‘A Double Whammy’: Why Las Vegas Could Break Its Wedding Record On Sunday

Sin City is known to attract a few distinct types of people … including gamblers who want to “play the numbers” and couples wanting to get hitched at one of the various themed chapels on the Strip.

Sunday will offer a unique opportunity for people who fall into both categories.

Save the date

Not only is New Year’s Eve already a holiday associated with big parties, but because it’s 2023 there’s a unique aspect to the date that only occurs once every 100 years.

Writing out the shorthand version of Sunday’s date — 12/31/23 — reveals a repeating “1-2-3” pattern that experts say should prove appealing to people who want to mark their Vegas wedding with a memorable date. There’s even a name for such occurrences among those who work in the city’s niche wedding industry: a “specialty date.”

Melody Willis-Williams, whose company, Vegas Weddings, operates a number of venues in the city, called Sunday a “double whammy” that could bring big business to Vegas chapels.

“Anytime you get these specialty dates, they’re always hugely popular,” she said. “But tie that in with New Year’s Eve and it’s a showstopper.”

The countdown is on

Vegas Weddings is already booked solid for Sunday with more than 120 couples expected to tie the knot at one of its venues and a handful set to deliver their vows just as the clock strikes midnight.

But if Sunday is going to set an all-time record as some insiders predict, it’s going to require a truly massive turnout.

• Somewhere around 500 couples get married in Vegas on a typical New Year’s Eve
• The current record set on July 7, 2007 (07/07/07) is nearly 10 times that high: 4,492
• Another specialty date — 11/11/11 — comes in second place with 3,125 weddings.

Chris Agee December 29th, 2023

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