Well no one can ever accuse us of unnecessarily dragging out our engagement… 🙂 Settle in for what’s about to be a surprising and yet totally awesome story!
Thursday evening (two short days after we became engaged) we decided to go to California for the weekend since we both had the following Monday off for President’s Day. (We’d talked before about going to California over the holiday, but then figured another weekend may be better as Danielle and Ryan were going to California that same weekend to celebrate their birthdays and we didn’t want to impose.) Since we had just become engaged and Tom hadn’t yet officially met my parents, we ultimately decided it was a good weekend to go and so we started looking at flights. The flights were all very expensive since it was such last minute on a holiday weekend, so we decided to drive. We checked with Danielle and Ryan to see if it was okay that we came down during their birthday weekend, and to sweeten the deal we offered to put them up in a nice hotel for the weekend. They obliged and we decided to head to Cali for the weekend!
Friday afternoon I got off work about 2:30 and we were on the road for California by 3:00. We stopped at the gas station for some treats and to fill up the car, and then we were on our way. It was our first road trip together and we were pretty excited!
We decided to stop in St. George about 8:00 to get some dinner. We went to Taco Bell which wasn’t anything too fancy but it hit the spot! Then we got back on the road and as soon as we did, we started getting texts and hearing news updates about the flooding on California roads. Apparently a strip of road called the Cajon Pass (which is between Vegas and California) had washed out and cars were no longer able to get through. Thinking it would be better for us to stop and then drive the rest of the way the next day, we figured Las Vegas was the best option and could make for a fun story.
Well as soon as we started letting people know we were stopping in Vegas, they started teasing us about eloping and getting married while we were there. We’d honestly not thought about it, but once the idea started popping up, we kind of started to get excited! We began discussing it just outside St. George and as our discussion got more serious, we started watching the road signs as an indicator of how much time we had to decide. “We’ve got 87 miles to decide… Now we’ve got 63 miles to decide… Now we’ve got 32 miles to decide… Are we really doing this?!”
We’d realized a few weeks prior that we would likely be getting married civilly and then sealed in the temple later, as the sealing clearance process was taking longer than expected. So, knowing we would be getting married civilly and that there was quite a process to doing so if we wanted to get married in Utah or Hawaii (our other option), we figured Las Vegas would probably be the easiest place to get married since people seem to do it all the time!
We decided to give it a go and see if it was even a possibility. Most states require a certified, translated copy of a divorce decree if it’s issued outside the United States, and there are plenty of other legal requirements to get a marriage license that can make it tricky. Well that’s just not the case in Vegas! We looked up the County Clerk’s office information to see if it was even still open, and sure enough it’s open until midnight every.single.day of the year, even Christmas! We put the office address into our GPS and headed there, letting our families know we were stopping for the night but not letting them know about our new secret plan to get married!
Before we walked into the clerk’s office, we had a quick prayer in the car to make sure we weren’t doing something completely insane and against the Lord’s will for us. We felt good about things so we confidently walked up the stairs into the office. As we were filling out the marriage license form, we looked around and realized pretty quickly we were the only “normal” (and potentially sober) couple there! We filled out our forms, took them up to the window, and the woman who helped us was going on and on about how well we’d filled out our forms. (We’re thinking she likely doesn’t often work with couples who are sober and that’s why the fact that we were able to remember our names and addresses seemed so impressive!)
Well wouldn’t you know… Less than ten minutes after walking in the door, we had an official Nevada wedding license! We took a picture to celebrate the occasion, which we’d seen other couples do and it seemed like a good idea. The security guard actually took it for us… She was a nice woman who was very friendly!
We then left the clerk’s office and decided to go check into a hotel and hopefully get cleaned up before getting MARRIED! We decided on the Bellagio and checked on the website to see if they had any rooms available. They did, so we drove to the hotel and went to the registration desk. When we got to the front of the line, we asked for a strip view room (as it said on the website they had) and were told they didn’t have any strip view rooms left. We explained that we’d just seen them available on the website, so our attendant called the back office and they said it was a mistake on the website. We then asked the attendant what would happen if we’d booked it before coming to the desk, and he said they would have to honor it or upgrade us. We then clicked “Book Reservation” on the website, while standing right there, and told him we had a reservation that they needed to honor! He then walked back to the office and came out a few minutes later letting us know they did have a room for us. It’s amazing what a little working of the process can do! 😉
We took our bags up to our room and started looking online for good wedding chapels and clothing stores (since I hadn’t brought anything that I felt was appropriate to get married in!). I’m not typically a fan of odd numbers, and since it was Friday, February 17th, I thought it would be good to get married sometime after midnight so our wedding date wouldn’t be an odd number. Well we quickly realized that chapels in Vegas weren’t actually open 24 hours like we thought and that most closed at midnight. By this time it was almost 10:45, and we didn’t want to have to wait until morning when the chapels reopened, so we decided to just go for it! I wore a dress that I’d brought for church and Tom also wore the clothes he’d brought for church. I had just enough time to change out of my yoga pants and t-shirt, pull my hair down, and curl it a bit so I looked presentable as someone who was getting married!
