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On This Day: Elvis Presley & Priscilla Get Married In 1967

On May 1st, 1967, America’s most famous bachelor, Elvis Presley, tied the knot when he married his longtime love, Priscilla Beaulieu. Instead of walking down the aisle at Graceland, the two said their vows at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas. While it was a relatively intimate ceremony, the wedding was one for the ages.

“My wedding was very unusual,” Priscilla later said of that day. “It was the people closest to us, and private, and that’s how we wanted it. We didn’t want a fan club, we didn’t want a circus. We wanted it to be ours and not have that moment stolen from us.”

Elvis met Priscilla in 1959 when he was stationed with the Army in West Germany. Afterward, the two kept in touch through letters and telephone.

By 1963, Priscilla made the move to Memphis, Tennessee. However, it would take some time before the two could live on their own. Priscilla’s parents allowed her to move but only under certain conditions. She had to live with his parents, attend Catholic school, and eventually marry Elvis.

In December 1966, Elvis kept his word when he proposed to 21-year-old Priscilla with a 3.5-carat diamond ring. To keep their wedding low-key, the couple decided to elope to Las Vegas. In the early hours of May 1st, with just a few members of their family friends, the couple boarded Frank Sinatra’s private plane (which he let them borrow as his wedding present) and flew from Palm Springs, California to Las Vegas, Nevada.

Elvis Presley Is Off The Market

Once there, Elvis and Priscilla held a small ceremony at Aladdin Hotel. And a Nevada Supreme Court Judge married the couple at 9:00 in the morning. The ceremony lasted around eight minutes and, per Elvis’s request, the word “obey” was removed from their vows.

Following the ceremony, they held a press conference before throwing a breakfast buffet for 100 guests. The delicious buffet included a roasted pig, oysters Rockefeller, lobster, Champagne, and fried chicken. As for the wedding cake, don’t even get us started! The cake included six tiers of sponge cake. The couple shared their first dance to Presley’s “Love Me Tender.”

Once they returned to Graceland, Elvis and Priscilla invited more people to celebrate at their Graceland home. After their lavish reception, precisely nine months later, they welcomed their daughter Lisa Marie Presley. She would be the couple’s only child. Sadly, six years after saying “I do,” the couple divorced in 1973. However, they remained close friends — on the day they divorced, they left the courthouse holding hands.