The Bride Shot Craps (Revisited)

With Valentine's Day approaching, I thought I'd reprint this post from a few years back that really dates back something like 30 years.  Enjoy!

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Seeing and hearing all the commercials for Valentine’s Day coming up, I was reminded that quite a few times the past few years I’ve found myself in Vegas for Valentine’s Day.  This has been more do to coincidence than any specific reason.  This year I will not be there on V-Day.

One observation I made while there on this day is that you see an awful lot of couples who pick this day to get married.  At least in Vegas.  Now, it is not unusual to see a bride, a groom, bridesmaids and allegedly best men walking through a Vegas casino any evening, particular on a weekend night, but you just see a whole lot more of this on Valentine’s Day.  I would say on average I’ve seen at least half a dozen brides traipsing thru casinos every V-Day I’ve been there.

It’s actually a good deal for the guy.  It makes one less date he has to keep track of.  He might forget his anniversary.  He might forget Valentine’s Day.  But forgetting both?  Much less likely.

Sweet.

Thinking about brides walking through casinos reminds me of a story that is probably now almost 30 years old.  Yeah, I’ve been going to Vegas that long.  It was so long ago that the first time I saw a bride in a wedding dress walking through the casino, I did a double take.  Eventually, I got a bit used to it, but then one night I saw something that really caught my eye.

This night, I saw a lovely young couple at what appeared to be a hot craps table.  The young woman was throwing the dice, and there was a lot of screaming and cheering going on.  Apparently the young woman was having a nice roll.

She was dressed rather unusually for shooting craps.  She was wearing a tight, very low cut, strapless white wedding dress (including train).  Next to her was a good looking young man in a very nice tuxedo, with the bow tie undone, hanging from his neck.  It was pretty obvious that within the past hour or so these two had said their “I do’s” to each other. 

And now they were at the craps table?  Clearly a quintessential “Only in Vegas” story.  I stopped and watched, and if I had a camera and it wasn’t forbidden to take pictures in a casino, I definitely would have snapped a photo.  The scene really tickled me.

I watched a few roles.  The bride was quite the looker and the dress was designed to show off her considerable assets.  When I heard the stickman shout, "They're coming out!" I wrenched my neck to get a better look--but he was talking about the dice, dammit. 

I was thinking what an unusual way to spend a wedding night!  And it certainly occurred to me that, well, I truly wondered if this was the best use of their time.  This was long before I started playing poker, and I played craps a lot and enjoyed it.  I enjoyed shooting craps as much as the next guy.

Still, looking at the bride in her tight, sexy wedding dress, I had to wonder what was wrong with the groom.  He had just been given a license by the state of Nevada to, ahem, consummate his relationship with this lovely young bride.  Indeed, he was legally obligated to do it.  I’m pretty sure pretty much every man in the vicinity—myself included—could think of a better way for a man in his shoes to spend this evening than gambling.  And remember, right there on the craps table, there is that big space that has the word “come” right on it, in case he needed a hint.

The stickman had the same thought, apparently.  While withholding the dice from the bride as the dealers were paying off bets, he turned to the couple and said, “Considering the way you’re dressed, isn’t there something else you two should be doing right now?”

I think he was actually speaking to the guy but the bride answered (get used to it, fella).  She laughed and said, “We’ve been living together for three years.  Believe me, it’s no big deal.”