Well wouldn’t you know… Then things started to get tough! We’d made our decision to get married, but all of a sudden things started working against us. We rushed out of the hotel as quick as we could… Realizing the chapel was about 15 minutes away and we needed to be there by 11:30, we were out the door by 11:10. When we tried to pay for our parking, for some reason it wasn’t working. We realized we were getting short on time, so we tried going inside to pay and thankfully that worked. Then we started heading over to the chapel and I realized I forgot my wallet, which had my ID in it! Thinking I likely needed it to get married, I panicked a bit but there was no way we would make it back down the busy strip and then to the chapel in time, so we just hoped for the best and that I wouldn’t need it. We had the address for the chapel in our GPS, but it ended up taking us a really long way and we quickly realized we would be late. I called the chapel and told them we were on our way but that we would be there a little after 11:30, and thankfully they agreed to let us still come. We arrived at the chapel about 11:35 and when we went to pay, they told us they only accept cash. Go figure that we’d spent our last bit of cash earlier so neither of us had any! Honestly, it was one thing after another and it seemed like everything was working against us! Thankfully they were understanding still and allowed to let Tom run to the gas station ATM to pull some cash. I stayed at the chapel and worked with the attendant on getting our paperwork filled out. Tom was quick and arrived back, and we were able to pay for the wedding and get things going!
When we first arrived at the chapel, we were greeted by a kind older man who called in a woman to help us. She arrived in a black “tuxedo t-shirt” and we started panicking thinking this was going to be the person who married us. Our expectations for this spur-of-the-moment Vegas wedding were low, but this made us a little sad because it was so casual and cliche that it didn’t feel very special. Well we then were told that the older gentleman was actually our minister, and that made us much happier! He then started talking to us, asking if we were Christian and if we’d be okay if he mentioned God in our ceremony. We told him we were very religious and LDS and that we’d be grateful if he did so. He then asked Tom if he was there to marry me and take me as his wife, to which Tom said yes, and then asked me the same question, to which I said yes as well. He then told the woman in the t-shirt to sign the witness line and prepare the paperwork, and Tom and I just looked at each other with this question of, “Did we just get married?! Was that our wedding?!” Sure enough it was, which I guess is standard procedure when you don’t have your own witness, but thankfully the minister then took us into the chapel and performed a more personal, special ceremony. He even turned on music and had me walk down the aisle to Tom, which was really sweet. He then gave us some words of advice and explained the importance of marriage and of having the Lord as a third party to your marriage… It was really beautiful and of course I cried! We then exchanged rings and walked back down the aisle together, and it was actually a really special moment for the two of us!
We couldn’t believe we got married, but we definitely have the pictures and wedding certificate to prove it! After the ceremony, they asked us if we wanted official photos for an extra $70, so we declined. They then agreed to take a few of us on our phone, so these are the four official wedding photos we have!
We then took a few selfies on our own, and then we called my parents to let them know what we’d done. They were the first to hear the news, and while they were very surprised, they were very happy for us! We FaceTimed with them while we were at the chapel, and it was really fun to share the story!
After we finished talking to them, we went to our car and once we were inside, we just looked at each other and said, “Did we really just get married at the Little White Chapel in Vegas?!” It was all such a whirlwind, and we realized to ground ourselves a little we would say a prayer. We held hands and as we prayed, we had such an incredibly beautiful and peaceful experience. We had an overwhelming sense that the Lord was aware of us and our situation and that He was pleased with our decision to get married and start our family. It was so wonderful to share that together, after all the craziness that had been the rest of the evening, and over the next few days, we looked back on that moment of peace as reassurance that we’d done the right thing. We love each other very much, but this wedding came about in such a random, unexpected way and we both were taken back by how it all came together! We knew then — and still know — that this was the absolute right thing for us to do and that being together is simply the best! We’re so grateful to be able to start our lives together and look forward to celebrating February 17th for many years to come!
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