May 2007

Love & Luck
Couples see 07/07/07 as an auspicious date for weddings
Amanda Strindberg, The Press-Enterprise

It’s the perfect storm. Valentine’s Day on steroids. The triple-seven frenzy. Lovebirds are lining up in astronomical numbers to tie the knot on 07/07/07, hoping the triple seven-digit combination will bring them luck in love. With less than 77 days to go until 07/07/07, the calls to florists, bakeries, venues, DJs and photographers are still coming in as desperate brides try their luck at planning a wedding on the coveted date. “This is one of the most popular days I can remember,” said Kathleen Murray, deputy editor of The Knot, a wedding-planning Web site. “Lots of couples are seeing this as their lucky, lucky day.” Brides began booking the date years ago, Murray said.

Desirable Date
Florists, venues, photographers, DJs and caterers have been forced to turn record numbers of couples away. Wal-Mart has even offered to pick up some of the slack, by offering seven lucky couples a wedding at a local Wal-Mart’s lawn and garden center. The reasons for going with July 7 vary from superstitions, spiritual significance and the more practical reason of wanting a future husband to remember anniversaries.

On The Knot, 31,000 couples are registered to wed on the popular day, compared to a typical 12,000 for other Saturdays in July. The Inland area is not immune to the fury. One lucky bride, who will wed at the Villa de Amore estate in Temecula, has been offered thousands by other envious brides to give up the date, said Eileen Rivard, owner of the popular private wedding spot.

Rivard said she’s taken at least four calls from brides with offers from $2,500 to $7,500 to buy the date from the bride scheduled to say “I do” on July 7. But money isn’t going to sway this lucky lady. It’s her day, along with thousands of others, and she’s not changing it. “I think it’s sort of romantic that she wasn’t going to give it up for money,” Rivard said.

Since Rivard’s 07/07/07 bride booked more than a year ago, the calls haven’t stopped, with at least 15 brides-to-be calling a month. When Rivard breaks the news the date isn’t available, the 07/07/07-hungry brides aren’t interested in other dates. “It’s unbelievable,” she said. “I think they are just mass calling.” Jodee’s Bakery in Temecula will likely turn away business. “I think we are just going to have to say no,” said pastry chef Kristin Woods. “We can’t take any more.” The confectionary wizards already have a cake load of 11 for that day, with a total of 20 for the week. Mariel Martinez, who oversees weddings at Green River Golf Club in Corona, said she’s had to turn away about 100 brides. “It’s the first time I’ve ever experienced something like this,” she said.

Triple-Seven Couples
Ronald Alfano, 54, and Maria Chavez, 43, booked the last slot at Green River Golf Club in October after trying a handful of other places. “We didn’t realize it would be so popular,” Chavez said. “I think any day we would have chosen to get married would have brought us luck, but this is just a good date.”

Sharon Arrington, 30, says she no longer feels so lucky to be a 07/07/07 bride. She calls it a Cinderella fairy tale gone Freddy Krueger nightmare. When the Perris resident first began planning her wedding, she thought the magical date would be an easy one for her future hubby to remember. But a January bridal expo left her hopeless and sick to her stomach after every vendor told her they were booked. Plan B: Vegas. No such luck, the wedding lists were scores of couples long.

So Arrington will say “I do” in her backyard. Her vision of a horse-drawn carriage and white doves that she’s been dreaming of since she was a young girl has been reduced to “a rented arch and a barbecue pit,” she said. The bride-to-be thought about changing the date, but instead is looking at the positive. “Secretly I still have butterflies in my stomach about planning this wedding. I would marry (him) at the La Brea tar pits, but don’t tell him that,” she joked. To avoid the race for the date, bride Kari Hicks, of Riverside, got an early start. Hours after she got engaged in September, she booked her 07/07/07 reception at Sunset Gardens in Las Vegas. “I wasn’t wasting any time,” said Hicks, 36.

When Sunset Gardens told the soon-to-be Mrs. Costa that it had a cancellation for the prized date, she immediately secured the spot with a nonrefundable deposit. Then she called her fiancé. “I don’t know if it will bring us more luck, but hey, all marriages need all the help they can get,” she said. Hicks should feel lucky enough to wed on 07/07/07 in Las Vegas. Known as the marriage capital of the world, this city is likely getting hit the hardest with triple-seven brides.

‘What a Woman Dreams of’
Graceland Wedding Chapel in Vegas will stay open 24 hours to accommodate the influx. The first bride will walk down the aisle just after the stroke of midnight on the lucky day, followed by a ceremony every 15 minutes during the 24-hour wedding whirl. “I had no idea it would be this big,” said general manager Brandon Reed. “I’ve never seen anything like it.” Cecelia Arias, 34, and Mario Lopez, 37, won’t marry in Vegas, but the Riverside couple is taking a gamble on love with their 07/07/07 wedding date.

In January, Arias spontaneously blurted out, “Hey, let’s get married on 07/07/07.” Once the couple peeked at a calendar and realized the date fell on a Saturday, Lopez immediately asked Arias if she’d be his bride. “If it weren’t for 07/07/07, I don’t even know if it would have happened this year,” Arias said. “I think he just needed a little extra push.”

But will these couples be lucky in love?
Numerologist Edward Shtern, of Riverside, said the concentration of the mystical seven will make for an empathetic union, where both spouses will deeply feel each other’s triumphs and tribulations. “They will understand each other’s needs,” he said. “Seven is an ideal number for a marriage since you want your partner to understand all sides of you. It’s what a woman dreams of.”

Ready to join the triple-seven frenzy?
“You better start making phone calls,” said Marilyn Oliveira, senior editor of weddingchannel.com, a wedding-planning Web site. “If you’re determined, you can do it. It just may not be your dream wedding.”