Las Vegas may soon have a competitor for the title wedding capital of the U.S. in Lower Manhattan as New York City upgraded its Marriage Bureau in a bid to attract couples who want a quickie wedding ceremony.

The bureau, which used to be housed in a small office marked by cracked floor tiles and plastic chairs in the municipal building opposite city hall was moved to a swanky 24,000 square foot palace.

New York official launched the renovated Marriage Bureau Wednesday through the wedding of a Queens couple, Carlos Sanchez and Jennifer Avila.

With the upgrade comes services that couples who want to wed need on a moment's notice. Shops offer various wedding paraphernalia. It includes a $9 fake diamond elastic band, $4 single stem flowers to $50 bridal bouquet, $4 hairspray, $16,25 one-use digital cameras and $1.75 tissue packs for those who cry at wedding rites.

The upgrade costs the city $12 million. The bureau's designer was Jamie Drake, who also designed Madonna's and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's homes. The place used to be the office of the Department of Motor Vehicles.

It has two wedding chapels, the one on the east has apricot and peach colors as motif, while the west chapel has purple and lavender. Bathrooms were converted into large dressing rooms complete with full-length mirrors. To document the wedding, a large photograph of City Hall was placed as backdrop.

New York even uses a marketing agency, NYC & Company, to invite more couples to exchange their wedding vows in the city instead of Las Vegas. The marketing arm has a tie-up with TheKnot.com.

Even prior to the reopening of the new bureau, 40,000 weddings from five boroughs were performed in New York last year. While Clark County, which includes Nevada, issued 106,000 marriage licenses in 2008, it was 20,000 less compared for the two-year period 2005 to 2007. In contrast, New York City logged a 4,000 increase in marriage licenses for the same time frame.

Weddings are Las Vegas' second income source, next to gambling, which is also on a decline due to the economic crisis.