Quarantined and Engaged: They Said ‘Yes!’

For many people, a marriage proposal involves months of planning, ring shopping, and of course, creating the perfect moment for that ultimate surprise. But when the coronavirus started to spread globally, followed by stay-at-home guidelines and closures of restaurants and public spaces, plans to propose in exotic locales or fancy restaurants came to a screeching…

Sparks Flew Before the Curtain Call

Lindsay Murphy was trying to become a better writer when she joined an online message forum on that subject in January 2017, and encountered Julianne Miller, who had already clicked into the forum to pick up a few writing tips. The two began a conversation and a friendship there that continued off-site, covering everything from…

A Groom, by Proxy, on Zoom

On Friday, April 17, Veronica Wickline, 26, a part-time Latin teacher and writer, stood at the altar at St. Peter, a Roman Catholic church in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Little Washington, Va. Dressed in her wedding dress, veil and pearl earrings, she was there to get married. But the man standing…

It was an On-Time Proposal

Peter Harrison knew the newly opened TWA hotel at Kennedy Airport in Queens was just the place to propose to Jennifer Markas. “We both love architectural history and midcentury modern design,’’ Ms. Markas said. She packed 1960s-looking outfits for the one-night getaway there, including a Kate Spade red polka dot dress to go with the…

No Debating Their Love

A disagreement about the politics of confrontation was at the heart of the first conversation that Kelly Witwicki Faddegon and Jacy Reese Anthis had when they met, at the beginning of summer in 2014. She was living in a house in Oakland, Calif., as an employee of a small animal-rights organization. He was in the…

Singles Have to Think Outside the Screen

Before the coronavirus pandemic hit, Cedric DuBose of Houston was completing a nine-week online course called “Love Alchemy.” The workshop, intended to get him thinking about his relationship skills, was a prerequisite to hiring Amari Ice, a Washington-based matchmaker. Image Mr. Ice’s matchmaking services include teaching clients how to write the perfect dating profile. “Your…

The Little Wedding on the Deck

Ashley Gruber always made a point of paying attention in church. This helped salvage her wedding. Ms. Gruber and her fiancé, Jeph Mwaituka, had planned to be married March 21 before 230 guests, some traveling from as far as Tanzania, when group-gathering restrictions because of the coronavirus started tightening in Alabama. “It went from 50…