Twenty years ago, Shayna Stillman was flipping through the September issue of The Washingtonian and stopped on page 306. At the bottom of the page were 41 words that would change her life.

“A TALL SLIM HANDSOME BLUE-EYED SWM—with cheerful disposition, honest, charming, athletic, well-off with varied interests ISO unattached woman under 40 who is very attractive, generous, intelligent, successful, caring with sunny personality who wants to turn friendship into romance.”

After she separated from her first husband, Shayna—a longtime Washingtonian subscriber—would thumb through the personal ads at the back of the magazine. She’d answered a few, but nothing had panned out, so she took a break. But when September 1988 arrived with the fresh-start feeling of fall, she decided to give it another try, and that’s when she found the 41-word ad. “It focused on personal qualities rather than specific likes that generally end up sounding somewhat trite,” says Shayna, 58, who would circle the ads she liked and write a letter next to each, grading it from A to F.

This one got a circle and a big “A.” So she sat down and wrote a letter to the tall, slim, handsome, blue-eyed SWM. She told him a little about herself, her philosophy on life, and how she liked being active and surrounding herself with positive people. She dropped the letter into the mailbox that same day.

Photo by Jennifer Smoose

“Meet me on the corner of Seventh Street and New York Avenue at 7:30,” Aidan O’Connor told Connie Dougherty just after Christmas last year.

That’s odd, Connie thought. She knew they were seeing a play that night, but she couldn’t think of what theater was around there.

When she arrived, Aidan led her half a block before he stopped in front of a tiny venue called the Warehouse. They walked into the near-empty lobby and waited. Where is everyone? Connie wondered.

Fifteen minutes later, a man came around the corner. “We’re ready,” he said, leading them into the theater.

When he drew back the curtain, Connie saw a stage, a sound guy, a camera guy—and two seats.

“I was so confused,” says Connie, who works as a legislative director for a congressman. “We hadn’t exchanged Christmas presents, so I thought maybe he had gotten us some private viewing of a play.”

Photo by Jennifer Smoose

On May 17, 2006, Benjamin Okeke was on a flight from Baltimore to Boston, dripping with sweat and clutching his chest. The other passengers stared. Was this man having a heart attack?

He wasn’t—he was terrified. In about two hours, Benjamin would be asking his girlfriend, Angelique Manning, to marry him. For the past month, he had kept the cushion-cut diamond in a bulletproof, 007-style briefcase. But when airport security wouldn’t let the briefcase through, he had to move the ring to his left shirt pocket. He clutched the pocket tight and waited to land.

Benjamin, a Colorado native, and Angelique, who grew up in DC, met in 2003 at a law conference in Puerto Rico. There they discovered they were both students at Howard University’s School of Law—and that they both attended DC’s St. Augustine Catholic Church and lived two blocks from each other.

After one night on the Puerto Rican beach, talking and looking at the moon, Angelique knew Benjamin was the one. After three years of dating, Benjamin knew, too. He also knew he couldn’t propose on a holiday or anniversary—that was too predictable—so in early 2006, he shut his eyes, pointed at the calendar, and landed on the May date. He bought a ticket to Boston, where Angelique was working, and hatched his plan.

In high school, Blake Keeley knew only a few things about Scott Doyle: He was her friend’s older brother, he played lacrosse, and he was very, very cute.

“Scott went to Georgetown Prep, where my dad and brother went to school, and I went to Holton-Arms, an all-girls school,” she says. “But I had never met him.”

Angela and Will—just married!

When Angela Schmidt Shimé sat down to dinner at her wedding reception last June, she was expecting the usual: A clink of a glass, a few words from the best man, then back to the meal.

But that’s not how they do it in Cameroon. Or, apparently, when you’re marrying a Cameroonian in Maryland.

“It was a tradition for Will that all of his friends and family would get up and say something, and give a blessing,” Angela says. “Every time one of his guests said something, one of mine would get up and tell stories. It turned into an hour of toasting.”

Before the ceremony, Will’s friends had also surprised Angela by bursting into a capella Cameroonian wedding songs that had guests on both sides of the church dancing.

Will, who works as an account executive, came to Washington from Cameroon in 11th grade to play football for Bishop McNamara High School, continuing on to college football at the University of Maryland. In 2003, he met Angela’s sister, who—knowing how stubborn Angela was about being set up—arranged for Angela, a director of global events for a Fairfax software company, to “run into” Will at a bar in DC. They stayed out dancing until 2 AM and started dating soon after.

Been to any great weddings lately? Or maybe you’re planning one yourself. Either way, The Washingtonian would love nothing more than to hear all the details of the big day. E-mail us at mconrad@washingtonian.com or jneal@washingtonian.com and give us all the details! Don’t be shy about sending a few digital snaps, too. You could be featured in our magazine or online.

Sahar Javadi and Shahdy Ali-Hassan don’t like Valentine’s Day. They think it’s a cheesy Hallmark holiday that puts too much pressure on too many people. As Sahar puts it, “It’s just stupid.” So when she figured out that Shahdy, her boyfriend of two years, was going to be on company business in Brazil on February 14, 2007, she didn’t care . . . right?

“I was really mad,” says Sahar. “I knew he had my engagement ring. We went shopping for it in November. So at this point all I’m thinking about are opportunities for him to propose.”

She had been sure he was going to do it over New Year’s in Houston, at her brother’s house, in front of her parents. Nope.

In January, when she had to go to Los Angeles on a work trip and Shahdy said he would meet her out there, her hopes rose again. Shahdy, however, hadn’t even brought the ring along.