10-10-10: Vegas chapels busy on symmetrical date

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Churches, banquet halls and other wedding venues across the country were extra busy Sunday as couples seeking a perfect 10 rushed to tie the knot on a once-in-a-century milestone: Oct. 10, 2010.

In Las Vegas — long a destination for weddings — one marriage license bureau extended its Sunday hours from 6 p.m. to midnight to accommodate the rush. Hotels and churches in New Hampshire's Seacoast area were booked long before Oct. 10.

Wedding-related businesses said the day was perhaps the most sought-after wedding date since July 7, 2007, when the lucky 07-07-07 marked the calendar. Some 10-10-10 couples even chose to take their vows at 10 a.m.

One pastor in Nevada took the rush airborne by planning to join 30 couples at various venues Sunday and aboard a helicopter through the buzz of a headset.

"This is kind of a neat way to spend my retirement years. It keeps me in good health and keeps my mind alert," the Rev. Jim Hamilton of Henderson's Sunrise Community Church told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Renee Fletcher, hostess at the Arch of Reno Wedding Chapel, said it was staging more than 40 weddings on Sunday.

Megan Powell, a 26-year-old who married a nightclub and restaurant operator, said her Las Vegas wedding was "a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get married on 10/10/10."

"That day will never happen again," she added.

Her new husband, Scott Frost, called it "fun" that "we'll have something unusual in common with a big chunk of people. We'll have a much greater probability of running into couples with the same anniversary."

Tamara Tom, 28, of Fairfield, Calif., was following a tradition when she married Robert Harper at the Atlantis Casino Resort Spa in Reno. The couple said they will celebrate 10 years of being together on Dec. 10.

"We thought it would be fun to have all 10s as our anniversary," Tom told the Reno Gazette-Journal.

At the Antique Angel Wedding Chapel in Reno, owner Beverly Van Dusseldorp said all dates with multiple similar numbers bring out more newlyweds, but especially on Sunday.

"It's just like Valentine's Day," she said. "It's a magic day."