Senior Lovers: Renew Your Vows or Make New Ones in Vegas Print

Have you started to plan what you and your better half will do to celebrate Valentine’s Day this year? How about renewing your vows in Las Vegas? In fact, if you’re not yet cemented in holy matrimony, Sin City has the best locations where you can pop the question to your intended. When the answer is yes, Las Vegas has hundreds of little wedding chapels and a variety of hotel marriage ceremony specials. Just by being in that exciting town, the fun atmosphere may entice any guy (or gal) into the mood to propose. Or for seniors celebrating first, 25th or 50th anniversaries, there’s a place to repeat the original question. Here are some of the most popular places for that important moment.

Bellagio fountains

Many couples are lured to the highest peak in Vegas, the Eiffel Tower replica at the Paris Resort. The Vegas version is about 3/5 as tall as the original French structure, and it features elevator rides, where there’s a posh restaurant at the 11th story, and way above that is a platform that looms 50 stories above the Vegas skyline. The best time to propose at the Tower is just at sundown, when the garish lights of the Strip serve as a perfect backdrop to a romantic proposal.

If the eager lover just needs just a few moments for the proposal, the only cost is the $10 visit fee for each person to ride the elevator. If more elaborate plans include renting the top of the Tower for an exclusive catered party, the cost can be about $400 and up. For more information, call (702) 946-7000 or (888) 266-5687.

Incidentally, for all special proposal settings in Vegas, if there’s a fee involved, as with the Eiffel Tower, you may be able to get discount or free tickets, so ask at your Vegas hotel front desk before you buy tickets at the actual locations.

The gondola ride at the Venetian Resort is another romantic setting. Aboard the colorful boats, you won’t be able to kneel down to make a proposal, but you and your beloved will be serenaded by singers of traditional love songs. Instead of the real Venice canalside scenes of palaces and piazzas, you’ll glide by some of the most expensive shops in Vegas.

What could be a more captivating moment than popping the question while you’re alone together in a fake Venice canal while the costumed boatman sings, “O sole mio”? The fee is $50 a couple, a small price to pay for staging such a dramatic beginning to your wedded bliss, or remembrance of that original scene all those years ago. For more information, call (702) 414-4908.

A strange, but intriguing locale to pop the question is Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum: This Vegas version of the world-famous waxworks is also at the Venetian Resort. Bring a camera with you before you propose. Otherwise, no one will believe that you united or reunited in front of a singing Frank Sinatra or Wayne Newton or a strutting John Wayne, a dancing Britney Spears or a trumpet-playing Louis Armstrong. The figures are amazingly lifelike, and the photos of your proposal will really become a treasured keepsake. Ticket prices range from $12 to $24. For more info, go to www.madametussauds.com or call (702) 862-7800.

If you want an absolutely free locale for your proposal, and you want to do it in the hours of a Vegas night, the best places are near the colorful volcano eruption in front of the Mirage Resort and the dancing fountains at the edge of the big lake at the Bellagio Resort. They perform from about nightfall to 11 pm, with ten-minute shows about every 30 minutes.

You’ll have to get your lover to the spot at the exact right time, so you can pop the question at the moment the volcano erupts and/or near the fountains as they start their four-story-high water and fire dance. Call the Mirage at 800-374-9000 or 702-791-7111. Contact Bellagio at 888-987-6667 or 702-693-7111.

Good luck, and may your Las Vegas union or reunion be a great success!