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Mark Consuelos and Kelly Ripa have been married for 28 years and are proof that you don’t have to have a big wedding to have a successful marriage. They are one of the strongest couples in Hollywood, and they said “I do” in a good old-fashioned Las Vegas elopement at the Chapel of the Bells.
The couple is heading to Las Vegas to tape a week of shows, and viewers will get an inside look into the place where they said “I Do.” “We’re definitely going back there,” Consuelos told PEOPLE. “We always try to make a drive-by when we’re in town, but this time, we’re going to take the viewers inside where it all happened.”
They said “I do” at the world-famous chapel on May 1, 1996. The wedding, including airfare, cost them $179 per PEOPLE. “It was really romantic, though. It was very sweet,” Ripa, 53, says. “We cherish those memories, still to this day. It’s been 28 years, and we still can remember every minute of that wedding. And I mean, it was really minutes. It was like two minutes!” Ripa said.
Consuelo and Ripa decided to elope because they had two consecutive days off work. They chose the chapel because it had the biggest ad space in the Yellow Pages. “We checked into the hotel, and I remember going through the Yellow Pages, because they had Yellow Pages back then,” Consuelos told PEOPLE.
“I looked up ‘Wedding Chapels’ and the Chapel of the Bells had the biggest, biggest ad. It was one of the first ads, and it was right in the right position of the page,” he added.
Consuelos and Ripa are now the happy parents of three children: Michael, 26, Joaquin, 21, and daughter Lola, 22.