OnLove NUPTIALS STEPHEN L SQUIRES


Brooke Wolvin & Kevin Guerrero


BrookeWolvin,34, is a radiologist.Kevin Guerrero,34, is a lawyer. They live in the District.


Weddingdate: Sept.4. Location:Old EbbittGrill,Washington. Guests: 145.


Howtheymet: Aftermoving back to the D.C. area fromNewYork,Wolvin reconnectedwith a childhood girlfriend. Meanwhile, the friend’s boyfriend had become palswithGuerrero.One evening in late summer2009, the couple invited bothWolvin andGuerrero to dinner at DupontCircle’sDarlingtonHouse, suspecting amatch. Their hunchwas correct—Guerrero andWolvin hit it off instantly.


Theproposal: Just fivemonths later, on Christmasmorning (alsoWolvin’s birthday),GuerrerowokeWolvin upwith a bent knee and amarriage proposal. Later, the newly engaged couple joined family for a celebratory brunch at the WillardHotel.


Thewedding: The couplewanted the consummateWashingtonwedding, so they booked the historicOld EbbittGrill. Theymarried on the restaurant’s rooftop, overlooking theWhiteHouse andWashingtonMonument, then celebratedwith a reception that included a choreographed swing dance and special toasts for their parents.


Thehoneymoon: The newlyweds spent four days in theBahamas and plan a honeymoon reprise inHawaii in the spring.


—MichelleThomas


6 I


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if he were gliding through the world, “like Superman does.”He sent amidday textaskingif shewas interestedin“pizza n amovie 4 2nite.” Adams was thrown by the adolescent


text-speak, but agreed. As they watched “Wedding Crashers,” Winkfield slowly inched closer to the spot where she was sitting. They hung out again the next night; the evening after that, he kissed her. They talked about their families and


careers and themedical crises each had faced. She’d had a brain tumor removed during college; he’d been born with a seriousheart condition. (Thus,hewasn’t able tojointheNavy ashe’doncewanted to; he’d hung the flag in support of friends serving in the branch.) “Thatwas somethingwe immediately


connected on because I think when you gothroughsomethinglikethat, it chang- es your perspective on life,” says Adams, whoworks for a government contractor. Everynight they’dmakedinner together and huddle on one of their couches in pajamas or sweat pants. “That whole firstmonthwas very honest—just ‘This iswhowe are.’Therewere no airs.” They’dmeteachother’smotherswith-


in two weeks of their Valentine’s Day date. By early March, Winkfield told Adams he loved her. “It just kinda came out.And actually I


finally got what everyone says: ‘When you know, you know. ’Cause I just knew,” he recalls. “So I’mjust like, ‘Yeah—I said it.That’s howI feel. I love you.Hope that doesn’t scare you off. But if you start running, just remember that I ran track in college.’ ” Adams wasn’t going anywhere,


though she was occasionally worried by the rapid acceleration of their relation- ship. “It was crazy how I felt, like, ‘Man, there’s something very different about him.’ Itwas aweird feeling like youwere falling so quickly for someone,” she says. “It’s exciting and slightly scary at the same time.” But their personalities — passionate,


creative and driven—seemed stunning- ly aligned, and that she’s white and he’s blackwasneveranissue.Adamsgrewup in Prince George’s County and says she’s always had a “rainbow coalition” of friends.Winkfield,now32,was raisedin amostlywhite neighborhood in theDis- trict and attended a private prep school. “We always joke around that I give


him his street cred and he gives me my country club card,” saysAdams, now27. They moved in together in the sum-


TRACY A. WOODWARD/THE WASHINGTON POST APARTMENTLIVING:Ashley Adams andKyle Winkfield were neighbors before they were best friends. BY ELLENMCCARTHY Ashley Adams and Kyle Winkfield


came to know each other in classic big- city fashion. The neighbors in a Silver Spring apartment complex didn’t speak, but they constructed hazy ideas of each other’s lives based on clues they gath- ered in passing. A Navy Seal flag on his balconymade


her think he was a military man; the tightness of his workout shorts had her wondering if hewas gay. He knewshe owned a cat and thought


she lived with a guy who might be her brother; thepreponderanceofMaryland sweat shirts gave away her almamatter. She dubbed him the “The Loud Guy


JULIE NAPEAR PHOTOGRAPHY


Sheila Leonard & Carlton Davis


Sheila Leonard, 28, is a research analyst. Carlton Davis, 28, is a lawyer. They live in the District.


