When I say that the casino industry has infiltrated my life on a large scale, I truly mean it. Over the past 10 years, I have worked to cultivate a career in the field, spent countless evenings chasing jackpots with friends, and even decided to celebrate one of the biggest moments of life at one of my favorite properties.
That big life celebration was my wedding, and although I toured some non-gambling event spaces, I kept finding myself drawn back to the familiar- Rampart Casino (now The Resort at Summerlin). Before you get too excited about the idea of getting married at a casino, let’s start by setting the scene.
The year was 2020, I was living my best life working downtown while simultaneously planning a wedding. I had been talking with my coworkers about different recommendations, who to hire to do what, and what type of experience I was curating. Because we had a shared office and got along, everyone was invited, felt involved and were looking forward to a nice party. Unfortunately for me and my crew, there was something, much more ominous, brewing in the wings.
You probably instantly clocked what was coming up the horizon when you read “2020.” Yup, 2020 was not the best year to get married because of the emergence of COVID-19. Las Vegas was trucking along a little longer than other parts of the country, we received the news that the city was shutting down on March 17. Our wedding was scheduled for April 4.
For the next six months, like most of the world, things were basically frozen in time. We had already learned that our wedding would not take place as expected. Because my then fiance, now husband, was working 10+ hour shifts nearly everyday in the ICU, my wedding news didn’t really feel like that big of a deal. Like so many people, I was just hoping my loved ones would make it through the scary time – especially because Nathan (my now husband) was directly intubating patients.
As time marched on, we patiently waited for the government and health officials to release new guidelines on in-person gatherings. We already knew that our guest list was going to be dramatically shrunk, so when guidelines relaxed, just a little, we decided to double our original date and get married on 8/8/20. I’d be doing myself a disservice if I didn’t admit that our decision was also nudged along because I was in desperate need of health insurance. When I got laid off from my casino job, like nearly everyone I knew, that meant that I lost my coverage. Health insurance is generally something you want to have during a pandemic.
While things weren’t back to normal, we wanted to get married and we tried to find solace in the face that our crew was very health conscious* and respectful of the rules. We knew our friends would mask up while also practicing social distancing. After all, 50% of the guest list was comprised of doctors who understood the severity of the situation.
With safety in mind, we began to plan for a revised wedding with a very small guest list. For me, this also meant that nearly all of my friends from the East Coast, where I grew up and went to school, could not attend. Air travel was still iffy at best, and we didn’t want anyone risking their health on our behalf. Instead, we had a Facebook livestream that allowed those near and far to tune in.
Obviously, there were still a lot of restrictions in play that August. Mainly, the restrictions revolved around food, not being able to have buffet options or even passed trays. Instead, all food had to be eaten at tables that were set for half the number of people as usual. The hardest thing to accept is that there was not any dancing allowed; not even a first dance with my new (and only) husband.
Maybe it’s again because a dominant portion of our guests were doctors that really needed a break, but we truly made the best of it. Instead of using the dance floor that we already committed financially to for actual dancing, we purchased some of those giant board games and placed them on opposite corners. The juxtaposition of giant board games playing out in front of a classical string quartet, that again we already paid for, was something to be seen.
After our condensed wedding with an incredibly shrunken guest list, my crew rolled out to the casino floor. We took Rampart by storm, gambling in our wedding attire and hoping for the best both in our new married life and on our favorite machines. For a few hours, we bopped around the floor and chatted with the dealers that we had known for a while and, at least for a moment, things felt kinda normal despite the uncertainty of the times.
When pandemics aren’t in play, casinos can make a great spot for a wedding. At their core, most casinos are well-oiled machines designed to host large scale events and keep guests happy. Most large properties include onsite restaurants and dedicated catering teams. In some cases, casinos also have their own bakery department that can handle creating beautifully tiered cakes (or those for Steve Aoki). Of course, these offerings will change from property to property, but it is definitely worth investigating if you want to keep the stress low by containing a large portion of your vendors to one spot.
In that same vein, casinos have a lot of connections in the entertainment industry because of the number of events and activations they host each year. This can prove useful if you want to lean into recommendations for services like DJs or live music.
All in all, of course I would have liked to get married on April 4, 2020 like we had originally planned but there were so many things that so many people had planned that got thrown out the window. While things looked very different, I am thankful that we are 1) alive and 2) celebrating our 10 year anniversary this year!
