” (emphasis added). As far as the wedding couples in Vegas are concerned, they are not accepting a lesser 71 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. substitute. This is “ the same kind o f wedding." They eliminated the parts o f the wedding they don’t want to deal with, whether it be preparation time or fiscal and legal hassles. For second marriages, this indicates that the effort, time, cost involved the first time had not produced an event that met their needs; but in Las Vegas, they are glad to enjoy a wedding which is, as I heard so often from the wedding directors, “ carefree.” A traditional wedding, with all o f its agonizing time spent organizing, planning, spending, and worrying is anything but carefree— it is filled with care. The investment made in it shows the care for the social networks o f the couples, in particular o f the bride. She w ill be helped in her wedding, and this bodes well for whether she w ill also be helped in her marriage. She had depended upon those who care for her, and they are assisting her in this task o f getting married, one which can be daunting indeed. But, marriage itself is a daunting proposition as well. In pre industrial cultures, the advice and input of the elder women for the younger concerning their marriage is highly valued. Vegas wedding couples do not need this input. In addition, my research showed that bride’s families hand the bulk o f the preparation for a traditional wedding. When the bride’s mother participates in wedding preparations with her daughter, she consents indirectly to continue in a stable role in her 72 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. daughter's life, perhaps as an adviser. In return, the bride accepts her own role as one who needs-and, by implication, seeks and then accepts— advice. M y research also showed that for many couples, a wedding is ultimately sacred. This sacredness seems to have become connected in their minds to the degree o f sim ilarity the ceremony has to the “ ideal” ’ traditional wedding. Las Vegas wedding professionals seem to have a keen sense o f what appeals to wedding couples, and they are astute at designing wedding packages that emulate the physical characteristics o f the traditional wedding, if the couple chooses. From the minister to the decorations to the music, the appearance o f the Vegas wedding are accurate reproductions. Vegas weddings can certainly look like the one you would have had if you had gone o more traditional route. When a couple marries, they desire the good w ill o f those around them, wish for the best future they can have, hope for fu lfillin g days ahead. It is hard to imagine that one can eliminate some essential element o f a marriage ritual without even knowing it. But, it does seem that the nearly primal need for members o f a society to support one another in the most basic human ways has been usurped by a successful commercialization o f a ritual into a product, packaged in a form that enjoys widening acceptance and allows marriage to take place without the knowledge o f the community that w ill be expected to sustain that marriage. 73 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. The wedding industry in Las Vegas is created out o f accommodating the diverse needs o f the wedding couples, anxious consumers who look for the better, faster, easier. W ith its elaborate and systematic efforts, this wedding industry provides everything from the abstract to the concrete. It Has not only invented a new form o f wedding, and but also a whole new standard about how your marriage should be. Wedding are packaged and available anytime. Just stay one chapel, and everything w ill come to you. The significance o f Las Vegas weddings lies not in just the ever-increasing number o f weddings performed, but in the sense that those weddings reflect current trends in American culture. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Appendix A: Marriage Licenses Issued In Clark County Las Vegas, Nevada in 1994 M onthly Year To Date January 6,229 6,229 February 7,980 14,209 March 7,959 22,168 A pril 8,694 30,862 May 8,735 39,597 June 8,549 48,146 July 9,350 57,496 August 8,684 66,180 Septem ber 8,670 74,851 O ctober 8,387 83,175 N ovem ber 7,723 90,898 D ecem ber 8,829 99,727 Less Voids 483 Total 9 9 ,7 2 7 From a source published by Marriage License Bureau. 75 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Appendix B: Survey Questionnaire 1. N AM E___________________________ . 