For eight couples,planning a marriage for tomorrow has been a piece of (wedding) cake,thanks to local businesses

By Nadine Kam

With the ghost of 07-07-07 weddings and nightmare scenarios of cake, flower and venue shortages to haunt them, the brides of 08-08-08 took the notion of planning well, planning early, to heart. So much so that in spite of the equally large number of couples exchanging vows tomorrow, all looks relatively calm.

You might say last July 7 was a rehearsal for wedding professionals who realized this Aug. 8 would be even bigger due to the numeral’s association with luck in many Asian cultures, and because of its resemblance to the symbol for infinity.

Sharing a wedding date with many other couples can have its advantages, according to Stuart Kotake, director of catering and conference services for the Kahala Hotel & Resort, which is hosting eight weddings and six receptions tomorrow.

“We’ll be at maximum capacity, but we’ve staffed up for everyone. We’ve brought in additional linens, china, chairs,” he said. “It’s going to be wedding central for us, so we can’t help but be focused on each one of these weddings.

“It’s not going to be like a bakery. There won’t be a bride standing behind them where they’re lined up and here’s the next one. We want to keep the integrity of each event.

cars

The number 8 in popular culture:
In the late 1940s, the Oldsmobile 88 came out, launching the era of the 88 badge that would endure until the company’s demise. For more than two decades during this 50- year span, the 88 cars remained the biggest sellers at Oldsmobile.

Various models included Delta 88, Dynamic 88, Super 88, Jetstar 88, Delta 88 Royale and Holiday 88. Some incarnations of these vehicles resembled transportation George Jetson might employ, possessed a Rocket V8 engine (a very big deal; remember, this was the ’40s) and consistently won races, becoming the car to beat on NASCAR circuits for a while.

In fact, YouTube is ripe with videos of revving, burnouts and spinouts from some of the later models. Oldsmobile fanatics might be able to confirm or deny the urban legend that the Rocket V8 and the ability to go from zero to 60 mph in under eight seconds helped GM spawn the 88 designation.

And didn’t this supercharged vehicle inspire Ike Turner and Jackie Brenston to compose “Rocket 88”? Maybe that’s why the 1951 hit is widely considered one of the first rock ’n’ roll songs ever. It climbed the R&B charts, though, because rock charts didn’t exist at the time. — Katherine Nichols

“Sometimes brides don’t even want to see another bride on the property, but what’s special about dates like this is the camaraderie of the brides. They take it more in stride,” he said. “They actually connect. They’ll look at each others’ ballroom and compliment their good taste.”

SEVERAL BRIDES spoke of the relative ease with which their plans came together.

For Danyel Foi, the date is already working out to be auspicious. She and John Kilgore have been together for 7-1/2 years and engaged for four, and while they had set a handful of possible dates, including 07-07-07, “this is the one that’s sticking,” Foi said.

This despite the fact that she recently moved from Honolulu to Arkansas, where she’ll be married, and that the reception will take place in Portland, Ore.

“08-08-08 is the wedding anniversary of his parents and they will be marrying us at their home, so it’s a date that holds a lot of significance for us. My fianc’s great-grandmother’s birthday was actually 08-08-1888, and she truly felt that having all those 8s in her day of birth was something special.”

The couple will then head to Oregon for their reception, because most of their friends and other relatives are on the West Coast, making travel easier for their guests.

While Foi is handling arrangements in Arkansas, her mother is making the Portland arrangements, and on the phone from Hawaii was able to convince a cup-cake maker who was booked for the day to do just one more party.

“Thank goodness for my mom; she’s amazing at coordinating events,” Foi said. “My reception is going to be casual, just a barbecue in Mount Tabor Park, but she just wants it to be a nicer barbecue.”

Foi also wanted to make sure to bring as much of Hawaii as possible to both ceremony and reception, including having small lauhala baskets of North Shore sand and seashells, flowers suited to her sage-and-cranberry color theme, Big Island Candies shortbread cookies, and customized guest books created by Modern Pacific, with raffia and beachglass embellishments.

“I believe in 8,” said Foi, who is part Chinese. “It’s always been a favorite number of mine, a lucky number.

“There’s a reason those other dates didn’t work out, and the good thing about it is, now we’re super-ready to get married.”

SUNNY-JAYNE Dela Cruz’s groom to be, Ron Nacianceno, initially proposed a wedding date of 08-08-08 because it would be easy to remember. Dela Cruz had other first thoughts. “I was really excited about the Olympics starting on that date,” she said.

Although she’s half-Chinese, she was leery about the date for all the cultural entanglements it might entail.

“My mom was really happy and wanted us to incorporate a Chinese theme, but we really didn’t want to because if we did one thing, we’d have to plan everything,” Dela Cruz said. “Our wedding is mostly nontraditional. We don’t really have a theme going on.”

She was particularly afraid of being tied to a Chinese color scheme. “I really don’t like the color red. I don’t like red, and gold.”

Instead her colors will be fuchsia and brown. “I wanted orange in there too.”

Their ceremony will take place at Ko Olina, with a reception on the grounds of Iolani Palace for about 150. She had learned about the newly offered palace accommodations through Mona Hirata of Weddings by Grace and Mona and had no trouble booking.

“I started so early, it was easy to book vendors,” said Dela Cruz, who began her planning last September. “The first thing I got was the cake. If I were to start four to six months out, I don’t think I would have been able to get the vendors I wanted.”

In her excitement over the wedding, she overlooked one important detail.

“Most people work on Fridays, so I totally forgot about the traffic going toward Ko Olina.”

So instead of suffering through traffic to get to the ceremony and having to rush back to town afterward for the reception, most of her guests will attend the reception only. That’s fine with her, as it makes for a more intimate ceremony, but she wanted to warn other brides that choosing a Friday takes some extra thought. There’s a reason most weddings take place on weekends.

VERONICA PRADO said her 08-08-08 wedding started as a joke as she and her brother observed the hoopla surrounding the 07-07-07 weddings. Her fianc had proposed that month, and with a little more than a year to plan the event, the date started making sense. She had no particular vision of a wedding, anyway.

“I’m one of those women who didn’t think I’d ever get married,” she said. “I never dreamed of a wedding.”

Because most of the couples’ families are from the Bay Area, they decided to be married at the Presidio, where reservations are booked, as they are at most large hotels, a year ahead. So on 08-08-07, she woke up at 5 a.m. to fax her request and was rewarded with the reservation.

Luck was also with her in February, when she attended the “27 Dresses” event hosted by The Wedding Cafe and The Bridal Boutique. After competing in several contests, she won her choice of a wedding gown valued up to $2,000.

Her biggest task is bringing a bit of Hawaii to San Francisco. She arrived in the city a week ahead of the event to take care of last-minute details, while family members in Hawaii are responsible for bringing over the lei. Tables won’t be numbered, but will have Hawaiian street names instead, and food for the reception will be an international buffet.

She said she’s grateful for workshops presented by The Wedding Cafe. “They really stress how important it is to plan early. It’s all about planning.”

AT THE KAHALA, Stuart Kotake said they’re already looking ahead to 09-09-09, and prospective brides might want to prepare for an inevitable rush.

“07-07-07 didn’t catch us off-guard, but we were very busy and it made us aware that there’s something that comes with powerful numbers,” he said. “09-09-09 will be pretty interesting because it falls in the middle of the week, on a Wednesday, but we’ve already had inquiries.”