LAS VEGAS - No longer is this a city that formally recognizes the need to get married "right now" or "after this drink" to someone you just met. No longer is it a place that caters to celebrities slipping in a quickie wedding out of paparazzi's view.

No more is it the destination of urgent lovers, who knew that you could get in your car after work on Friday and make it to a place where time didn't matter.

With little debate and no fanfare, a little piece of Las Vegas legend is gone.

County officials have shuttered the downtown Las Vegas marriage bureau's 24-hour service, and in a quiet commission vote quashed what passed for ritual in the city of reinvention.

The new schedule was driven by an administrative shuffle and cost-cutting efforts. It eliminated the all-night service Fridays through Sundays, and on holidays, and replaced it with a daily 8 a.m. to midnight schedule effective Aug. 30.

"They're taking the spark out of Las Vegas," said Joe LaBianco, 48, who was one of the last to wed on the fly in Las Vegas. He married his fiancee of one week, Brenda Faretta, 46, around 2:30 a.m. early Aug. 26. He got the license about 15 minutes before the ceremony.

"Bureaucrats."

County officials argue they're not trying to do anything to curb predawn weddings, they're just forcing couples to do a little more planning. Although the bureau is open until midnight, ceremonies still can be conducted at any hour.

But planning isn't very Las Vegas. The city is billed as a place where time doesn't matter. All you have to do is get here, momentum takes care of the rest.

Jessica Garman packed her prom dress, her mother, her best friend and her betrothed last Friday and drove from Riverside, Calif. to Las Vegas to do the deed.

The 19-year-old had not stopped to think much about where or when, she just knew she was getting married before dawn.

"We've got a 2:00 a.m. appointment at …" Garman paused, as she applied for her marriage license and struggled to think of the name of the site she had chosen to sanction and memorialize her eternal union to Pfc. Jeremy Wood.

"Uh, this place," she said, holding a brochure for the Garden of Love.

County officials say they notified Las Vegas' wedding industry of the upcoming changes, but heard no opposition.

But chapel owners have since publicly bemoaned the change. They're afraid it will kill their after-midnight operations, making their stretch-Hummer service to and from the bureau unnecessary.

"I think it's silly," said Frank Stankiewicz, manager, photographer and driver at Garden of Love. "We do business all night long. This is Las Vegas!"

The city has earned its claim as the marriage capital of the world. It is easy to get a license in Las Vegas. No blood tests. No waiting period. No appointment needed. (No credit cards, either, but there's an ATM in the marriage bureau.)

Its operations have catered to high-profile couples ostensibly trying to keep their nuptials on the down low by heading to the bureau under the cover of night.

At 32, Elvis Presley obtained his marriage license to Priscilla Anne Beaulieu, 21, at 3:30 a.m. Michael Jordan and wife Juanita Vanoy applied for their license at 2:30 a.m. Bruce Willis and Demi Moore sneaked in after midnight, as did heiress Nicky Hilton and pop star Britney Spears. Spears was single again 55 hours later.

There are other motivators, too. Bureau clerks are instructed to refuse to issue a license if either party appears too drunk to understand the consequences of their actions. That rule has caused some uncomfortable scenes, but also some grateful parties.

A groom once rushed to console his bride as she stormed out of the bureau after clerks determined he was too drunk to marry, "then he stepped back in and mouthed the words, 'Thank you. Thank you,"' said Sharon Brown, the graveyard shift manager.

Brown said it can be hard to tell tipsy from giddy, and harder still to tell giddy from nervous. Couples often forget key pieces of information - a parent's birthplace or middle name - just out of nerves.

Elisa Maldonado, 23, had to ask her fiancee Simon Chan, 30, for help. She was too excited to write clearly.

"We're going to go see Elvis," the fashion student said as she snapped her fingers and stomped her pumps.

"Let's roll."