Married at IMEX: A Love Story

Ashley Baptiste and Gus Calabrese decided to do more than just attend this year’s IMEX America. The two planners, who met 14 years ago and are partners in their own business, Conferences Connect, decided it was the place they wanted to get married.

The seed was planted a few months earlier when they realized that, with families scattered all over the country, it was going to be hard to bring everyone together for a wedding. But they would be in Las Vegas on business three times this year. Why not just get married there? 

“We love IMEX and all the people we love are at IMEX. So we decided to put it out there and see what happens.”

The Sunday before the show, they got their marriage license at Las Vegas City Hall. They still weren’t 100% convinced they would do it – but the license was good for a year.

Then Baptiste realized that she had brought a white top with her, but she had nothing to wear with it. “So we spent most of Sunday looking for a white skirt,” she said. “I really wouldn’t have thought that would have been such a hard thing to find.”

They were ready to roll.

The couple started mentioning the idea to friends at IMEX on Smart Monday, hoping to find someone who might officiate so they could have a ceremony right on the show floor. But there was no one.

“I think maybe, at first, people were not taking us 100% seriously,” Baptiste said.

Going to get Married at the Little White Wedding Chapel

The stars aligned when they started chatting with a bartender at New York New York, who told them about the Little White Wedding Chapel. 

On the big day, after the show closed, they headed for the chapel while their friends took a nap before Rendezvous, which starts at 10 p.m. “We really wanted Rendezvous to be our party. It’s 5,000 people and we knew 500 people who were going to be there,” Baptiste said. “It’s one of our favorite parties, there’s something about the magic of being in the middle of The Strip.

“It was fun to be at Rendezvous with our chosen family. That was just the best,” she said.

By then, they couldn’t call their families to share the news because it was so late on the East Coast. “The next morning, I woke up at 6 a.m. and texted my family and posted it online so people would see it before they saw all the other posts from the night before that people had tagged us on,” said Calbrese. 

On the the final day of IMEX, they were back at the show. Their friends at Song Division wrote and performed a song for the newly married couple. It goes like this:

“For wherever life leads you, wherever you go, it’s your main event, your greatest show.

Whenever you need a hand, when you need some love, sometimes life isn’t fair.

But now you’ve got GUSHLEY (Gus + Ashley). That’s the dream team. It will always be there.”