1-2-3 and counting: Las Vegas weddings could hit record on New Year’s Eve thanks to date’s pattern

LAS VEGAS (AP) — For better or for worse, a wave of couples saying “I do” in Las Vegas on New Year’s Eve could set a record for the city’s busiest wedding day ever.

That’s because 12/31/23 is known in the massive Las Vegas wedding industry as a “specialty date,” thanks to the repeating 1-2-3 1-2-3 pattern, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.

The icing on the cake? This specialty date falls on a holiday famous for blowout celebrations.

“It’s a double whammy,” said Melody Willis-Williams, president of Vegas Weddings, which operates multiple venues. “Anytime you get these specialty dates, they’re always hugely popular. But tie that in with New Year’s Eve and it’s a showstopper.”

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The number to beat on New Year’s Eve is 4,492 — the single-day record for marriages in Las Vegas set on July 7, 2007. The second-most popular specialty wedding date on record with the county’s marriage bureau is Nov. 11, 2011, when 3,125 couples tied the knot.

Typically, New Year’s Eve has drawn somewhere between 450 to 550 couples to wed in Las Vegas since 2018, the Review-Journal reported.

But not this year for Vegas Weddings. The company is fully booked on midnight at its multiple venues, including its brown-brick chapel in downtown Las Vegas with a white steeple and red awning.

Willis-Williams said her company alone expects to wed more than 120 couples on New Year’s Eve. Five of those couples will tie the knot just as the clock is counting down to midnight.

Clark County Clerk Lynn Marie Goya said couples married on a specialty date in Las Vegas have described them as “magic dates” that are easy to remember.

“I think the celebration that has a group dynamic is really appealing,” Goya said. “When everyone is in line and they’re all getting married and excited about being in love, it just enhances their own experience.”