For a 7/7/07 anniversary, love waits in line but doesn’t wilt

Saturday, July 7, 2007 | 7:07 a.m.

They came from all over America this week, thrilled to be sweltering in the relentless heat outside the Regional Justice Center in downtown Las Vegas.

They want to be married in the luckiest city on Earth today, the day many predicted might just be the most fortunate in a century. July 7, 2007, or 7/7/07.

On Thursday, a record-busting 1,155 licenses were issued by Clark County's Marriage Bureau. On Friday, four-to-five-hour lines snaked out the door and around the block, prompting the clerk's office administrators to predict that as many as 2,500 $55 licenses could be stamped before the day was over.

"We thought, 'Well, it's 7/7/07. Wonder what Vegas is gonna be like?' " said Patricia Cavness of Plymouth, Ind. The 43-year-old accountant was standing next to her groom-to-be, Walter Snedeker, 37, a racing tire builder from the same small city.

The couple, who met six weeks ago, came straight from McCarran International Airport, suitcases in hand. Snedeker said they had checked online with no fewer than 36 fully booked wedding chapels in town before finding a downtown chapel with a slot open at 7:45 a.m. Saturday.

Another pair, the soon-to-be Andre and Donna Taylor of Irvington, N.J., said they've been together for seven years, so the singular date bodes well for their union. Plus, she said, "the significance of the number seven is God's blessing."

For some Nevadans, picking the day was simple. "It's gonna be forever. It will never happen again," said Divina Hain, a casino worker in Stateline who was holding an umbrella over her longtime beau, casino manager Don Spielberg, to protect him from the sun.

Larry Watson and Melissa Bailey arrived from Memphis, Tenn., on Friday morning. By early afternoon, even the stark weather hadn't dimmed the couple's bright smiles.

Scheduled to be married today at the Little Chapel of the Flowers, they were staying at Imperial Palace. Like many standing in line, they insisted their lucky marriage date would also rub off on their slot machine and card game adventures.

"Definitely, definitely," she said. "I'd put my money on it."