Southern California Brides : Page 2 / NEWS, TRENDS, PLACES TO GO, STUFF TO DO : Lifestyle : In Vegas, It’s April in Paris All Year Round

Imagine exchanging your wedding vows atop the Eiffel Tower--the bride donning a French-lace garter, the groom toasting his wife with French champagne--540 feet above the twinkling Las Vegas Strip.

Tres romantic, oui?

Hey, this is Vegas, bebe. What else would you expect from this city, where a couple can hit the slots after tying the knot Parisian-style at the $785-million Paris Las Vegas Casino Resort.

The 50-story desert reincarnation of the Eiffel Tower is giving new meaning to the term joie de vivre, and putting a new twist on marrying in Las Vegas.

Marriage, Las Vegas-style, is definitely not known for ambience. But the city’s casinos have brought replicas of Venice, Caesar’s Rome and New York to Nevada. So why not Paris, a city known around the world for romance? Surrounding the Eiffel Tower replica is the Paris Las Vegas Casino hotel tower fashioned after the Hotel DeVille of Paris, complete with French cuisine.

Karlene Berreth and Jeff Lashua, both of Las Vegas, were the first blissful couple to say “I do” in the new Eiffel Tower last Saturday, inaugurating what casino officials are hoping will be many more such unions.

Berreth, a vice president at aircraft engine manufacturer Medallion Engines, and Lashua, an associate with AAA Towing, were the grand-prize winners in an online contest and drawing held last month. They exchanged vows at the top of the Eiffel Tower, (a half- sized replica of the real thing), which can accommodate 20 guests. Their Eiffel Tower package, valued at $2,500 (plus tax), included a videographer who recorded the ceremony.

The package included music, a bridal bouquet of hand-wrapped calla lilies and a groom’s matching boutonniere, monogrammed champagne flutes, bride’s French-lace garter, customized certificate holder, wedding album of 36 photos, one-hour massage each for the bride and groom and a stay in the LeMans suite.

For those shy about heights, and the price, the resort offers less expensive wedding packages (from $399 to $1,699, plus tax) at its two chapels--Chapelle de Paradis and Chapelle du Jardin.

As the first to marry at the new resort, Berreth and Lashua also received tickets--no, not to the real Paris, but to the Stevie Wonder concert at the hotel.

That’s Paris, Las Vegas-style.

Michael Quintanilla can be reached by e-mail at socalliving@latimes.com.