2. Sex: M a le Female 3. Date o f B irth ________________ 4. Where do you currently reside? (1) In U.S, what state?_____________________ (2) Other, please specify_________________________ 5. Country o f Citizenship (1) U.S Citizen (2) Other,please specify______________ 6. Ethnic Background (1 )White, non-Hispanic (2)Asian (3) Black, non-Hispanic (4) Hispanic (5) Other, specify_________________ 7. Education (1) less than High School (2) High School Graduate (3) 2 year College (4) 4 year University (5) Advanced Degree (M .A or Ph.D.) (6) Professional Schools (7) O ther_____________________ 8. Income in U.S Dollar -Your Personal Income, Not fam ily income (1) Under$ 12,000 (2)$ 12,000 to $29,999 (3) $30,000 to $39,999 (4) $40,000 to $49,999 (5) $50,000 to 59,999 (6) 60,000 + 9. Who is paying most for the cost of wedding? (1) Yourself (2) Your Spouse (3) You and Your spouse combined (4) Parents (5) Relatives (6) Others, please specify_____________________ 10. Number o f times you have been married before tod ay_________ 11. What was your most important concern in planning your wedding ceremony? (1) Cost o f wedding (2) Time consideration (3) Vacation Plans (4) Religious wedding (5) Specific wedding style 76 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. (6) Other, please specify_____________________________________ 12. What person/persons gave you the most advice on your wedding? (l)Parents (2)Friends (3)Relatives (4)Wedding Chapel Personnel (5) wedding consultant (6)By Yourself (7) Others, please specify____________________________________ 13. How long did you plan your wedding ceremony? (1) A Year or years (2) Months (3) Week or weeks (4) A Few days (5) Spontaneous (6) O ther___________ 14. How did you find about wedding chapels in Las Vegas? (1) Previous trip to Vegas (2) Through the words o f mouths (3) media or advertisement (4) O th er,_______________ 15. Whose idea was to get married in Las Vegas? (l)B rid e's (2)Groom's (3) Friend's (4)Parents' (5)Spontaneous (6)Other's, please specify____________________________ 16. Did you consider Las Vegas as your wedding place mostly because of? (l)C o s t (2)Close Location (3)Fast wedding service (4) Lenient law in Nevada- No waiting period & No blood tests (5) The image o f Las Vegas (6) Other, please specify______________________________ 17. What is the most important thing you consider to have in your wedding ceremony in the following? (1) Flower (2) Vows (3) Music (4) Guests (5) Religious ceremony (6)Does not matter (7) Other, please specify_____________________________ 18. How do you rate Vegas wedding for yourself? (1) Ideal wedding (2) Satisfied (3) Somewhat Satisfied (4) Not at all Satisfied Thank You Very Much and Best Wishes! 77 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. B ibliograp hy Agar, M. 1986. Independent Declared: The Dilemmas o f Independent Trucking. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press. Ajjan, Diana. 1994. The Wedding Planner. New York: The Berkley Publishing Group. American Anthropologist. 1955. The U.S.A. as anthropologist see it. American Anthropologist 57:1113-1180. Special Issue. American Automobile Association. 1992. TourBook: California & Nevada. Heathrow, FL: A A A . Anderson, K. 1994. Las Vegas, U.S.A Time January 10:42-51 Arens, W., Montague, S. P. 1976. The American Dimension: Cultural Myths and Social Realities. New York: A lfred Publishing. Arensberg, C., Solon T. Kim ball. 1965. Culture and Comm unity. New York: Harcourt, Brace & W orld. Aries, Phillippe. “ The Rituals o f Marriage." Canadian Journal of History 11:88-93 Asad, T. 1973. Anthropology and Colonial Encounter. London: Ithaca Press. Baudrillard, Jean. 1988. Am erica. London: Verso (trans) ________________ . 1988 (1970) Consumer Society in Jean Baudrillard: Selected W ritings, by Mark Foster. Stanford: Stanford University Press. Bellah, R. N., Madsen, R., Sullivan, W. M., Swindler, A ., Tipton, S. M. 1985. Habits o f the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American L ife . Berkeley: University o f California Press. Bocock, Robert. 1974. Ritual in Industrial Society: A Sociological Analysis o f Ritualism in Modern England. London: George Allen & Urwin Ltd. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Bohannon, Paul. 1985. A ll the Happy Family. New York: MacGraw- H ill Book Company. Chapman, F. 1993. Cost o f Average Wedding Now Up to Mere $19,000. Champaign- Urvana News Gazette, p. T-7 Charsley, S. R. 1992. Wedding Cakes and Cultural Histories. London: Routledge, Chapman and Hall Inc. Cherlin, Andrew J. 1981. Marriage. Divorce, Remarriage. