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For a High-Speed Wedding, Las Vegas for the Win

Wedding Industry

December 8, 2023

Original Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/08/style/laurent-van-hoestenberghe-carine-jouffret-wedding.html

Laurent Van Hoestenberghe and Dr. Carine Jouffret, both big racecar fans, said their vows before “Elvis” at the Formula 1 Grand Prix in Las Vegas.

By: Alyson Krueger | The New York Times

In mid-November Laurent Charles Catherine C. Van Hoestenberghe took his fiancée, Dr. Carine Isabelle Jouffret, to Las Vegas for the Formula 1 Grand Prix.

They are both big fans, having attended car races in Monaco, close to Aix-en-Provence, in the South of France, where they live, and across Europe. This was their first time seeing a race in the United States, and Mr. Van Hoestenberghe wanted to make it a special experience.

“I reached out to the F1 concierge service that came with our tickets, and I said, ‘Can we get some flowers or maybe a photo session with a driver?’” said Mr. Van Hoestenberghe, 50, who works in client relations for the French tennis brand Babolat.

He was shocked when the Formula 1 team came back to him with another idea: They could get married at the racetrack, free of charge.

Las Vegas, which is known as “the wedding capital of the world,” already has about 100 chapels in the city that offer easy 15-minute ceremonies. The Las Vegas Grand Prix team also decided to set up a pop-up chapel for race fans, with neon hearts, a racecar that said “just married,” and a sign that said “Lights out and together we go.” (The phrase is a modification of one David Croft, a Sky Sports commentator, says at the beginning of Formula 1 races.)

The chapel is in the paddock, where cars are kept and worked on throughout the Grand Prix. It is one of the most secure areas on the track and the hardest to get into. “You are in the midst of all the drivers, the stars,” Mr. Van Hoestenberghe said. “When I heard about the chapel there I was like, ‘Oh my God, oh my God, this is amazing. Of course we have to do it.’”

A correction was made on Dec. 8, 2023: An earlier version of this article referred incorrectly to the phrase “Lights out and together we go,” which appears on a sign at the Las Vegas Grand Prix pop-up wedding chapel. It is a modification of the Formula 1 commentator David Croft’s signature catchphrase, not the exact phrase. (At the beginning of races, Mr. Croft says, “It’s lights out, and away we go!”)