Ever wondered how to get married in Las Vegas? I know there are many guides out there, but how many of them are based on actual hands-on experience? This one is, because I did get married in Las Vegas. I will tell you how, but before, a short introduction about why.
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Why we decided to get married in Las Vegas?
I actually got married three times, all these times during one summer and all these times to the same man. Me being a citizen of Lithuania, and my husband a citizen of Hungary (so both citizens of the European Union) you would think it was easy. But no, the planning process required complicated logistics and bureaucratic paperwork.
Our first marriage took place in local Vilnius Church with our closest relatives and friends. We called it “in the eyes of God”. The second one took place in my husband’s home village in Hungary, where we invited relatives and friends we wanted to see the most. We called this part of getting married “in the eyes of everyone we care about.” But there was the last part left: we were still not actually legally married in the eyes of the officials.
If you get married in Lithuania or Hungary, you receive all your paperwork in either Lithuanian or Hungarian, and it has to be translated to the other language. This would mean cosmic prices, long waiting time and potential mistakes. As we do not speak each other’s languages so well, but have Danish as a common language, getting married in either one’s country would mean that the other would not really understand the ceremony. And as we were already planning to go to California for our honeymoon, we just though we will make a little de-tour and drop by Las Vegas. There we would quickly get married “in the eyes of the State of Nevada, the United and all the clerks in the world” before starting our holiday.
What papers do you need to get married in Las Vegas?
First, you will need to obtain a marriage license in Clark County. For this you must come to the Marriage License Bureau in downtown or to one of the other offices with your passport or ID card. Or (even better), try the online marriage pre-application process (click here and follow the instructions). If you have done the online pre-application, you will get a reference number, which you’ll have to bring to the Marriage License Bureau along with your ID. This way you can also skip the queue in the Bureau and use the “Express Window”.
The Bureau is open all days of the week from 8 am til midnight.
Even if you are like us a citizen of the EU (or some other country, not the US), your marriage will be totally legal, so don’t joke with it. To have it certified in your country, you have to ask for the marriage certificate from the County Clerk’s Office and an Apostille from the Nevada Secretary of State. You have to bring those to your respective authority in your home country and get it all legalised.
What do I do next?
If you went to get your license to the downtown, then as soon as you emerge from the building with this paper in your hands, you will most likely be met by several chapel workers, inviting you to choose their chapel. You can go with the nicest chap to their chapel, or you can just walk straight down the street and have a look at them yourself. Some will provide extra options, like getting married in the pink Cadillac by Elvis Presley himself (still pretty alive in Las Vegas), and some will be offering basic services.
There are also many wedding chapels in the hotels. Our hotel did not have one, and it was so hot outside that we did not want to spend long time looking for the perfect one. We just walked in the first one we saw on the street next to the Bureau and got it over with.
If you do not need anything fancy or requiring long preparations, you can just go to any of the chapel, wait a short while until you are called to a small room and married after a short nice speech in some 10 minutes time. We arrived there on a Sunday morning, so I think the queue was even shorter than usual. All the party-goers would still be asleep.
You can bring your witness with you, if you wish, or just get one in the chapel. We wished very much to have my childhood friend, who now lives in Canada and could not make it to our European weddings. I felt that my marriage would in a way be not finalised without her being present, and now we have her signature in our Marriage Certificate.
How much does it cost to get married in Las Vegas?
Just like getting married anywhere else, it depends on the kind of wedding you want. If you decide to go with a Vera Wang dress covered in diamonds, it can be rather pricey. We went for a cheap option, partly because we are cheap skates, and partly because it was our third wedding that summer. The question put by the officer in the chapel: “Would you at least like some flowers?” made us both shout out simultaneously: “Please, no!”
But seriously, here are some numbers:
- Marriage license: 77 USD
- Marriage Certificate: 15 USD
- Apostille from the Nevada Secretary of State: 20 USD
Ana, and where is your wedding dress?
I actually did not plan wearing a big fluffy white dress, because I already had one for our previous weddings. Zsolt and I did plan some nice outfits though, and these are not what you saw us wearing in the pictures. Truth is that our luggage got lost for two days and only arrived in the evening after our wedding. Therefore for the wedding itself I’m wearing a clean grey t-shirt I borrowed from my friend. Zsolt is wearing his semi-clean shirt, which survived the flight and a hot day out. My make up is by Emilia, my childhood friend and now official marriage witness.
But when the luggage arrived, we finally could change and go out to explore the city. A combination of your wedding and going out at Las Vegas at night is a good excuse to wear tiara.
Another pro of getting married in Las Vegas is that there are plenty of honeymoon options not far from there. We’ve chosen a road trip through California, but there are plenty of other honeymoon destinations just a flight away for you to get inspired.