Wedding date: Oct. 9.


Location: Georgetown Lutheran Church and Nationals Park, Washington.


Guests: 150.


Howthey met: Though Leonard and Davis attended the same high school in Alexandria, they didn’t meet until after college in 2006, when both went to a Nationals-Orioles baseball game with mutual friends. After the game, the two spent the rest of the evening chatting at a bar in Arlington.


The proposal: Leonard had always said that she wanted to get engaged at the Jefferson Memorial. So Davis took her on a picnic at the scenic monument in May and proposed on the steps as the sun set.


Thewedding: As a nod to their first meeting, Leonard and Davis held a playful reception at Nationals Park’s Diamond Club, overlooking the field. A photo slideshow played on the scoreboard and table centerpieces included traditional ballgame snacks such as popcorn and Cracker Jack.


The honeymoon: Leonard’s aunt and uncle offered to let the newly married couple use their beach house in Oak Island, N.C., where Leonard and Davis spent a week fishing, kayaking, biking, playing tennis and strolling the beach.


—Michelle Thomas RIDINGTHERAILS Ah, Vienna,where commuters’ thoughts turn to love BY ELLEN MCCARTHY They were on the same Metro train


heading toward Vienna two nights in a row, sitting in almost the exact same seats. She watched him edit papers and noticed his red sneakers and khaki-col- ored corduroys. She stole glances in his direction, thinking that he looked like just her type. There was no way of knowing if he felt the same, so anony- mously she wrote: “If you’re interested: What stop did I get off at and what was I wearing?” Witha fewclicks,her entreatywentup


on cyberspace’s biggest bulletin board for those looking to get a second chance at love — the Craigslist Missed Connec- tions ads. Our hopeful heroine couldn’t have


known it, but her Hail Mary attempt to catch the attention of Mr. Khaki Cords was among those thatmade the Vienna/ FairfaxMetro station themost romantic stop on theWMATA grid. Craigslist analyzed the 286 Missed


Connections ads posted for theWashing- ton region over a seven-week period


earlier this year and found that Vienna was by far the stop that produced the most amorous thoughts among its riders. “Maybe it’s just the name Vienna,”


speculates Peter Freedman, the Craig- slist public relations official who ran the analysis. “Perhaps it just conjures images of going to the imperial ball in a gown and saving the last waltz forme.” Uh, perhaps. But Freedman actually


lives in London, so he’s not too familiar with the brown tiles and plastic seat cushions of our subway system. Imperial balls probably don’t come to mind — no matter where you’re headed. The rankings were based not just on


the number of mentions each station received in the seven-week period but also on the number of mentions com- pared with ridership for that station. Based on those calculations, the Vienna stop on the Orange Line was deemed almost twice as romantic as the next station on the list, Van Dorn Street. “It could be because it’s the end of the


line,” Freedman says. “They spend the whole journey thinking about who the other person is — it could just be the time factor.”


Washington’s 10most romanticMetro stations


1. Vienna /Fairfax-GMU(Orange) 2. Van Dorn Street (Blue) 3. Shady Grove (Red) 4. Dupont Circle (Red) 5. Metro Center (Orange/Blue/Red) 6. Van Ness (Red) 7. Pentagon (Blue/Yellow) 8. Rosslyn (Blue/Orange) 9. Ballston-MU (Orange) 10. Foggy Bottom-GWU(Blue/Orange)


