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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Entertainment
Sian Baldwin

Celebrity weddings in Vegas: as Usher ties the knot in Sin City, who else has been wedded in the desert?

Usher and long-time partner Jenn Goicoechea got married in Las Vegas just hours after the R&B singer’s Super Bowl half-time show.

According to officials and documents, the couple tied the knot on Sunday at Vegas Weddings.

Witnesses included Usher's mother, Jonnetta Patton, and the officiant who carried out the ceremony, the Rev Ronald Joseph Polrywka, who is known to dress up as Elvis Presley. "Congratulations to the newlyweds!" chapel owner Melody Willis-Williams said in a statement. "We were beyond thrilled to host in this epic day for Usher and his new wife."

The statement added: "As much as we love love, this is the couple's news to share any further details on. We'll always be fans of Usher! Yeah!"

Clark County clerk Lynn Marie Goya, the head of the county's marriage licence bureau, confirmed that her office issued a licence to Usher and Ms Goicoechea last week.

"Naturally, they got married in Las Vegas," she said. "What better place than the Wedding Capital of the World?"

The document, issued on Thursday, lists the couple's full names – Usher Raymond IV and Jennifer Jean Goicoechea – and shows they paid a $102 (£80) filing fee.

But who else has tied the knot in the Marriage Capital of the World?

Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck

(Robyn Beck / AFP via Getty Images)

In July 2022, Lopez sent a special edition of her On The JLo email newsletter to her biggest fans with the news she had tied the knot in the Little White Chapel.

She wrote: “We did it. Love is beautiful. Love is kind. And it turns out love is patient…. Last night, we flew to Vegas, stood in line for a license with four other couples, all making the same journey to the wedding capital of the world.

"We read our own vows in the little chapel and gave one another the rings we'll wear for the rest of our lives. They even had a Bluetooth for the (short) march down the aisle. But in the end it was the best possible wedding we could have imagined. One we dreamed of long ago and one made very real (in the eyes of the state, Las Vegas, a pink convertible and one another) at very, very, long last."

Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker

(Doug Peters / PA)

The pair said "I do" in Las Vegas following the Grammys on April 3, 2022, before a lavish (and legal!) ceremony in Italy in front of family and friends.

The pair wed in the early hours at 1.45am.

"I didn't know who it was until they pulled up. I advertise as 24-hours but they wanted to make sure I was still there. They paid and they requested Elvis Presley, that was mandatory. I called back five minutes later and was like, I got an Elvis, and there they were," One Love Wedding Chapel owner Marty Frierson told US magazine PEOPLE.

"They came, got married, tossed the bouquet in the driveway, and danced to Elvis," said Frierson. "They showed a lot love and had a lot of fun."

However, it turns out it wasn’t legally binding, as they hadn’t got a licence beforehand. So they married again in Italy.

Lily Allen and David Harbour

(Ian West / PA Archive)

The Brit singer and Stranger Things actor tied the knot in Las Vegas in September 2020.

He said in a social media post: "In a wedding officiated by the king himself, the people's princess wed her devoted, low born, but kind credit card holder in a beautiful ceremony lit by the ashen skies courtesy of a burning state miles away in the midst of a global pandemic. Refreshments were served at a small reception following."

Joe Jonas and Sophie Turner

(Amy Sussman / Getty Images)

After the 2019 Billboard Music Awards in Las Vegas on May 1, the pair said "I do" at Chapel L'Amour inside A Little White Wedding Chapel. The singer's brothers were in attendance, an Elvis impersonator officiated, Dan + Shay performed and Diplo shared the whole thing on Instagram Live.

They then had a bigger wedding in France a month later – but have since split.

Carmen Electra and Dennis Rodman

(Reuters)

A short and not-so-sweet one. After an all-night partying session, the couple got married in Vegas in 1999, but filed for divorce six months later, saying they were of “unsound mind” when saying their vows.

Britney Spears and Jason Alexander

(Britney Spears / Instagram)

The pop star had a spur-of-the-moment wedding with childhood friend Jason Alexander in Vegas in 2004. They were married for all of 55 hours before getting the marriage annulled.

In her 2023 memoir, she said: "People have asked me if I loved him. To be clear: he and I were not in love," she wrote. "I was just honestly very drunk – and probably, in a more general sense at that time in my life, very bored."

Bruce Willis and Demi Moore

(Reuters)

The actors dated for three months before tying the knot at the Golden Nugget in Vegas. The wedding led to a 13-year marriage and three daughters before they split in 2000.

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