Kennith Camp and his bride-to-be Brittaniewalked into Chapel of the Bells wedding chapel Wednesday morning, ready to get hitched. They'd been thinking about getting married for five years but decidedit was finally time.
They didn't have rings, but that's OK because the chapel sold them two at a discount. They walked up to the pulpit and stood under a crystal chandelier in anempty wedding hall set for 24 guests.
Margaret Flint told them the most important things in their new life are the rings that symbolize their marriage.The Camps hadn't prepared vows but smiled at each other as they slid the new rings on each other's fingers.
They kissed and were wed.
Kennith said his brother and parents also wedat the Chapel of the Bells in previous years. Those weddings had more guests, but they didn't care.
The whole thing lasted about 15 minutes.They paid $134.13 and walked out.
Thirty minutes later, John Beers, 63, and soon-to-be Winona Beers, who described herself as being "in my 80s," showed up and went through the same ceremony. The Beerses said they had lived together for 17 years but never legally married.
As he walked out the door, John said he could finally tell his 90-year-old father that he married someone.
Both couples were among the last people to wed here. On Wednesday, Chapel of the Bellsclosed forever.
Jacobs Entertainment purchased the chapel last yearas part of an ambitious ifvague plan to redevelop WestFourth Street into the Fountain District. He gave the chapel until April 2019, but Flint said business hasn't been worth staying open.
Instead of renewing the business license for another year, Flint decided to call it good on Feb. 28.
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“I think we had a naïveté about us where we thought (the wedding) industry would continue to survive regardless," said 83-year-old owner George Flint. "As it turns out that hasn’t been the case."
George and daughter Margaret Flint said they partially blame Reno's new focus on Tesla, outdoors and recreation for the decline in the wedding business. In the heyday, Washoe County issued more than 36,000 marriage licenses.
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Last year, the countyissued fewer than 8,000.
"I don't think there's a novelty for the stereotypical chapel wedding anymore," MargaretFlint said. "My niece told me people are afraid to look tacky, so I guess that means we're tacky now."
Margaret said the neighborhood has changed for the worse, too. Fourth Street used to be full of houses and people but now she said it's desolate, full of crime andhypodermic needles.
"Lots of hookers...lots and lots of hookers," she said.
Fourth Street doesn't attract tourists anymore, a sign of the times for downtown Reno, Margaret said. But she hopes Jacobs can change that.
Six months ago, the wedding chapel was hugged by the Donner Inn motel across from the Carriage Inn. Jacobs bought them both. Now the chapelsits alone on a dirt loton the corner of Fourth and Washington streets.
But soon it will be a dirt lot too, and eventually something else all together if Jacobs makes good on his promise for newmixed-use retail, market-rate housing and actual fountains.
When Nevada was a quickiewedding capital, times were good
Today, there are two little chapels,Arch of Reno Wedding Chapel andAntique Angel Wedding Chapel,across from City Hall and a few inside the casinos left.At its peak, Reno was home to about 20 similar chapels, mostly in downtown.
George Flint started theChapel of the Bellsin 1962when his sister, who owned another chapel down the street, told him it was good business. That year, more than 22,800people got marriage licenses, according to Washoe County records.
Flint eventually bought the current building, a house at the time, for $90,000. For a while he competed with himself with two locations, but eventually sold the first location.
"I can remember when we were getting ready to open —hell, we were down to not having any money — and I called Walton's Funeral Home to see if they had some folding chairs I could borrow and they saidtake the ones we are throwing away," George Flint said."And that’s kind of how we started."
George was a change maker at Harrah'sCasino when he started. His wife would call him when couples showed up, he'd marry them, then go back to work.
In the first weekend, they had one wedding at the end of the day. But once they installed a neon sign, business started booming.
In the 1970s, George said a good week meant about 75 couples wedded at the chapel.On his busiest day, he married 96 coupleshimself.
He soon expanded to Las Vegas, opening another Chapel of the Bells on theLas Vegas Strip. It's still theretoday.
“I got so fatigued driving back and forth so I made a deal with my partner and he took Vegas and I took Reno," George Flint said."Business wise it was a dumb decision because that chapel is still among the top three or four chapels in Vegas. I was in it three years ago and I was impressed at how nicely they kept it up."
George said the novelty of a drive-through, where people can stay in their cars, along with flowers, photography and car service, made his chapel stand out.
“(The drive-through) issimply for people who don’t want to get out of their cars," he said. "The people who use it the most are older people or pregnant women. It’s simply a convenience.”
Margaret said she recently married a couple in the drive-through with six children sitting in six car seats. She was glad they didn't come in because of all the breakables.
"If we do 35 weddings a week, we're tickled to death," George said about today's numbers.
It's "feast or famine," Margaretsaid.
On Valentine's Day this year, only fivecouples showed up. She said a chapel owner in Las Vegas said he was sitting around all day waiting for his second couple.
The decline of the kitschy chapel
While the change inthe city's message to tourists helped dragdown the wedding industry, so did cell phones and liberal laws in other states, George said.
The Flints used to up-sell people on jewelry, decorations, photography and fresh flowers. But now that everyone uses smart phones to take photos and video, they don't buy the service, Margaret said.
People started bringing their own flowers, too, so now Margaret only orders them by request or sells silk flowers out of the fridge.
They used to be able to charge $500 to $600 per wedding.Now someone can get in and out for$75 with an online coupon.
But, George said, the biggest change dragging down the marriage license numbersis the change in laws across the country. In Nevada, people must still go to the county clerk's office to buy their license. In other states, people can buy them at the chapel.
Most states liberalized their marriage laws, too.People no longer need to come to Nevada. Destinationand DIY weddings are all the rage all over the country.
In Washoe County, 7,765 marriage license were issued last year. It's the lowest number since 1936.
Andwhile the overall number of weddings has gone up across the countryto 2.2 million, so has the cost. The average wedding now costs more than $33,000, according to The Knot 2017 Real Weddings Study.
The quickie wedding doesn't really fit that model anymore.
You may kiss the chapel goodbye
Jacobs originally offered $400,000 for the chapel and the Flint family turned him down. But Margaret got a lawyer and sold it for $1 million, according to Washoe County records.
George was impressed, he didn't think they'd get it.
"We asked if we could set upsome chairs across the street and drink margaritas while the chapel comes down," Margaret said. "But the closer it comes, the more we realized this was our childhood and we don't want to watch it come down anymore."
Margaret and her sister Jackie Pryor, 62, grew up in the chapel. Margaret dealt blackjack for a while but came back to the family business in the '80s. Pryor has only ever worked at the chapel.
Both of them are ready to retire. Margaret said she'll probably get back into lobbying for animals,but doesn't know what her sister will do.
George lives at home now afterbreaking his neck last year at the chapel. He said he probably only has a few years left in him.
Margaret's daughter, Ellen Pfister, said she would start tutoring people with her father. They play guitar and teach school children to do the same.
Margaret will sell most of the decorations at an antique store and hold an estate sale in a few months, she said. But she might also end up with a garage full of memorabilia.
On the last day she didn'tdo anything special.She just locked up like always and went home.
"It's bittersweet ... Once it's time, it's just time," she said. "I'm glad someone is doing something innovative with this area though."
Mike Higdon is the city life reporter at the RGJ and can be found on Instagram@MillennialMike, on Facebook atMike Higdon, Reno Life and on Twitter @MikeHigdon.
