This is the apartment where I lived in Vegas when Katie and I first met. She drove down to Vegas with two friends: an ex-girlfriend of mine and my then girlfriend. They stayed in my living room while they were visiting and I was their local guide to Vegas for their trip.
Our first date was at Movies 8 six months later. We saw Journey to the Center of the Earth. It was a stupid movie, but it was a memorable experience. Katie moved the date forward by 2 hours, beat me to the theater and ended up paying for tickets to the movie. To balance the universe (and my ego), I paid for the slurpees afterward.
These are the apartments in Cedar City where we would meet on weekends while we were dating. It was about midway for both of us, and we had friends living there, so it worked out pretty well. The afternoon before we eloped, these friends confided in us that they had eloped. They told us how awesome it was and encouraged us to do likewise. Thus the fateful decision was made, and the trip to Vegas began.
Every elopement in Vegas starts near Las Vegas Blvd. There are many a wedding chapel on this street, but it is also the easiest route to use to pick up your requisite wedding license.
Welcome to the Marriage Bureau, where you pay your wedding tax (fee for a wedding license), fill out some requisite paper work, and receive your certificate allowing you to become legally and lawfully married in all 50 states. The Bureau used to be open 24/7 but is now only open until 11PM to save taxpayer dollars. We arrived at the bureau at 10:45PM, just enough time to fill out our paper work, pay, and leave with our certificate in hand.
As we drove to Vegas an interesting transition took place. As we started our journey Katie was very confident about the decision she was about to make, but during the 3 hour drive from Cedar City she started to get more and more nervous. By the time we got to Vegas, she was nervous enough that she felt like she might throw up. It was all she could do to contain her emotions and go through with the decision she had made several hours prior.
Conversely, I started out nervous about the pending nuptials and wasn't sure how I felt about it. Katie was so sure about the choice, though, and I loved her and felt like I couldn't let her down. As we drove towards Vegas, I got more and more confident in the decision and cemented the idea of being with Katie for the rest of my life. By the time we arrived I was set and more than ready to tie the knot with the beautiful woman beside me.
There are "marketers" outside the licensing bureau that hand out fliers for wedding chapels. One pounced on us as we walked out of the bureau and gave us a flier. We decided to check out the chapel since the pictures looked nice. On our way there, we say this fountain inside a chapel and put it on our list of places to check out. The chapel the flier led us to was the star pupil in the "tacky Vegas weddings" class and we decided to pass. As the tour guide was leading us out, he walked us right through someone else's wedding: talk about classy. We drove back to the fountain chapel, took the tour, and fell in love with it. Aside from the drive-thru/walk-up window, it was tasteful and classy (at least for something open in the middle of the night for weddings in Vegas)
This is the room in which we were married. It was small, quaint, and relatively inexpensive ($250 including the "tip" for the pastor). We were married by a lady justice of the peace with our two friends as our witnesses. We exchanged vows under the little canopy of flowers, kissed, and were married until death-do-we-part.
We talked a little the next day and decided we'd made a mistake in eloping. We wanted to be married but decided that, while it was not the easy way out, we needed to tell our family and friends, own up to our actions, and just move forward as a married couple.
Two weeks later we broke the news to our families.
My parents were less than pleased to be informed. They didn't even know that Katie and I were dating seriously. My mom was confounded as to how I could have made such a poor choice in eloping. My father was very corrective in his words, but was just as flabbergasted that I would've done such a thing. It took them several days to completely calm down and I don't think they really forgave me until I gave them grandchildren a year and half later.
Katie's parents were less upset. They, at least, knew that Katie and I had been talking about getting married. They were justifiably upset, but offered us a place to stay for the night so we didn't have to go our separate ways. I'm glad I'd already worked my way into the good graces of her dad, because the man owns a lot of guns and it's really hard to outrun hot lead.
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