The Clark Country Marriage Bureau is currently open Monday to Thursday, 8 am to Midnight, and round the clock weekends from Friday to Sunday midnight. It is also open round the clock on long holidays. Under the proposed changes, the weekend graveyard shift would be eliminated and the office would close by midnight, every night.

Truth is most people put more effort into their weddings than the impromptu middle-of-the-night marriages that are so much a part of Las Vegas lore.

Even though 24 hour weekend access to a marriage license seems to be so much part of Vegas wedding allure, apparently only 4 per cent of the 140,000 who wed here annually get their licenses in the middle of the night. Cutting the hours could save the city $150,000.00, according to the KLAS-TV.

The news station reported that The Clark County Clerk's office polled many local chapels to see if this change would affect business and most said it would not; that even people who get marriage licenses in the wee hours of the weekend wait until the next day to wed.

Will this change the Las Vegas image as a 24 hour kind of town?

Will it mean that some couples, who are attracted to filing the paper work after a night on the town, shy away from marriage in the light of day?

Will celebrities be less inclined to hop on a plane and get hitched here?

Will anyone, ever, under any circumstances be able to rouse the Clerk out of bed after midnight for emergency nuptials?

Will curtailing Marriage Bureau office hours curtail the wedding business in any way?

Ah, these questions and more can be raised on Wednesday, August 16, at a public hearing in front of Clark County Commissioners.

You can also post your thoughts here.

And by the way, just as a point of reference, in New York City their are five clerk's offices that issue marriage licenses (in the five boroughs) from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm, weekdays only. You cannot get a marriage license on the weekend and you have to wait 24 hours to marry, once you have it in hand.

Las Vegas, even with reduced weekend hours, will remain one of the EASIEST places in the world to get legally hitched.

Rev. Laurie Sue Brockway is an interfaith and non-denominational wedding officiant. She creates unique ceremonies for couples of all backgrounds and faiths, and is also widely recognized as a bridal stress expert. She is author of WEDDING GODDESS: A Divine Guide To Transforming Wedding Stress into Wedding Bliss (Perigee Books, May 2005). Visit Rev. Laurie Sue Brockway at WeddingGoddess.com.