US News

‘WE N.Y., NOT VEGAS’

A couple who came from foreign lands to get hitched at New York’s Marriage Bureau yesterday said there was no other choice but the Big Apple – although they would have enjoyed a spruced-up chapel.

“It’s a bit bureaucratic with plastic chairs and photocopied signs on the walls,” said Australian Matthew Hammill, 34, with his Spanish bride, Muriel Obon , 31, outside the Municipal Building, where they tied the knot at the City Clerk’s Office.

The pair, who work for the United Nations in Mexico City, wed on the day The Post reported the city is about to give the Marriage Bureau a $13 million makeover aimed at booting Las Vegas as the nation’s premier marriage destination.

“We wanted a simple, modern, easy wedding and we both love New York – it’s so romantic,” Obon said.

“Our friends kept asking why we weren’t running away to Las Vegas. I said no way, it’s too tacky. I don’t want Elvis marrying us.”

Meanwhile, folks in Sin City said New York shouldn’t bother.

“Good luck!” chuckled Brendan Paul, owner of the famed Graceland Chapel and an Elvis impersonator who serenades brides down the aisle.

“You come to Vegas, there’s a chance you can win at the casinos and your whole wedding’s paid for. Where else could you have that?”

Mayor Bloomberg conceded yesterday he’s not sure “that we can overtake Las Vegas,” and said he also wasn’t sure he wanted to – describing a female friend who met and married a man in Sin City the same night, and split up two weeks later.

“That’s not exactly the kind of marriages we want in New York,” he said, but he conceded the Marriage Bureau “is dehumanizing.”

maggie.haberman@nypost.com