This was wonderful to read and share with you. Thank you. I loved the 3 weddings and the reason for each. Enjoy life, be Truthful, Discuss things, communication is important. And Never forget to make time for yourselves and to laugh. Laugh and have fun and keep your love alive. Congrats !
My parents renewed their vows in Vegas! They had a lot of fun too!
This is awesome! Third time’s a charm ;)… I hope you had a fun honeymoon.
Wow this is such an exciting story 🙂 Many thanks for sharing all the steps. My fiancé and I will also get married one day, but we still don’t have any concrete plans. Will have a closer look at the Vegas option now 😉
Wow this is such an exciting story 🙂 Many thanks for sharing all the steps. My fiancé and I will also get married one day, but we still don’t have any concrete plans. Will have a closer look at the Vegas option now 😉 I love your happy pictures.
Oh goodness, three times, huh? At least the Vegas time seemed relatively painless! Sounds much easier than getting official paperwork translated. Congratulations on your big day(s)!
It’s fascinating to actually find out how to get married in Vegas so thank you for sharing! It looks like you had a wonderful time and it must have been so special to have your childhood friend with you.
Congratulations on your wedding(s)!
Congratulation on your marrige and what an interesting story. I’m sure many people will find it useful who wants to get married in Las Vegas!
Wow I never actually thought about how every country has it’s own rules for getting married. Congratulations guys <3
Such a sweet story! Thank you so much for sharing and all your tips and how-tos! Good luck with your marriage <3
Congratulations three times. I wish you a happy married life full of joy and travel
Ha I love this! Getting married for $100, what fun too! Will bookmark this post for future plans…
Very mix couple! Interesting story! We might also think about getting married third time in Vegas after Turkey and Italy…
Thanks for breaking down all the details. We started talking about a Vegas wedding the other night. I know all about the chapels but didn’t understand the process. This is very helpful!
Congratulations congratulations congratulations! It’s crazy that there are so many bureaucratic hurdles and inconsistencies still, especially in the EU. Hope you had a fab honeymoon ?
Aw congratulations! What a story! I’m planning my wedding for next year and it’s so stressful!
Congratulations guys! Marriage sounds like so much hassle when you are from different countries! But this is a nice story of why you had these 3 weddings. Me and my boyfriend are not the marriage type but we have said that if we were to do it ever- it would be something very casual and possibly in Vegas! haha!
Thanks! Yeah, I could definitely also imagine us living without having the paperwork, but in our case the marriage would simplify many things, like loan, children, etc. We now live in Lithuania, and before that in Hungary, and the laws in both countries are rather medieval in certain cases. So very often you do need to be married to have access to certain things.
A few years ago we wanted to have a second marriage in Las Vegas after our first one in Italy. Yet preparing all the documents was confusing and it required a lot of time, so we gave up ?
How strange! Maybe it depends on the country you are from. For us it was actually easier than our home countries.
I stand to my words said 31 years ago that I would have preferred to just be with my fiance at the time, and run away and get married in Vegas! Thanks for sharing your story! and congrats (three times!)
🙂 Thanks! And yeah, it’s a lot of fun to run away (although our other weddings were fun too!)
First of all: Congratulations ? A very personal and also informative read for those considering getting married in Las Vegas. I also married abroad (in two countries) and loved this experience. Getting married abroad makes you a storyteller….This is proofed by your article.
Thanks! And your story sounds very interesting too! Do you have it written somewhere? 🙂
Congrats! I had no idea non-US citizens could get married in Vegas.
Thanks! And surprisingly it’s even easier than to get married in Europe where we are from. Bureaucracy can be so strange sometimes.
Congratulations on your wedding ?
A useful guide for the people who wanted to get married in Vegas.
Thanks! Yes, I thought it might save people some hassle.
Wow this is super interesting. I didn’t realize there is so many details behind it but you do a really good job of breaking it down ? I can only imagine how fun it would be to officially get married in Vegas! How exciting (congrats by the way!).
I always wondered if it was so easy to get married in Las Vegas, really informative article! So nice that you’ve been married 3 times ?
Okay, for 1 I love that you got married 3 times and for all different reasons. What a cool story!! And 2, my sister also got married in Vegas and she had a ton of fun! (I mean she only had the one wedding but they went out in vegas after to celebrate) Thanks for sharing, this is such a unique story!
Congratulations on all of your weddings. I have to admit I have a secret wish to renew our vows in Vegas on our 25th anniversary next year.
I think I might just surprise my hubby.
All the best in your married life!
This is such an interesting post! I’ve never met anyone that has actually gotten married in Las Vegas. It’s always something you just see on TV shows. It makes so much sense why you decided to do your third wedding there. That’s too bad your luggage was lost until after the wedding, but what a story! Congratulations!