Couple constructing Route 66 wedding chapel

Staff report

link QCS Photo: Steve Hansen

Leigh Williams takes a pause in her preparations to ready the Route 66 Wedding Chapel for its first customers on July 1.

Getting hitched? Try Route 66.

Rhys and Leigh Williams, who recently opened an Old Time Photo Studio and a Christmas store in Tucumcari, are constructing a Route 66 Wedding Chapel in a corner of their store at 824 E. Route 66 Blvd., Tucumcari.

They already have weddings booked, starting July 1, so they’re hurrying to get the chapel ready for vows, Leigh Williams said.

The couple plans to have the ability to assemble the elements of a wedding with only days or even hours to plan it, including flowers, wedding cakes and officiating clergy, Williams said.

Eager couples, she said will have a choice of three standard packages with options to customize the service.

Williams said the options start with the “Just the Two of Us” package, that includes a quick service, a 5-by-7-inch photo and farewell bubbles as the newlyweds leave the altar. That will cost $66.

The “Getting Hitched on Route 66” package adds compimentary champagne, a half-hour service for $166, and the “Kicks on 66” option allows a one-hour service, along with the champagne, the photo and farewell bubbles.

Custom options, Williams said, will include use of a reception area, a wedding cake and drinks, a unity candle service or a candle-lit service, and Williams said the store’s staff will try to accommodate other reasonable options.

We think the novelty of getting married on Route 66 will be a draw for customers,” she said.

Williams said the chapel could be ready with 24 to 48 hours of notice.

“That will give us enough time to arrange to close the store.”