A memorial has been held for the 'Las Vegas Wedding Queen' Charolette Richards, who founded the world-famous Little White Wedding Chapel.
Richards, who died at the age of 89 last month, pioneered the Las Vegas wedding industry and set up the iconic chapel - which numerous celebrities and lovers have got married at - in 1951.
She died on December 13 - but Sin City have vowed to make sure that her legacy lives on as hundreds gathered to say farewell.
January 25, the day of her memorial at her own Little White Wedding Chapel, was recognized as 'Charolette Richards' Day' by County Commissioner Chairman Tick Segerblom.
Couples who decide to wed at the chapel walk through the renowned 'Tunnel of Love' after their nuptials - and now the street leading to this will be renamed 'Charolette's Way' in her memory.
A memorial has been held for the ' Las Vegas Wedding Queen' Charolette Richards, who founded the world-famous Little White Wedding Chapel
Charolette has presided over 500,000 weddings - including this unlikely pairing between a great Dane and a pug
Charolette Richards holds a photo of her with her ex- husband, Merle Richards
The Little White Chapel was once open 24 hours a day. In one day, Charolette performed 124 weddings
Melody Willis-Williams, president of Vegas Weddings and Little White Wedding Chapel, said: 'Everyone in this industry, in the wedding industry in Las Vegas, knows exactly who Miss Charolette Richards is.
'Her business model, a lot of the other chapels adapted in their own capacity.
'Her name is renowned because she was the first of her kind in almost everything that she did. She's the one they (would) look to to see what's going to happen next.'
Richards invented the drive-thru wedding trend by complete accident one day, when a couple that wanted to wed in the chapel couldn't fit inside the door because one of them was in a wheelchair.
Quick-witted Richards then married them outside - conceiving the notion of a drive-thru wedding chapel.
Michael Conti, who worked as a tribute Elvis at the chapel for 30 years, said: 'She was the trailblazer of the wedding industry, and she was also known as the 'Queen of the West/Universe,' because she really started Vegas with the weddings.
'It opens doors for play casino games no money a lot of the other wedding chapels.'
Charolette Richards, right, and part-time organist Rhoda Jones at the Little White Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas in 2006
Charolette Richards, center, performs a wedding ceremony for Rafael Afonso and his bride, Anna Dacre
Charolette Richards, left, congratulates Bob Reeve, center, and his bride, Lori, both of Arena, Wis., after performing a drive-thru wedding ceromony at the Little White Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas in 2006
Richards was most remembered for putting Las Vegas on the matrimonial map with the Elvis Pink Cadillac Ceremony, in which couples exchange their vows while sitting in or standing next to Richards's own long 1971 pink Cadillac.
Its personalized plates proclaim 4ELVIS beneath a canopy emblazoned with the words THE TUNNEL OF LOVE flanked by two cartoon Cupids firing their arrows into the hot desert sky.
Ms. Charolette, as she was known, leaned over the couple waiting in the lobby of her Little White Wedding Chapel. She looked into their eyes and smiled.
'I've only done this fifty thousand times,' Richards would often say.
Some couples would ask if they can skip even the quickie ceremony and
%anchor_text% just pay for a marriage license. Others would show up drunk, barely able to stagger down the aisle.
But if people are too sloshed or impatient to say vows, Richards would turn them away. To her, the marriage ceremony was sacred, even if it only took ten minutes.
Love in Las Vegas, for Charolette Danielson Richards, started as a hurting thing.
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