A pirate swings down from the crow's nest to deliver the rings during a ceremony on Treasure Island's siren ship. On the bridge of the Starship Enterprise, one of the witnesses is a Klingon.

Whatever the blessed couple desires.

"Vegas is the place you go to do things you can't do anywhere else in the world,'' said Stacy Foley, publicist for "Star Trek: The Experience'' at the Las Vegas Hilton, where weddings are routinely scheduled. She added: "The cost of our packages varies depending on how many aliens you want standing with you.''

Marriage has always been big business in Las Vegas. In a bygone era, when many jurisdictions across the country required blood tests and waiting periods, Nevada prided itself on being able to deliver the quickie wedding, with few questions asked. But even as marriage requirements have been relaxed elsewhere, Las Vegas is still a magnet for couples looking to tie the knot.

For whatever duration.

Britney Spears demonstrated as much last year. Resplendent in jeans and a baseball cap, she and childhood chum Jason Alexander ducked into the hopelessly cheesy Little White Wedding Chapel to wed in the wee hours. It all was annulled less than 55 hours later, but another chapter in Vegas' wedding lore was in the books.

The variety of wedding settings here is astounding - from a drive-up window to a terrace overlooking the dancing fountains of the Bellagio. And because many adults react to a Las Vegas trip as 6-year-olds do to a day in Disneyland, the city has become increasingly popular for destination weddings.

"I find one thing interesting,'' said Rose Valdes, wedding coordinator for the Venetian. "A lot of times we'll have the bride give us a head count, and she'll say 'between 50 and 75 people' for the wedding. Then they get here and they have quite a few more, because they have a strong RSVP. Everybody thinks, 'Vegas, great!' "

Clark County officials express pretty much the same emotion. Your local courthouse may have dropped the blood-test requirement, and it may be able to process you in an hour or so, but it probably doesn't stay open past 4 o'clock on a Friday.

The clerk's office here operates its Marriage Bureau much like a casino - with the doors swung wide and the lights burning late. It is open from 8 a.m. to midnight Monday through Thursday. Then, Friday morning, it opens at 8 and doesn't close again until midnight Sunday.

"God, it's so quick in there,'' said Roland Turkawski of Tracy, Calif., as he and Catherine Delannoy emerged with a license early one Saturday morning.

Clark County Clerk Shirley Parraguirre said her office has streamlined the process in recent years, putting on extra staff when a busy day is anticipated. On Valentine's Day, for example, 1,731 licenses were issued over two days. (About 126,000 licenses are issued in any given year, Parraguirre said - an average of nearly 350 a day).

The Las Vegas phone book devotes 22 yellow pages to listings and advertisements for the wedding industry, including 106 chapels/ministers and 36 consultants.

Edilberto Aguallo Jr. of Los Angeles was such a nervous groom that he dropped both rings in the foyer of the Graceland Wedding Chapel and then implored me to sign as a witness on his marriage license - five minutes after meeting me. But he settled down as soon as Elvis sang "Loving You'' to bride Glenda Ramirez and him.

Elvis in this case was Norm Jones, attired in a bejeweled, electric-blue jumpsuit with long strings of fringe and a macrame belt, his neck dripping with gold jewelry.

According to wedding consultant Elisa Evens of Always In Love Weddings, it's not difficult to schedule a ceremony where an Elvis impersonator sings a couple of songs or walks the bride down the aisle, but she said Jones is the only fully ordained Elvis minister in Las Vegas, so he can actually perform the ceremony.

"I've been licensed for a long time, but out of respect for the ceremony, I didn't think people would take it seriously [if I officiated as Elvis]," Jones said later during a break.

"Getting married is a very serious thing. Couples are going to have struggles. I don't want them to be having an argument someday and one of them say, 'Well, I don't even feel married to you because Elvis did it.' "

Jones, ordained by the nondenominational Fellowship of Hope, duly performs a tasteful and touching service, working without notes as he recites a moving paraphrase of the Bible's love chapter, I Corinthians 13. He hams up the Elvis routine only around the edges of the actual ceremony. And he gets a lot of practice - one this day, Jones' schedule has him doing eight weddings between 1 and 9:30 p.m.

Las Vegas' wedding chapels are concentrated along a segment of the Strip that runs north from the Stratosphere to the downtown district. It's a mixed-use area - and the strangest mix you'll ever see.

The wedding chapels, with their white picket fences and neon ringing bells, are interspersed among adult video outlets, pawn shops, strip clubs and bail bondsmen offices. Next door to the Graceland chapel, in fact, was a pawn shop with a sandwich sign advertising "Wedding bands, $19.99.''