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press Chesser, Barbara Jo. 1980. “ Analysis o f Wedding Rituals: An Attempt to Make Weddings More Meaningful” Family Relation 29: 204-9. Cocks, Jay. 1986. Scenes from a Marriage. Tim e (July 7, 1986):55-59 Crevecour, M.G. St. Jean de. 1782 (1904). Letters from an American Farmer. New York: Fox. Duffield. During, Simon. 1994. ed. The Cultural Studies Reader. New York: Routledge. Durkheim, Emile. 1915(1965) The Elementary Forms o f the Religious L ife . Trans. Joseph W . Swain. New York: Free Press. Edwards, Walter. 1989. Modern Japan Through Its Weddings. Stanford: Stanford University Press. Foster, R., Orest A. Ranum. eds. 1982. Ritual. Religion, and the Sacred. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. Fox, R. 1967. Kinship and Marriage: An Anthropological Perspective. Harmondsworth: Penguin. Frelich, M. ed.1970. Marginal Natives: Anthropologist A t W ork. New York: Harper & Row. Geertz, C lifford. 1973. Interpretation o f Cultures: Selected Essays. New York: Basic Books. 79 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Ginsberg, F. 1989. Contested Lives: The Abortion Debate in an American Com m unity. Berkeley: University o f California Press. Goody, Jack. 1977. “ Against Ritual :Loosely Structured Thoughts on a Loosely Defined Topic.” Sally F. Moore and Barbara M yerhoff, eds. Secular Ritual. Amsterdam: Van Gorcum. Gorer, G. 1948. The American People: A Study in American Character. New York: Norton. Grimes, Ronald L.1982. Beginnings in Ritual Studies. Washington D.C.: University Press o f America, Inc. ______________ . 1985. Research in Ritual Studies: A Programmatic Essay and Bibliography. London: The Scarecrow Press. Harris, M. 1981. America Now: The Anthropology o f A Changing Culture. New York: Simon & Schuster. Henry, J. 1966. A Theory For an Anthropological Analysis o f American Culture. Anthropol. O. 39:90-109 Holms, L. 1978. The American Tribe. Lexington, Mass: Xerox Pub. Program. Horowitz, R. 1985. The Strip: An American Place. Lincoln: University o f Nebraska Press. Hsu, F. 1953. Americans and Chinese: Two Wavs o f Life. New York: Schuman. . 1969. The Study o f Literate C ivilization. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. . 1979. Roots o f American Family From Noah to Now. In Kin and Communities: Families in America, ed. A Lichman, J. Challinor. Washington DC: Smithsonian Inst. Press. . 1981. Americans and Chinese: Passage to Differences. Honolulu: Univ. o f Hawaii Press. Jones, D. J. 1970. Toward a Native Anthropology. Human Organization 29(4):251-259 Jorgensen, J., Truzzi, M. ed. 1974. Anthropology and American L ife. Englewood C liffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. 80 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Kessinger, R. A. 1990. Marriage Licensing Laws: A State By State Guide. Kessinger Publishing Co. Kendall, L. 1989. “ A noisy and bothersome new custom: Delivering a gift box to a Korean bride. Journal o f Ritual Studies. 3,185-202 Kim , Y. H. 1988. The Future o f Native Anthropology, unpublished M .A. Thesis. Bloomington: Indiana. Kim , C. S. 1977. An Asian Anthropologist in the South. Knoxville: University o f Tennessee Press. Kim ball, S. 1955. Problem o f Studying American Culture. American Anthropologist 57:1131-41 ________ . 1960. "Preface" in Rites o f Passage by Arnold van Gennep. Chicago: University o f Chicago Press. Kottack, C. ed. 1982. Researching American Culture: A Guide For Student Anthropologists. Ann Arbor: Univ. o f Michigan Press I & Fontaine, J. S., ed. 1972. The Interpretation o f Ritual: Essays in Honor o f A .I. Richards. London: Tavistock. _______________ . 1986. Initiation. Manchester: Manchester University Press. Las Vegas V isitor Profile Study. 1992. by GLS Research Las Vegas O fficial Visitor Guide. 1995. by Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority Marcus, G. E., Michael M. J. Fischer. 1986. Anthropology as Cultural C ritique. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Mason, J. P. 1975. “ Sex and Symbol in the Treatment o f Women: The Wedding Rite in a Libyan Oasis Community.” American Ethnologist 2/4:649-61 M cG iffert, M. 1970. ed. The Character o f Americans, the Dorsey Press: Homeland, Illinois. Mead, M. 1943. And Keep Your Powder D ry. New York: Morrow. 81 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Messerschmidt, D. ed. 1981. Anthropologists at Home In North America: Methods and Issues in the Study o f One's Own society. