{"id":305718,"date":"2024-01-04T21:22:52","date_gmt":"2024-01-05T03:22:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=305718"},"modified":"2024-01-05T12:38:32","modified_gmt":"2024-01-05T18:38:32","slug":"vegas-little-white-chapel-founder-charolette-richards-dies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vegas-little-white-chapel-founder-charolette-richards-dies\/","title":{"rendered":"Las Vegas’ Little White Chapel Founder Charolette Richards Dies"},"content":{"rendered":"
Charolette Richards, the \u201cWedding Queen of the West,\u201d has died, according to a statement from A Little White Wedding Chapel. Richards, who was 89, founded Las Vegas\u2019 most famous wedding factory and ran it for 71 years.<\/p>\n
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\u201cFocused on love, she wanted couples to be able to enjoy an affordable wedding in a beautiful location and as simple, as easy as possible,\u201d read a statement from the chapel.<\/p>\n
Richards, who died on December 13, officiated the nuptials of Britney Spears, Joan Collins, and the marriage of Bruce Willis to Demi Moore. She also conceived of the drive-thru wedding chapel after one of her clients couldn\u2019t fit a wheelchair through the front door.<\/p>\n
Richards arrived in Las Vegas in the late \u201950s as an abandoned bride. She had driven with her three small children from Kentucky to meet the man she married at age 17. He had told her he was newly employed at the Stardust.<\/p>\n
He wasn\u2019t. But a gentleman who owned a flower shop nearby noticed Richards walking every day from the Stardust, where she repeatedly inquired about her husband, back to the motel she had rented across the street. The concerned stranger struck up a conversation. Richards was down to her last $4. He offered her a job.<\/p>\n
As fate would have it, that job was at The Little Church of the West. Richards booked wedding services there and learned the business.<\/p>\n