A couple of blocks west of this enclave, Dwaine Mullett and Beverly Harmon of Tehachapi, Calif., pulled up to the drive-up window of A Special Memory Wedding Chapel in a white limo and soon poked through the sunroof. The face of the Rev. Duane Williams, a former Assemblies of God missionary to Nigeria, then appeared at the side window. Speaking loudly to be heard over the sound of the limo's idling engine, Williams began the order of service.

"We're not kids,'' Harmon said afterward. "We've been together 14 years, this is the second marriage for both of us, our children are grown, we have grandchildren. This just suited us. He calls me the drive-in queen. I'm always going to drive-ins.''

The chapel's drive-up window also has welcomed people in taxicabs, RVs, Harley-Davidson motorcycles and even U-Hauls.

Mullett, the groom at this affair, may have caught his interviewer's dubious expression.

"We're very serious about it,'' he said. "We love each other. We just wanted to do something different, something fun.''

If it's different, if it's fun you're looking for, Vegas can certainly oblige.

Paris Las Vegas conducts weddings on its Eiffel Tower observation deck.

The Stratosphere offers weddings in two chapels on a private floor of its observation deck, 837 feet above the Strip. The view to the east is stunning. And after getting married, couples can prepare for married life by taking a ride on the Stratosphere's rooftop roller coaster.

The Venetian will conduct the ceremony on a special white gondola that plies its second-floor Grand Canal. Because these boats are four-seaters, though, the ceremony only involves the couple, the minister, one attendant and an eavesdropping gondolier.

For elegance, it's difficult to beat the Bellagio's Terrazza Di Sogno setting, available for an $1,800 "upgrade fee'' on any of its wedding packages. A group of up to 34 guests steps out on a two-tier terrace that overlooks the hotel's signature lake. The ceremony is conducted on the lower terrace, so guests standing above can readily see and hear the service.

At the conclusion, the minister makes a corny utterance - "And each time you kiss, may the waters of the lake dance" - before cuing the fountain technicians. No sooner do the newly married lips touch than the fountains burst to life, accompanied by Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman with the stirring crescendos of "Con Te Partiro.''

In Las Vegas, of course, couples don't have to be content with the bill of fare at the hotels and chapels.

Jack Turner, owner of Andrea's Wedding Consultants, said he has arranged helicopter rides to a wedding site on the lip of the Grand Canyon, Old West weddings on horseback, weddings atop Mount Charleston or at Red Rock Canyon. And since that Elvis thing can be passe, he arranged for a Tom Jones impersonator to sing at one wedding.

"We've done unusual things,'' Turner said, "like a bungee jump off the 150-foot tower at Circus Circus. In tuxedo and gown. It took about a month for them to work up their nervous system. It takes a lot to jump off that tower even in normal clothing.''

Las Vegas weddings

l Andrea's Wedding Consultants: 800-292-1177.

l Bellagio: 3600 Las Vegas Blvd. S. 702-693-7111; http://www.bellagio.com.

l Clark County Marriage Bureau: 200 S. Third St. 702-455-3156; http://www.co.clark.nv.us/clerk/clerkhome.htm. Marriage Bureau is open seven days a week. Open Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to midnight. On Friday, the office opens at 8 a.m. and doesn't closed until midnight Sunday. Also open 24 hours on major holidays. Licenses are issued to a male and a female 18 years of age or older, no closer in kinship than second cousins. May be required to show proof of age. If U.S. citizen, must know social security number. Ceremony must be performed in Nevada within one year of issuance by person licensed to perform ceremony. Fee is $55, payable in cash.

l Graceland Wedding Chapel: 619 Las Vegas Blvd. S. 702-382-0091; http://www.gracelandchapel.com.

l Las Vegas Hilton/Star Trek: The Experience: 3000 Paradise Road. Hotel: 702-732-5111; http://www.lvhilton.com. Attraction: 702-697-8700; http://www.startrekexp.com.

l Paris Las Vegas: 702-946-7000; http://www.paris-lv.com.

l Special Memory Wedding Chapel: 800 S. Fourth St. 702-384-2211; http://www.aspecialmemory.com.

l Stratosphere: 2000 Las Vegas Blvd. S. 702-380-7777; http://www.stratospherehotel.com.

l Treasure Island: 3300 Las Vegas Blvd. S. 702-894-7111; http://www.treasureisland.com.

l Venetian: 3355 Las Vegas Blvd. S. 702-414-1000; http://www.venetian.com.