That's why, in a state still learning the lottery ropes, a new numbers game is earning customers among the would-be-wed: 777.

July 7, 2007. Get it?

Turns out, nationally, July is already the most popular wedding month, though not in North Carolina, where the seventh month is a sauna. This year, July's first Saturday is getting special attention, even in North Carolina.

According to the Web site theknot.com, where brides and grooms register their dates and plan their events, 12,000 or so weddings would be registered on the site for a normal July weekend. This year on July 7, more than three times that many have registered.

The reasons? Let's face it: With a divorce rate in this country often cited at 50 percent, marriage is a gamble. Why not have triple sevens on your side?

Some go deeper into numerology, the alignment of the heavens and the convergence of the stars.

This year July 7 is drawing soon-to-be-marrieds from the traditional May and June wedding season. Last year, many couples were eager to avoid June 6. The date 666 doesn't have quite the same luster as 777.

Some simply want an anniversary date that's easy to remember -- even when they get to the seven-year itch.

For a couple I recently became acquainted with, the triple sevens hold real meaning.

Sarah Armstrong, 22, is a preacher's kid who grew up all over Eastern North Carolina. She'll graduate in December from N.C. State University in microbiology and genetics.

Her fiance, Josef Bacik, also 22, is a computer whiz who was lured away from his full-time studies by Red Hat. Kind of like the college basketball players who go pro before graduation.

Armstrong said she and Bacik, who have studied the Bible extensively, believe the number seven holds special significance in God's universe. For example, God created the world in six days, and rested on the seventh.

"God tends to do things in sevens," Armstrong said. "When we set the date, it just felt right."

As for the luck factor? As Bacik noted, "It can't hurt."

Turns out Bacik will have a built-in local support group. One of his colleagues at Red Hat is also making it official July 7.

A photographer in Durham who shot his first wedding in 1974, Jim Shaw, is not surprised at the interest in the date.

He remembers the couple who wanted him to capture their wedding on film -- on Aug. 8, 1988, at 8:08 a.m.

That's why he has canceled what would normally be a weekend of beach portraits -- and is signing up 777 couples instead.

In Wisconsin, "Reverend Michelle" Hall is trying to line up seven couples to get hitched every hour from 12:07 a.m. until 7:07 p.m. on 7/7/07.

If only numbers really did make the difference. If only launching a successful marriage were that easy.

Bacik's right: 777 can't hurt. And perhaps -- along with hard work and a good sense of humor -- it can bring God's blessing.

But I got married on the decidedly uneventful, inauspicious 528 -- 13 lucky years ago.

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