In 2011, Mary-Lou Stephens and her husband Ken embarked on an around-the-world adventure with nothing but carry-on luggage and each other.
On their itinerary was a trip to Las Vegas to renew their vows.
Mary-Lou, an author who lives on the Sunshine Coast, had always dreamed of a kitsch and glamorous Vegas wedding with Elvis officiating the ceremony.
"It's the stuff of movies," she says. "It's the pinnacle of pop culture delight."
But just how did getting married by the King in Sin City come to occupy such a hallowed position in the pop culture cosmos?
It begins in the 1930s, when Nevada lawmakers relaxed regulations governing marriage licences, doing away with requirements for mandatory waiting periods and blood tests.
As a result, engaged couples – and, occasionally, amorous acquaintances – flocked to Las Vegas, and the city soon became known as the wedding capital of the US.
Today, wedding tourism in Las Vegas is a $2.75 billion industry, with the Clark County Clerk's Office issuing 77,006 marriage licences in 2021.
Nearly half were officiated by Elvis Presley impersonators, who also preside over many more vow renewal ceremonies each year.
Love me tender
Mary-Lou and Ken married in 2004 in a ceremony that was "beautiful" but tinged with grief.
Her mother was terminally ill, and Mary-Lou brought forward the wedding to ensure her mum could be present on the special day.
Mary-Lou's brother had sadly died earlier that year, and they held the ceremony in the backyard of his Hobart home.
"I wanted him to be there in some way," says Mary-Lou.
"People would say, 'Oh, you're getting married – congratulations,' and quite often I would just burst into tears."
When Mary-Lou attended the wedding of a friend a few years later, she saw firsthand how joyous a wedding could be — and realised what she had missed out on.
Seeing Mary-Lou's sadness, her friend told her she should have the wedding she always wanted.
"I needed to have a happy wedding," says Mary-Lou. "I needed to have that excitement, that sparkle, that something different."
Can't help falling in love
In Las Vegas, Mary-Lou and Ken signed up for the Blue Hawaii package at the Graceland Wedding Chapel.
Mary-Lou says Ken was "dubious" about the plan but went along with it to make her happy.
However, his misgivings were quickly dispelled as the service got underway.
"He was swept away by the talent, exuberance and warmth of our Elvis," who Mary-Lou says had all the charisma and moves of the original.
They danced, sang (Elvis songs, of course) and laughed their way through the ceremony.
Despite the 13-year wait, Mary-Lou's Vegas wedding didn't disappoint. "It was everything I could have possibly hoped for," she says.
Don't you step on my blue suede shoes
Born in Nashville, Tennessee, Chad Collins has been performing the King's back catalogue since he was five years old.
Today, he serves as a minister at Las Vegas Elvis Wedding Chapel, where his day job is to impersonate his idol.
"Normally, I'll sing a song as the bride walks down the aisle," Collins tells ABC RN's Return Ticket.
"I'll perform their ceremony, and then I will sing a song again at the end when they walk back down the aisle, and we celebrate together with the couple."
An authentic Elvis impersonator needs to look the part. Collins sources his outfits from B&K Enterprises, the company that supplied Elvis Presley's costumes and personal wardrobe from 1968 until his death in 1977.
The classic Elvis jumpsuit is "not as comfortable to wear as you might think – they're quite hot," says Collins.
"For that very reason, during the hottest months of the year, usually I will wear something a bit different … like the Golden Age jacket, and the black slacks and the turned-up white collar."
Fools rush in
Las Vegas has also proved a popular destination for celebrities set on a hasty wedding.
In April, Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker were married by an Elvis impersonator in a late-night service after the 2022 Grammy Awards.
Collins recalls officiating a wedding where a guest was dressed just like Slash from Guns N' Roses. "It's Las Vegas – everybody wears costumes everywhere," he says.
"Well, it turns out this guy was actually Slash from Guns and Roses. So, I had to perform a wedding for his brother, and I had to sing in front of one of my rock'n'roll idols. That was my favourite wedding of all time."
In June, Authentic Brands Group, which controls Elvis Presley's name and image, sent cease-and-desist letters to some Las Vegas wedding chapels using the singer's likeness.
However, the legal scare has not stopped Elvis ministers officiating Las Vegas weddings.
"We take a lot of pride in our Elvis weddings here," says Collins, who won the Las Vegas Ultimate Elvis Tribute Artist Contest in 2013.
He says if he's unavailable, there are "three or four" fellow Elvis impersonators in town who he's happy to take his place.
"We try to give them the best Elvis we can provide them," says Collins.
"I think Elvis Presley Enterprises wants that as well. They want to make sure Elvis is shown in a positive light."
Viva Las Vegas
The first Elvis-themed wedding chapel in Las Vegas appeared in 1977, when Gretna Green Wedding Chapel changed its name to Graceland Wedding Chapel to mark Presley's death.
Since then, Elvis impersonators have married countless couples in Las Vegas, adding to the legend surrounding the artist known as the King of Rock and Roll.
But even before that, Elvis and the city of Las Vegas had a long and colourful association.
He famously bombed in his Vegas debut at the New Frontier in 1956, his signature style too provocative for middle-class crowds more accustomed to crooners.
Despite his lukewarm reception, he remained a regular visitor to the city, filming Viva Las Vegas there in 1963.
In 1967, Presley married Priscilla Beaulieu in a ceremony at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas.
"Priscilla looked at the absolute picture of 1960s glamour," says Lauren Ellis, who curated the 2022 exhibition Elvis: Direct from Graceland at the Bendigo Art Gallery.
"She's got this quite modest, elegant, simple shift dress but with the big beehive and the beautiful long lashes and the heavy eyeliner, and she just looks like a doll."
Meanwhile, she says, "Elvis has got this extraordinary vertical quaffed hair and these really cool rhinestone cufflinks on his tuxedo."
The 60s was the heyday of the Rat Pack, when acts like Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jnr ruled in Las Vegas.
"But, by the late 60s, Las Vegas was pretty tired around the edges," says Ellis. "The hotel bosses there were looking for what was going to be the next big hook to get people to the city."
The answer they came up with was Elvis, and "the concept of the Vegas residency by the megastar was born."
In 1969, Presley signed up for his first Las Vegas residency, a sell-out season of shows at the International Hotel.
"It jump-started the second era for Elvis as a live performer through to the 70s … and re-established Las Vegas as this city for entertainment, bringing younger people there again," Ellis says.
Presley played thousands of shows over his seven-year Las Vegas residency, "a gruelling schedule of two, or even sometimes three shows a day – day after day after day – multiple times a year," says Ellis. "He did nothing in moderation, including touring schedules."
Nearly 50 years after his death, it's hard to overstate the artist's legacy.
He remains one of the highest-selling artists of all time, despite being just 42 when he died in 1977.
And interest in Elvis, his life and his musical career shows no signs of diminishing, with Baz Luhrmann's 2022 biopic of the musical star introducing a new generation to his story.
Ellis understands the appeal Elvis still has within popular culture.
"He had this absolutely captivating blend of stagecraft and beautiful looks and great style and musical talent and charisma," she says.
"That was a very thrilling combination."
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