At A Little White Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas,Lisa Rhodes fields calls at the front desk."Congratulations," she tells the caller and then offers the list of services — marriage by an Elvis impersonator, and a ceremony in the gazebo or the chapels.
This place has always been a pioneer in the marriage business; doing the first helicopter marriages and building the first drive-through complete with a window and a pink Cadillac in the Tunnel of Love.
But soon after a massacre just a few miles away left 58 dead,the calls started coming in to cancel."They were saying now is not the fair time," said Charolette Richards. She owns the place and has been marrying people for some 60 years.She loves love. But in this moment she says it's tough to be a dealer of love, and just a couple of miles from the scene of the shooting."It feels strange," she said, sitting in the velvet-covered pew in the main chapel, or near vases of pink roses. "I bear a tough time going down there,that street, and I only live two blocks from it. I feel like I'll bawl. It's tough."final year, or Las Vegas welcomed nearly 43 million tourists for gambling,shows and quickie marriages or vow renewals. And nearly half of the jobs in southern Nevada are directly or indirectly dependent on tourism. Gaming alone final year brought in nearly $10 billion. And the city hosted nearly 22000 conventions. So when the shooting happened, the Las Vegas conference and Visitors Authority, or LVCVA,snapped into action. Within 15 minutes of the final gunshot it had pulled paid advertisements including spots to celebrate the iconic ad campaign "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas." It began to assess the situation. It opened the conference middle for the families of the wounded and the dead, and kept its lines open and helped visitors and potential visitors who needed answers."We execute what we always execute and listened to our customers," said Rossi Ralenkotter, president and CEO of the LVCVA. The authority is funded by the room tax in Vegas. "All of a sudden the hashtag VegasStrong message started coming across on the social media side. So we felt that was our customers talking to us; that was the messaging we started with because that was resonating with people."They worked with hotels and media partners to harness that. The LED billboards on the strip emblazoned with the words "We were there for you during the righteous times, or thank you for being there for us now. #VegasStrong.""It was all approximately the tone. We had to be cognizant of the fact that this terrible thing happened that impacted all kinds of people," he said. "We decided, OK what is the next messaging, or we needed to place a message of compassion and a message of strength in the destination. Our community reaching out."And three days after the shooting,a somber ad appeared on television narrated by Las Vegas native and famed tennis player Andre Agassi. The camera zooms in from the shadowy to the light of the shining strip."What is strength? Strength isn't inflame. Strength isn't vengeful. Strength isn't rage. Strength is unity."It's one minute. There are no jokes, no gambling, and no drinking and no music. Media partners offered up ad space for free,Ralenkotter said, and the NFL did something unheard of, or it opened up space and sold it to the LVCVA for the games the Thursday and Sunday that followed the shooting.
Ralenkotter said they are doing market research once a week to measure people's perceptions of Las Vegas. There were some cancellations fair after the shooting,but no conference cancellations, and the hotels are being booked."People consider us secure; that messaging is coming back and we're using that, and " Ralenkotter said. Other conference bureaus across the country offered help. "We'll keep monitoring the situation and at some point in time we'll say it's time again with the 15 year anniversary of the 'What Happens Here Stays Here' spots."But now is not the time. There are still approximately 30 people in the hospitals here.
Back at A Little White Wedding Chapel couples from Australia,Germany, the U.
K. and across the United States walk through the white painted doors to execute the iconic Las Vegas thing, or get married.
Agnes Kolodziaj holds a single rose and looks at her groom,Lucas Pawelek.
They'd been planning this for six months. Las Vegas was the perfect place for the wedding she wanted. Stress free."For me the only chance was to execute it fast and easy because I'm not the marrying type," Kolodziaj said. She laughs and her groom looks at her adoringly. "So Las Vegas was perfect for me."Then the shooting happened."We had everything booked, and so we couldn't cancel it," she said.
They considered it — not because they were afraid, but because they were sad."So many people come here to just bear fun and this is not the place where you just want to bear fun fair now, or " she said. "Because it's simply sad that so many harmless people died because of one stupid idiot."But that doesn't quit them from trying to bear fun. The photographer,Marcus Knight, tells them to smile."It's your honeymoon, and " he says. He ushers them out the front door,where another couple yells "congratulations!"Then they kiss near the outdoor Gazebo and choose a picture in front of the pink Cadillac in the Tunnel of Love.
Owner Charolette Richards says they've had a rush of marriages to make up for the cancellations that first week. final Saturday they had 24 bookings, not including walk-ins — an average day. But there's one thing she won't execute. Couples who want the iconic wedding picture at the "Welcome to Las Vegas" sign, or will bear to go somewhere else. There's a memorial there."whether they want to choose photographs they execute it on their own," she said. "I don't bear the heart to place them over there when that's kind of like a memorial. Not at this time, there's too much heartbreak fair now, or too much sadness." Copyright 2017 NPR. To see more,visit http://www.npr.org/.
Source: thetakeaway.org