Together forever? Why couples choose to wed on Jan 7, 2017

By Chew Hui Min
​The Straits Times
​Tuesday, Jun 14, 2016

Plenty of wedding bells will be ringing on Jan 7, 2017 - a date with an auspicious ring to it, at least in Mandarin.

Many couples have chosen the date to tie the knot as 1/7/17 or "one, seven, one, seven" sounds like "together, together" in Mandarin.

Five hotels have told The Straits Times that it is a popular date for wedding banquet bookings.

The ballrooms of three of the hotels are fully booked for both lunch and dinner.

At the Pan Pacific Singapore, two ballrooms are already booked up and only smaller venues for 20 to 80 guests are available, said resident manager Steve Laine.

The bookings were made as early as September last year (2015).

"Yes, Jan 7, 2017, is indeed more popular than other dates," said Mr Laine.

Over at the Fairmont Singapore & Swissotel The Stamford, seven wedding receptions, five dinners and two lunches will be happening on the day, said Mr Dannis Yeo, its director of romance.

"The date is deemed especially auspicious in Mandarin, as it offers a perfect repeat of the same numbers," Mr Yeo said.

Capella Singapore said that they have a wedding lunch and a dinner at the ballroom, a dinner booking for the Sentosa Rooms, and a potential booking for lunch on the same date.

At the Concorde Hotel, bookings for their sole ballroom were snapped up by November 2015.

"Our dinner is also booked for July 1, 2017, and we have many enquiries for lunch," added its spokesman.

Grand Hyatt Singapore still has space for lunch, it said, but dinner bookings are full.

It called Jan 7 "an especially hot date" based on the enquiries they have received.

Jan 8 is also popular, said the spokesman of Grand Hyatt.

W Singapore Sentosa Cove's director of marketing communications Lin Liangmin said that Jan 7 "definitely is a more popular date compared to other dates due to the numbers being 1717".

The hotel has "a couple" of confirmed bookings for both lunch and dinner at its Great Room, but has slots available at other function spaces.

Other popular dates it has received queries about are Jan 17 and July 1 next year.

But two hotels also said that many Chinese couples will choose a personalised date based on advice from a geomancer rather than a "generic" popular date.

The geomancer will look at their "bazi" or the "eight characters" - that is, their birth dates and times, as well as the Chinese horoscopes of both sets of parents.

The Straits Times

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