Couples in Las Vegas seek dose of love potion No. 9

Stacy J. Willis

Friday, Sept. 10, 1999 | 11:25 a.m.

Patrick Huber was dressed to the nines.

Slick gray tuxedo. Boutonniere. Shiny black shoes.

His bride was waiting in the limousine -- limo number 9 -- parked in the drive-through wedding lane.

"If we could have done the wedding in a swimming pool, that would have been good too. Just as long as it is something special -- I didn't want something common," said Huber, who flew in from Switzerland to be married in a car in Las Vegas on 9-9-99.

Hundreds of others were lured by love and levity to be married on Sept. 9, 1999, at chapels up and down Las Vegas Boulevard on Thursday. The Clark County Marriage License Bureau issued 622 licenses Wednesday -- twice the daily average.

In A Little White Wedding Chapel's lobby, phones were ringing, doors were swinging, and dozens of freshly coiffed couples stood awaiting marital bliss.

A clerk hawked souvenir "9-9-99" T-shirts. "Twelve bucks for one, or two for $20," she said to a fidgety young couple as they waited for their turn at the altar. In the spirit of the moment they decided to buy one T-shirt and share it.

Bodo and Christel Koerner, from Germany, planned their 9-9-99 wedding one year ago.

"We are so old, and we lived this long, and we've been together 23 years so we decided that we would finally get married at the end of the century," said Bodo, 59, as he and his new wife stood outside the chapel posing for photos.

Freshly married at 9 a.m., another set of newlyweds departed on foot down Las Vegas Boulevard -- in full gown and tux -- stopping momentarily for two cans of Pepsi at a motel vending machine. They knocked cans in a marital toast.

Others rode off in long white limos or ad-clad taxis.

"It's just a special date -- all those nines," said the Rev. Charolotte Richards, the chapel owner. "Couples started coming in at midnight last night. A lot of people have been planning this for a long time -- it's a significant moment at the end of the century."

To say nothing of the date's practical qualities. "Ed picked the date so he wouldn't forget the anniversary," said Danielle Riggins of her husband-to-be. "I thought that was an excellent idea."