Triple 8 is the new lucky wedding date

Couples must move quickly if they want to book a wedding for 8/8/08.

MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS

NEW YORK — Thinking of getting married on Aug. 8, 2008? Scratch New York City locales including the Tribeca Rooftop, the Lighthouse at Chelsea Piers and the Central Park Boathouse off your list — they’re fully booked.

If you’re dreaming of an 8/8/08 reception at the Water Club on the East River, you better move quickly. “We’ve had a lot of interest in that date,” said Robin Henderson, catering sales manager at the Manhattan restaurant.

Fresh off the 7/7/07 wedding bonanza, 8/8/08 is shaping up as the next must-have, I-do date.

While it’s still relatively early, reception halls, restaurants, caterers and photographers are booking up.

Couples are signing on, even though the triple eights fall on a Friday, a less desirable day for walking down the aisle.

Lucky numbers

Chinese brides and grooms are leading the pack. The number eight is considered especially lucky in Chinese culture because the pronunciation of the number eight sounds like the word for prosperity. Repeat it three times and you increase your luck. The Summer Olympics in Beijing will begin on 8/8/08 — at 8:08:08 p.m.

Chris Chen, CEO of Dynasty Weddings, a wedding planner on the city’s Lower East Side who caters to Chinese couples, has fielded 10 inquiries for the date so far.

“We like to do three weddings max a day, but we might end up doing four to five because of this hot date,” Chen said.

May Chan, 26, and Eddie Lau, 27, who both live in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, N.Y., and are first-generation Americans, have already booked the Ocean Jewel Seafood Restaurant in Flushing, Queens, N.Y., for an 8/8/08 wedding reception.

“Who doesn’t want it?” Chan said of the lucky date. “I wanted to grab it early because of the 7/7/07 craze.”

Chan, a manager in a surgical center, and Lau, an officer in the New York Police Department, asked Chan’s uncle in Hong Kong to check out the date on the Chinese lunar calendar. While 8/8/08 falls during the Chinese Halloween month — deemed unlucky by some — “my uncle said the date was okay,” Chan said.

Easy to remember

It’s not just Chinese couples jumping on the eights. Vicki Gonzalez, 40, an office manager from Bergenfield, N.J., said she set the date for marrying Gilbert Rivera, 48, a corrections officer from Nyack, N.Y., because it’s memorable.

“We needed a date that would stick in our minds 20 years from now,” said Gonzalez, who wanted the date even if it meant “I had to get married in my back yard.” Luckily, it won’t come to that. The couple has booked the Cap Juluca resort in Anguilla.

For those still on the fence, wedding experts advised happy couples to move quickly. Beware of vendors who might hike prices as demand builds. Fridays should generally be 25 percent less expensive than Saturdays, Manhattan wedding planner Lindsay Landman said.

Configuration

Consider incorporating eights into your wedding theme.

“Have a ceremony that begins at 8 p.m. that coincides with the Summer Olympics,” suggested Kathleen Murray, deputy editor of The Knot. “Have eight bridesmaids and eight groomsmen.”

Lisa Therese Fowler, 43, a college professor from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., who plans to marry 33-year-old Jay Bland, a deli worker in Staten Island, N.Y., said there will be plenty of eights amid her 8/8/08 wedding set along the promenade in Brooklyn Heights, N.Y.

“My wedding band will have eight diamonds in it,” Fowler said — adding that there are eight letters in “I love you.”

“It’s a sexy number,” she said. “Did you see those curves?”