The Wee Kirk o' the Heather was a wedding chapel in Las Vegas, Nevada. The chapel opened in the early 1940s when Mrs. J Edwards Webb began performing wedding ceremonies the front room of a home that was built in the 1920s. The business was known as Webb’s Wedding Chapel, then as Wee Kirk o’ the Heather.[1]
Wee Kirk was parodied as the Wee Kirk Of Auld Lang Syne in Evelyn Waugh's The Loved One, and mentioned in Thomas Pynchon's 2009 novel Inherent Vice (pg. 246).
The chapel was closed in 2020, and demolished October 3, 2020.[2] At the time it closed, Wee Kirk claimed to be "the original wedding chapel in Las Vegas," was cited as the first and/or oldest chapel in Las Vegas. However, nearby Graceland Wedding Chapel, which began operating as McKee’s Wedding Chapel circa 1939, was verifiably older.[3] The first stand-alone, dedicated wedding chapel in Las Vegas, was called "Wedding Chapel," which opened in 1933.[4]
- ^ "Wee Kirk o' the Heather, 231 Las Vegas Blvd S. (1940-2020)". Vintage Las Vegas. October 4, 2020. Retrieved September 27, 2023.
- ^ Johnson, Shea (October 5, 2020). "In wedding capital Las Vegas, longest-running chapel torn down". Las Vegas Review-Journal. Retrieved October 6, 2020.
- ^ "McKee's / Gretna Green / Graceland Wedding Chapel, since c. 1939". Vintage Las Vegas. July 14, 2019. Retrieved September 27, 2023.
- ^ "Signs at Model Motor Inn and Lucky Wedding Chapel, c. 1940-'43". Vintage Las Vegas. October 5, 2020. Retrieved September 27, 2023.