That makes sense, until you consider


that Largo Town Center, which is at the end of the Blue Line, was deemedWash- ington’s least romantic station. It got zero Missed Connections mentions over the seven weeks. Mass transit systems are a major


factor in Missed Connection ads for every major U.S. city. “A subway throws together so many people who would not normally encounter each other,” Freed- man says. “So it’s sort of a factory for


chance encounters and for fresh roman- tic possibilities.” He also thinks that the unwritten code


of silence between passengers on trains can contribute to an atmosphere of people-watching that sometimes leads to longing. And the longing doesn’t always go


unfulfilled. The folks at Craigslist keep a file of happy endings reported by people brought together byMissed Connections ads. There’s the single mom at a movie theater who fell in love with a single dad who kept looking at her and finally got in touch through the Web site. And the couplewhomet on a flight toMinneapo- lis but didn’t exchange numbers until he posted an ad looking for her. At last word, they were planning a wedding. As for our loveless lady bound for


Vienna — well, there’s no news. So if you’re out there, Mr. Khaki Cords, it’s yourmove.


mccarthye@washpost.com 6


MISSED CONNECTION? Have you ever written or responded to aMissed


Connection?Would you? Tell your story at washingtonpost.com/style.


Upstairs” — he lived directly above her and seemed to thunder from room to room.He came to admire her home-dec- orating skills one day in 2005 when he lockedhimselfouthadtoscalethesideof the building to get into his apartment. Stopping on her balcony for a second, he was struck by the style of her abode. “Man, it looks like Crate and Barrel in here,” he thought. Winkfield’s friendsuggestedhetalkto


her sometime. “That’s not happening. I can’t,” repliedWinkfield, who is notori- ously shy about approaching women. “And he was like, ‘I bet you the first girl you ever ask out, you’llmarry. It’s gonna take something special for you to open yourmouth.’ ”


‘It’s exciting and slightly scary at the same time’ Ashley Adams & Kyle Winkfield


What it took, actually, was boredom.


One Thursday in February 2006, Wink- field decided to play hooky from the financial management firm he runs. Restless and annoyed that none of his friends was available to hang out, he begantothinkthatheshouldget toknow his neighbors. When he noticed Adams walking into the building around lunch- time,hemade a snap decisionto gomeet her. Adams heard a door slam and some-


one yell “Wait!” before seeingWinkfield stumble down the stairs inmismatched clothes and sandals over socks. He stut- tered out an introduction, saying he’d seenherandherbrotheraroundandhad beenmeaning to say hi. Adams toldWinkfield she lived alone


— an ex-boyfriend had once been a fre- quentvisitor,but they’dbrokenupsever-


almonths earlier. Despite being slightly unnerved when he complimented her decorating style, shewas charmedbyhis nervousness. When snow began to fall that week-


end, shefoundherselfhopingtheymight be able to wait out the storm together. Winkfield was wishing the same thing, but he was stuck at a friend’s house in a distant suburb. The following Monday, Adams gath-


ered her nerve and walked upstairs to tellWinkfield shewasmaking cupcakes and that he was welcome to come down and have one. Thatnight he stayed at her place until


almost 2 a.m., talking and inhaling the baked goods she’d intended to offer her co-workers. The next daywas Valentine’sDay; the comic-book-collecting Winkfield felt as


mer of 2008. By then, the chorus of calls for themto get engaged had reached an irksome decibel level. Adams began wearing a cheap band on her left ring finger toward off questions. But thatNovember,Winkfield—who


hates crowds, cities and public displays of privatemoments—caught Adams off guard by proposing in Times Square during what she thought was a girls’ weekend. “He knew that was the only way I’d ever be surprised,” she says. OnNov.6,Winkfieldmadehisbuddy’s


prophecy come true by marrying the first girl he ever asked out. The couple exchanged vows on the grounds of Glen Echo Park, which had recently celebrat- ed the 50th anniversary of historic pro- tests that led to its integration. Before heading to a reception in the


bumper car pavilion,Winkfield pledged never to start the dishwasher before it was fullyloaded,andAdamspromisedto keep her organizational piles to a mini- mum. A program Adams designed fea- tured a comic book-style image of the couple and welcomed guests to “The Adventures of Ashley & Kyle — 1st Edi- tion!” “We just get along,” Winkfield said


before the wedding. “When you have a best friend there’s nothing you can’t work out.”


mccarthye@washpost.com 3


ONWASHINGTONPOST.COM Alapaki Yee, co-founder of the San


Franciso-based organizationGay Couples Institute, offers relationship advice for gay couples onDec. 1 at noon at washingtonpost.com/onlove.


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