WASHINGTON: Thousands of starry-eyed couples across the United States will be tying the knot on July 7 this year, hoping the almost numerically perfect 7/7/07 combination will prove a perfect match.

Wedding planners, hotel operators and travel agencies are reporting record numbers of reservations and are struggling to meet the demand for that day, which falls on a Saturday.

“We have over 31,000 weddings planned for that day when typically on a Saturday in July, the most popular month for weddings, we have about 12,000 weddings taking place,” Kathleen Murray, deputy editor of the theknot.com, a wedding planning site, said.

“This is the biggest day I’ve seen in recent years,” she added.

Nicole Hendrickson, 24, of the eastern state of Massachusetts, said she decided to become a “7/7/07 bride” for the fun of it and in the hope that her future husband would never forget their wedding anniversary.

“I knew I wanted to get married on a Saturday and triple sevens are lucky so this is the perfect match,” she said. “And it’s definitely going to help him (her fiancé) so he won’t have any excuses to forget the date.” Las Vegas, the country’s gambling arena and one of the top destinations for weddings, is bracing for an onslaught of couples wanting to walk down the aisle on July 7, and wedding chapels across the city are planning to open extra hours that day to accommodate demand, officials said.

One of them, Graceland Wedding Chapel, is already solidly booked and will be open from 8am to midnight with a ceremony taking place every 15 minutes.

“People gravitate toward any date like this that is memorable and of course, this being a gaming city, 7-7-7 has connotations of good luck,” said Erika Pope of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitor Centre. “I think people will be delighted to say they got married on 7-7-7 in Las Vegas.” Several hotel chains are offering special deals that weekend, including the Ritz-Carlton, which is promoting “Lucky 7s Packages” priced at $7,707 or $777 dollars.

“We are averaging two to six calls per week regarding potential weddings for July 7,” said Marina Nicola, a spokeswoman for the Ritz-Carlton in Las Vegas.

She said two weddings were already booked for that day at the hotel. JoAnn Gregoli, a New York wedding planner, said she had agreed to handle two weddings on the weekend of July 7 and had turned down several other requests.

“You hear from everyone in the business that the day is booked,” Gregoli said. “It’s just a matter of people being superstitious and it's a good luck number and an easy one to remember.”—AFP