Las Vegas weddings could set new record on New Year’s Eve due to ‘specialty date’
Las Vegas wedding venues are gearing up for a potentially record-breaking New Year’s Eve due to an unusual date pattern.
This Sunday falls on what is known as a “specialty date” because, when written in American style with the month first, the date is 12/31/23, which has a repeating 1-2-3-1-2-3 pattern, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.
To top things off, the date coincides with a day already famous for blowout celebrations, as people bring in the new year – with some choosing to join together in matrimonial bliss.
“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.”
Vegas Wedding’s The Wedding Chapel is preparing bespoke decorations for New Year’s Eve. Pic: AP
Former Formula 1 champion Jacques Villeneuve married his long-time girlfriend Guilia Marra in Las Vegas in November. Pic: AP
Las Vegas, in Clark county in southeastern Nevada, is famed for its enormous casinos, opulent hotels and entertainment venues, and novelty architecture, including a glass pyramid.
Every year tens of millions of people flock to America’s so-called “Sin City” for its shows, gambling and pool parties.
On a typical New Year’s Eve in the party town, around 450 to 550 couples tie the knot, according to the Review-Journal.
The existing record number of 4,492 marriages in the city was set on 7 July 2007, with a specialty date of 07, 07, 07.
In second place is the 11 November 2011 – also known as 11, 11, 11 – when 3,125 couples said “I do”.
Ms Willis-Williams’s company alone expects to marry more than 120 couples on 12/31/23.
Five of those couples will wed just as the clock is counting down to midnight.
They will follow in the footsteps of famous couples who got hitched in Las Vegas including Elvis and Priscilla Presley, and Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck.
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Couples who marry on specialty dates in Las Vegas describe them as “magic dates” that are easy to remember, according to Clark county clerk Lynn Marie Goya.
“I think the celebration that has a group dynamic is really appealing,” Ms 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.”
Donald Trump has said he is considering “taking away” the US citizenship of actress and comedian Rosie O’Donnell, despite a Supreme Court ruling that expressly prohibits a government from doing so.
In a post on Truth Social on Saturday, the US president said: “Because of the fact that Rosie O’Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship.”
He also labelled O’Donnell, who has moved to Ireland, as a “threat to humanity” and said she should “remain in the wonderful country of Ireland, if they want her”.
O’Donnell responded on Instagram by posting a photograph of Mr Trump with Jeffrey Epstein.
“You are everything that is wrong with America and I’m everything you hate about what’s still right with it,” she wrote in the caption.
“I’m not yours to silence. I never was.”
Rosie O’Donnell moved to Ireland after Donald Trump secured a second term. Pic: AP
O’Donnell moved to Ireland with her 12-year-old son in January after Mr Trump had secured a second term.
She has said she’s in the process of obtaining Irish citizenship based on family lineage and that she would only return to the US “when it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights there in America”.
O’Donnell and the US president have criticised each other publicly for years, in an often-bitter back-and-forth that predates Mr Trump’s move into politics.
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This is just the latest threat by the president to revoke the citizenship of someone he has disagreed with, most recently his former ally Elon Musk.
But the two situations are different as while Musk was born in South Africa, O’Donnell was born in the US and has a constitutional right to American citizenship.
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Amanda Frost, a law professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, said the Supreme Court ruled in a 1967 case that the fourteenth amendment of the constitution prevents the government from taking away citizenship.
“The president has no authority to take away the citizenship of a native-born US citizen,” he added.
“In short, we are nation founded on the principle that the people choose the government; the government cannot choose the people.”
A farmer who fell from a greenhouse roof during an anti-immigrant raid at a licensed cannabis facility in California this week has died of his injuries.
Jaime Alanis, 57, is the first person to die as a result of Donald Trump’s Immigration Compliance and Enforcement (ICE) raids.
His niece, Yesenia Duran, posted on the fundraising site GoFundMe to say her uncle was his family’s only provider and he had been sending his earnings back to his wife and daughter in Mexico.
The United Food Workers said Mr Alanis had worked on the farm for 10 years.
“These violent and cruel federal actions terrorise American communities, disrupt the American food supply chain, threaten lives and separate families,” the union said in a recent statement on X.
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The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said it executed criminal search warrants at Glass House Farms facilities on Thursday.
Mr Alanis called family to say he was hiding and possibly fleeing agents before he fell around 30ft (9m) from the roof and broke his neck, according to information from family, hospital and government sources.
Agents arrested 200 people suspected of being in the country illegally and identified at least 10 immigrant children on the sites, the DHS said in a statement.
Mr Alanis was not among them, the agency said.
“This man was not in and has not been in CBP (Customs and Border Protection) or ICE custody,” DHS assistant secretary for public affairs Tricia McLaughlin said.
“Although he was not being pursued by law enforcement, this individual climbed up to the roof of a greenhouse and fell 30ft. CBP immediately called a medivac to the scene to get him care as quickly as possible.”
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Four US citizens were arrested during the incident for allegedly “assaulting or resisting officers”, the DHS said, and authorities were offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of a person suspected of firing a gun at federal agents.
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In a statement, Glass House, a licensed Cannabis grower, said immigration agents had valid warrants. It said workers were detained and it is helping provide them with legal representation.
“Glass House has never knowingly violated applicable hiring practices and does not and has never employed minors,” it added.
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