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston. Metzger, D, G. E. W illiam s. 1963. “ A Formal Ethnographic Analysis o f Tenejapa Ladino Weddings.” American Anthropologist 65/51076- 1101. Modleski, Tania. 1982. Loving with a Vengeance: Mass-Produced Fantasies for Women. Hamden: Archon Book. Moffat, M. 1989. Coming o f Age in New Jersey: College and American Culture. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press. ________ . 1992. "Ethnographic W riting About American Culture” In Annual Review o f Anthropology 21:205-229 Moore, Sally F. and M yherhoff, Barbara G., eds. 1977. Secular Ritual. Amsterdam: Van Gorcum. ______________________________________ . 1975. Symbol and Politics in Communal Ideology: Cases and Questions. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. Munn, N. 1973. "Symbolism in a Ritual context.” pp. 579-612 in Handbook o f Social and Cultural Anthropology, ed. J. Honigman. Chicago: Rand M cNally. Murphy, Brian Michael. 1978. The W orld o f Weddings: An Illustrated Celebration. New York: Paddington Press. M yerhoff, B. 1979. Number Our Days. New York: Simon and Schuster. Nagendra, S. P. 1971. The Concept o f Ritual in Modern Sociological Theory. New Delhi: Academic Journals o f India. Otnes, C., T. M. Lowrey. 1994. “ Construction o f a Meaningful Wedding; Differences in the Priorities o f Brides and Grooms.” in Gender Issues and Consumer Behavior edited by Janeen Arnold Costa. London: Sage Publications. Paher, S. 1971. Las Vegas: as it began— as it grew. Las Vegas: Nevada Publications. 82 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Potter, D. M. 1964. American Women and The American Character. In American Character and Culture, ed. J. A Hague. Deland: Everett & Edwards. Powdermaker, H. 1951. Hollywood: The Dream Factory. London: Seeker and Warburg. Rapson, R. ed. 1967. Individualism and Conformity in the American Character. Boston: Heath. ________ . 1988. American Yearnings: Love. Money, and Endless Possibility. New York: University Press o f America. Riesman, D. 1953. The Lonely Crowd: a Study o f the Changing American Character. Garden City: Doubleday. ________ . 1955. Individualism Reconsidered. Glencoe: Free Press. Ritzer, George. 1993. The McDonaldization o f Society. Los Angeles: Pine Forge Press. Rook, D. 1985. “ The Ritual Dimension o f Consumer Behavior.” Journal o f Consumer Research 12:252-264 Sahlins, Marshall. 1976. Culture and Practical Reason. Chicago: University o f Chicago Press. Schneider, D. 1968. American Kinship: A Cultural Account. Englewood C liffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Spanier, David. 1992. Welcome to the Pleasuredom: Inside Las Vegas. Las Vegas: University o f Nevada Press. Spindler G., Louis Spindler. 1983. Anthropologists view American Culture. In Annual review o f Anthropology 1983:40-78 Spradley, J. and Mann, B. 1975. The Cocktail Waitress: Women's work in Man's W orld. New York:W iley. Spradly, J and Michael Rynkiewich. 1975. The Nacirema: Readings on American Culture. Boston:Little, Brown Co. Stevenson, Kenneth. 1983. Nuptial Blessing: A Study of Christian Marriage Rites. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 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The Social Life o f a Modern Communtv. Yankee C ity Series. New Haven: Yale Uni. Press. Warner, W. Lloyd. 1959. The Living and the Dead: A Study o f the Symbolic Life o f Americans. New Haven: Yale University Press W illis, Susan. 1991. A Primer For Daily L ife . London: Routledge. Wilson, M. 1971. The Wedding Cakes: A Study o f Ritual Change. In J. S. LaFontaine. ed. The Interpretation o f Ritual. London: Tavistock. 84 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.

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Creator Kim, Young-Hoon (author)

Core Title Vegas bliss: An ethnography of the wedding industry in Las Vegas

Contributor Digitized by ProQuest (provenance)

Degree Master of Arts

Degree Program Visual Anthropology

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag anthropology, cultural,OAI-PMH Harvest

Language English

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c16-3237

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Identifier 1380444.pdf (filename),usctheses-c16-3237 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier 1380444.pdf

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Rights Kim, Young-Hoon

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Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the au...

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