Local lovebirds who want to tie the knot on August 8, the day the Olympic Games open, will most likely get their wish.

The municipal government of Beijing recently denied a rumor that its marriage registration office might close that day in anticipation of a crowd of couples much bigger than it could handle.

Vice mayor of Beijing Ding Xiangyang said the government will do its best to accommodate the couples’ wishes to marry on the auspicious day, with three "eights" – a lucky number to Chinese.

Ding suggested they consider using the online registration service, which is more convenient and timesaving, but most couples seem to prefer the "I-do" process in person.

Wang Jian and fiancée Liu Lan, both 28, felt relieved upon hearing Ding’s statement. But they aren’t sure if they can make it to the office in the early morning, they’ve decided to queue outside the office a day before.

They made the decision after reading about a woman using the name Vivismile who wrote about her marriage registration experience in Beijing on August 8 last year, on 55bbs.com, a web community.

Vivismile and her fiancé managed to reach the registration office in Xuanwu District of Beijing at 7 a.m., one-and-a-half hours ahead of the office opening, only to find 118 couples were ahead of them. Vivismile and her fiancé waited the whole day, and didn’t finish the marriage registration until 6 p.m.

According to the Legal Evening News, there were at least 1,500 couples registered to marry in Beijing on Aug. 8., 2007.

Tan Rui and his girlfriend Sunny were very close to joining those newlyweds. But they gave up when they saw the long lineup at the registration office.

"There must be a lot more people who registered on August 8 this year compared to last year and we have decided to get married in July," said Tan. "We just don’t want to waste time waiting in line on our wedding day."

Tan and his girlfriend chose another way to associate their marriage with the Beijing Olympics – by being photographed with Games venues in the background.

Since last year, some photo studios have offer this Olympic-themed service, especially for newlyweds. They either shoot pictures near main venues – mainly around the National Stadium or Bird’s Nest and the National Aquatic Center or Water Cube.

Another option is to incorporate images of Olympic venues by using software such as Photoshop. The price is about $450 for an album of 40 pictures.

Tan chose to take photos at the actual venues as they both think computer-made pictures don’t look real. However, the memories of the photo shoot aren’t happy ones. They couldn’t enter the Birds’ Nest or Water Cube, and standing outside taking pictures in wedding outfits under the gaze of passersby made them feel embarrassed.

Xiao Jun, a wedding photographers thinks wistfully about last November when he made good money out of Olympic-themed photos soon after he began this service.

"At the beginning we posted some picture samples and introductions on the Internet, and people were excited about the idea. We went to the Bird’s Nest almost everyday with at least one couple."

However, the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games mandates that pictures of Olympic venues can only be taken for personal use. Professional photo studios are not allowed to offer such themed services for commercial profit. Xiao has had to delete all his advertisements on the Internet.