KLAS-TV Channel 8 News Las VegasCity Council Says 'No' to Wedding Chapel's License
The owner of the Garden of Love tried hard to get back her business license. But after reviewing the evidence, the city council voted against the appeal to reinstate the company's business license.
Other local wedding chapels had banded together accusing the Garden of Love of using overly aggressive tactics to get customers.(Oct. 22) Evening -- The Las Vegas City Council voted 7-0 to deny a local wedding chapel its reapplication for a business license.
The city had revoked the business license for the Garden of Love Wedding Chapel.
Other local wedding chapels had banded together accusing the Garden of Love of using overly aggressive tactics to get customers.
E-mail Reporter Chris Saldana.
(Oct. 22) Morning -- Las Vegas city council members resumed a hearing Monday morning about the Garden of Love Wedding Chapel.
(Oct. 17) Evening -- After hours of testimony from several people Wednesday, the city council still has not decided whether to return the business license to a Las Vegas wedding chapel.
The Garden of Love recently had its license revoked because the city said it was aggressively trying to recruit customers.
The owners of the chapel say that is not true, and now they're asking for the city to give their license back.
Several other people testified. Again, no decision was reached.
(Oct. 17) Morning -- A local wedding chapel is fighting to get its license back after it got revoked for aggressive recruitment practices. The chapel claims it's being unfairly targeted, but others say chapel workers are caught hounding engaged couples, trying to get their business.
City officials took away The Garden of Love's business license, saying the company was a public nuisance because Metro police received more then two dozen complaints about this chapel.
Wednesday, The Garden of Love chapel owners will fight to get their license back. But a group of other chapels are banding together to make sure that doesn't happen.
People working for other chapels say The Garden of Love oversteps its bounds and are overly aggressive when trying to get clients, but chapel workers say the competition gets so tough, sometimes they come under attack. Garden of Love Chapel owners say they are being unfairly targeted.
"We had our tires slashed, our cars keyed, followed around, doing crazy stuff. They will call you and harass you and stuff like that," said Larry Threadgill from A Special Memory Wedding Chapel.
Tory Manvilla with The Garden of Love Chapel blames other chapels for aggressive business practices. He claims other chapels try to negotiate with couples, and that's against the law unless chapels have a separate business license to talk to potential clients.
"Out of nine or 10 chapels here, we are the only one that gets shut down. Everybody is doing the same things that we are doing. It's because there are a lot of politics on this. There are a lot of wedding chapels here that have a lot of influence on the mayor," said Manvilla.
But The Garden of Love Wedding Chapel's problems don't stop there. There's a couple who they married on 7-7-07 who claims The Garden of Love duped them out of $8,000 for a wedding package. They are expected to speak to the city council Wednesday, hoping to stop the chapel's license from being reinstated.
