Married ... with Elvis!
It was “Now or Never” for radio star Chang
When radio star Chang Hung and his Irish love Victoria Duncan started planning their wedding, two things were certain – it had to be on St Patrick’s Day, to mark two years since they started dating and honour the bride’s heritage, and it had to happen in Las Vegas.
The self-described “crazy Asian guy” from The Edge explains that Sin City sits about halfway between New Zealand and Ireland, but more importantly, “I’d always heard of celebrities getting married there and I thought, ‘I wanna do that!’ I mean, who doesn’t want to do a Britney Spears?!”
However, two months after booking the venue, Chang, 34, and Victoria, 33, realised that instead of hiring the Little White Chapel – where the pop princess infamously married childhood sweetheart Jason Alexander, her husband of 55 hours, in 2004 – they’d paid for the Little Vegas Chapel.
While it was a case of “Oops! … I Did it Again” for the pair, who confess that several small screw-ups led to furious fighting in the months before the wedding, the big day itself turned out to be the hilarious, fun and informal nuptials of their dreams.
Wearing a Working Style suit, Chang was in tears even before Victoria entered the chintzy chapel. “I was there in front of all these friends and family, so it finally hit home and I was panicking,” he confesses. “And because of St Paddy’s Day traffic, Vic was 10 or 15 minutes late – I thought she wasn’t going to show up!”
But as the celebrant, an Elvis Presley impersonator, belted out “Can’t Help Falling in Love”, the bride arrived in a gorgeous lace Maggie Sottero gown from Astra Bridal.
She recalls, “I looked into his puppy-dog eyes and he just looked gorgeous in that suit. I had to tell him to stop crying because I was on the verge myself and I didn’t want to ruin my make-up.”
But Chang, who wept throughout the 12-minute quickie ceremony, tells, “I couldn’t stop. I felt like the luckiest man alive.”
Vow factor
As the pair exchanged rings, they repeated after Elvis, “I give you this ring as a symbol of my hunk of burning love.” When Chang was asked to tell Victoria he’d always “love you tender”, he quipped, “Tinder? We did meet on Tinder, yes.”
Then continuing the lyrical Elvis theme, both had to vow, “I promise to never leave you crying in the chapel, in the ghetto or standing in the Kentucky rain. Honey, I’m all shook up. I will never leave you at the Heartbreak Hotel or any other hotel and will never treat you like a hound dog.”
Then the celebrant declared them husband and wife, and as he crooned the classic “Viva Las Vegas”, Macao-born Chang and Dublin native Victoria shared four long, lingering kisses. “You can all leave now please!” the groom joked to their 34 guests.
Later, the couple held a traditional Chinese ceremony with Chang’s parents. “It was about welcoming Vic to the family,” he explains. “Now she can call them Mum and Dad.”
But it was bittersweet for the bride, whose own parents were unable to attend because her mother is battling breast cancer. Instead, they watched from home via a video link. “It was hard,” says Victoria, “but her treatment is going well, and I had my brother to walk me down the aisle and my sister as a bridesmaid.”
Asked what marriage means to them, Chang replies, “George Clooney said it best: ‘It’s a humbling thing when you find someone to love – even better when you’ve been waiting your whole life.’ Now I’m looking forward to having babies with Vicky.”
Before starting a family, the newlyweds want to fit in more travelling, including a Hawaii honeymoon and a return trip to Vegas. Chang grins, “It’s a very special place for us now, so we’ll have to come back to renew our vows one day!”