Significance of 08/08/08 : A date of a lifetime

Eight is an auspicious number in many cultures, none more so than the Chinese. Eight (ba) is a homonym of the Mandarin word for prosperity (fa). As thousands of fortune-seekers prepare for the Beijing Olympics' 8:08 p.m. start time Friday, others around the globe – Chinese and non-Chinese – prepare for a different kind of high-intensity event: their weddings.

"I have 14 cakes for Friday," said Bart Utz, owner of Crème de la Crème, a wedding cake shop in Renton. "Usually (for a Friday), I have three or four."

Rebecca Dolgin, an executive editor at wedding resource company The Knot, said more than 22,000 couples registered online for Aug. 8, 2008, weddings between TheKnot.com and WeddingChannel.com. An average Friday during the summer wedding season has 5,000. The Knot's niche site for Chinese ceremonies offers tips for 8/8/08 weddings and engagement parties, and businesses such as the resort chain Sandals have arranged getaway packages (such as the "Eight Steps of Love") tied to the date.

Chrissie Gilbert and Aaron Chang are one of Seattle's 8/8/08 couples.

"The date is something Aaron picked, mostly because he liked the numerology of it, and also we realized eight is synonymous for prosperity," said Gilbert, 25, of Seattle. "My aunt by marriage looked it up in the Chinese calendar, and it's a good day based on the lunar calendar as well."

Gilbert said their ceremony will be "pretty American," with Chinese elements to reflect Chang's heritage. The couple are incorporating a butterfly motif (symbolizing long life) and the color red (for happiness and luck) into their thank-you cards and wedding cake. Gilbert also will be wearing a red qipao, or traditional Chinese silk dress, at the reception.

But it's not just brides and grooms of Chinese descent choosing the lucky date.

Rob Johnsen and Polly Cohen, both 37, will marry Friday on Bainbridge Island, where they will celebrate with a Chinese-themed reception.

Johnsen, who lives on Bainbridge, co-founded MyWedding.com with three married partners and has been "the lone holdout" for many years.

Two years ago, while out celebrating his brother's new moped/espresso shop in Los Angeles, he said, "I finally caved in and found the right person." (Cohen puts it this way: "All women should go to bars alone – that's the moral of the story.")

Though neither is Chinese, Cohen, a film producer from Los Angeles, spent childhood summers in Minnesota attending Chinese language camp.

"We're trying to be fun and playful and very nontraditional," Johnsen said. "Instead of a cake-eating ceremony we're going to have a Chinese candy-eating ceremony."

The wedding invitations were decorated with chopsticks and stuffed with rice candies. Johnsen, a gambler, says eight is his lucky number.

The Cohen-Johnsen wedding also features a logo with the number 8 turned on its side – the symbol for infinity. The number's link to infinity is part of the date's appeal, said Dolgin, as well as a guarantee that "everyone will always remember your anniversary."

"The number, across a lot of cultures, has specific significance," said Bill Bullock, 28, explaining why he and fiancée Melissa Cerise, 30, chose the eighth for their Seattle nuptials. "Seven is the perfect number, the end of things; eight is seen in a lot of different cultures as the rebirth number."

It took the couple a dozen phone calls to find a wedding location.

"I proposed in December on her birthday and we decided to do 8/8/08 then," Bullock said. "Then we found out everybody else was doing that date."

They will marry in the Washington Park Arboretum, with a reception at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture. The celebration will include the services of the gentleman who leads karaoke at the Twilight Exit bar, a nod to the night the couple connected for good after a number of meetings that didn't take.

"We were there independently," Bullock said. "I tipped the karaoke guy 10 bucks to put her at the front of the line."

Aside from the eight peacock feathers in the bride's bouquet, the Cerise-Bullock wedding has no extreme "8"-themed elements. Dolgin said some couples are scheduling eight o'clock ceremonies and ordering eight-layer cakes. She has heard reports of Magic 8-Ball wedding favors and V8-based bloody mary cocktails. And then there are those who have decided to unite all of the day's elements.

"A lot of couples," Dolgin said, "are going into the reception with the Olympic theme song."

It's unlikely that the number of weddings on 8/8/08 will surpass the figure for 7/7/07 , at least in the U.S. Last year, TheKnot.com and WeddingChannel.com reported 70,000 couples registered online for weddings on July 7, 2007. According to the King County licensing office, 487 couples married on that date.

Sharing the day with many thousands of others doesn't make it less meaningful.

"I think that to us the date's always going to be special and unique," said Rob Agee, 38, who will marry fiancée Amy Ash, 27, in the Olympic Sculpture Park. "We're thrilled that it's such a cool date and it has such meaning for so many other people, but that day, to us, is all about us."

And for those who won't be ready to commit by Friday, there's always 9/9/09: In Chinese, nine (jiu) sounds like the word for long lasting.