Married by Elvis in Las Vegas? Not if this company representing the King has its way

Some Las Vegas wedding chapels have been left rattled by a letter ordering them to stop offering Elvis-themed weddings — a longtime Sin City staple.

“After all these years, why now?” Kayla Collins, co-owner of Las Vegas Elvis Wedding Chapel, asked KVVU. “If it weren’t for the Las Vegas chapels, the new generation wouldn’t even know who Elvis was.”

Collins and other chapel owners received a letter in May from Authentic Brands Group, which controls licensing rights to Elvis Presley’s name, likeness and image, KLAS reported.

The letter accuses them of infringing on the company’s intellectual property rights and orders them to stop using the King of Rock and Roll to promote their businesses, including using Elvis impersonators, KSNV reported.

“You would see one more person in the unemployment line,” impersonator Jesse Garon told KLAS. “I have the best job in the world. We marry people and are part of the best day of their life.”

Wedding chapel owners say a ban on Elvis would harm Las Vegas businesses that are just beginning to recover from pandemic shutdowns, KVVU reported.

“This couldn’t hit at a worse time. It’s not a good thing, ” Clark County Clerk Lynn Goya, who has presided over Las Vegas’ wedding marketing campaign, told The Las Vegas Review-Journal. “It might destroy a portion of our wedding industry. A number of people might lose their livelihood.”

The city’s wedding industry overall generates $2 billion a year, KSNV reported.

Chapel owners told KVVU they are waiting to see what happens next.

“We have started a legal process to see what we can do,” Melody Willis-Williams of Vegas Weddings told KLAS. She hopes to unite wedding planners with chapels to fight it.

“Allow us to do what we love to do, which is keep the memory alive,” Kent Ripley, co-owner of Elvis Chapel, told KVVU. “Long live the King,”

Authentic Brands Group did not respond to requests for comment by several Las Vegas news outlets.

This story was originally published June 1, 2022 at 8:40 AM.