Earlier than she grew to become a drive within the Las Vegas wedding ceremony scene, Paula Cook dinner utilized for a place within the Clark County, Nevada, coroner’s workplace. However after she was steered towards an open place within the Marriage License Bureau, Cook dinner ended up focusing extra on “’til loss of life.”
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Permission granted by Paula Cook dinner
“It truly is the funnest job I by no means knew I needed,” stated Cook dinner, who started as a window clerk with the bureau in 2012 earlier than ultimately turning into the information administration supervisor.
Cook dinner has made it her mission to remodel the bureau right into a welcoming atmosphere for {couples}, from including purple carpets to providing particular marriage keepsakes to introducing a pop-up Marriage Bureau on the Harry Reid Worldwide Airport. Her efforts earned her a 2024 Exemplary Public Servant award.
“Typically it is arduous to imagine it’s a authorities job, as a result of the division proper behind us is folks coming in to pay tickets,” Cook dinner stated. “They don’t seem to be so pleased, these prospects, and our prospects are fairly pleased.”
The Marriage License Bureau operates day by day from 8 a.m. to midnight, sometimes administering round 200 marriage licenses a day, based on Cook dinner. Particular occasions and holidays are fashionable occasions for weddings in Las Vegas, and Cook dinner is pleased to oblige, rolling out a purple carpet throughout the month of Prince Harry’s wedding ceremony and crafting bracelets for {couples} when the Electrical Daisy Carnival, a well-liked EDM competition, is on the town.
If it’s a palindrome day, the bureau braces for an inflow of {couples} seeking to get hitched. One of the crucial fashionable wedding ceremony days in latest reminiscence for Cook dinner was Dec. 31, 2023 — in any other case often called “123123.” Halloween and the costumes it conjures up will also be an enormous draw down the aisle, as can April Fools and Friday the thirteenth. Cook dinner stated she used to assume such preferences have been a little bit “foolish.”
“However really being within the trade now, it is actually sort of cool,” Cook dinner stated. “As a result of in Vegas, you may just about do no matter you need and have your wedding ceremony the way you need it.”
Serving to her staff get by these work-heavy particular days stands out as her favourite a part of the job. “When the road’s out the door, you are simply calling couple after couple after couple, and it may be a grind,” she stated. Throughout these busy days, Cook dinner orders pizza and wings for the workers “to make it a little bit extra enjoyable.”
The pop-up Marriage License Bureau initiative on the airport started in 2018 throughout Valentine’s Day, and it typically boasts strains that might outdo safety.
“We simply take over one of many small places of work and baggage declare, and it really works out nice,” Cook dinner stated. “So, folks actually get off the airplane they usually’ll go get their baggage they usually’ll come proper to our workplace.”
If {couples} apply on-line and have the required IDs, they are often out and in with a wedding license in 5 minutes, based on Cook dinner.
Vegas being Vegas, the bureau additionally sees its share of celebrities.
“There’s nothing like sitting at your desk and turning and going, Wow, that actually seems to be like Nicholas Cage … Oh my gosh, that is Nicholas Cage!” Cook dinner stated.
As one other technique to spotlight the bureau and its work, Cook dinner helped lead an initiative to create a timeline of all of the celebrities who’ve been married in Las Vegas. The checklist dates again to 1900 and has topped 400 — and counting.
{Couples} can match their wedding ceremony dates with well-known individuals who have tied the knot. “It is really extremely popular,” Cook dinner stated.
Wanting again, Cook dinner has no regrets about winding up on the middle of the Marriage ceremony Capital of the World and serving to it to thrive.
“I had no clue how thrilling this job was gonna be,” she stated.
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