ANDERSON — The timing couldn’t have been more perfect for soon-to-be newlyweds Margaret Parker and Donnie West.

The couple is scheduled exchange vows Friday, Aug. 8, 2008, more easily remembered as 8/8/08. Madison County Clerk Ludy Watkins will marry them at 8:30 a.m. at the Madison County Courthouse.

Parker, a bus driver for Madison County Head Start, and West, who works through Snelling Personnel Services, have been together for three and a half years. Their desire to have a unique wedding date led them on several attempts at saying their vows, one last year on July 7 (7/7/07) and again this year on June 7 (6/7/08).

The wedding plans never worked out, but in today, the couple finally found the perfect date.

“It just kept getting put off and put off and put off,” Parker said. “We wanted it to be unique, but every time we turned around, there was something going on. He (West) told me if I didn’t marry him on 8/8/08, I had to wait until 9/9/09.”

Choosing today for their wedding might make it easier to remember their anniversary, but that’s not all that went into Parker and West’s decision to get married today. Both NASCAR fans, 8 was the number of their favorite driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr.

When Parker found the number 8 was one of her lucky numbers according to her Chinese fortune cookie, it only confirmed a longtime preference for the number.

“That’s my lucky number,” she said. “It’s always been my favorite.”

School bus No. 9 sits in front of Parker and West’s home, but it was only the next best thing for Parker, who wanted to spend her days driving around bus No. 8 in honor of her favorite number.

Parker and West’s wedding in the courthouse won’t be an extravagant ordeal — they both have to head of to work following the ceremony — but with a date like today’s it certainly will be impossible to forget.

Although 8/8/08 might be a special day for some, Watkins, who will marry Parker and West today, only has one other wedding scheduled, typical for a Friday, she said. Madison County Circuit Court has one wedding planned, and the county’s superior courts haven’t scheduled any.

Sandi Perkins, owner of The Radiant Bride in Anderson, also is involved with only one wedding today. Most couples will wait until Saturday, the traditional wedding day, to get married, she said.

“Last year, the 7/7/07 was huge,” Perkins said. “This year, 6/7/08 was big, but 8/8/08 is not as big as last year.”

It could be because many in American culture consider 7 a lucky number, and 6/7/08 is easy to remember, she said.

Perhaps people aren’t as fascinated with getting married on 8/8/08 because 8 is not a good number on which to start an intimate marriage, said Candace Smith, Camp Chesterfield numerologist.