Preston's coworkers were thoroughly impressed. "I brought it in, and a couple of women, and even a few men, said that if I didn't marry him, they would," she says.

But that's not an issue. Preston said yes to the unusual proposal, and the couple has set an Oct. 9 wedding date.

"I wanted to do something different," Miller says. "I thought of a billboard, but it was too expensive. I just wanted something special."

Preston, 52, an administrative assistant with the Department of Parks and Recreation, has been dating Miller, 50, since they met over the Internet last fall. Miller is an assistant manager at Los Gatos Lunardi's Market, and both live in Campbell.

To propose, Miller invited Preston to dinner on Feb. 12. Calling ahead for a table, he set the scene with flowers, candles and the previous day's issue of the Reporter. Not taking any chances that Preston would see his newspaper proposal before their date, Miller went to her house and removed the paper from her driveway. Preston rabidly reads the Reporter from cover to cover. "It was very clever of him," she says. "I didn't know that he knew that."

Miller also disguised the reason for dinner, telling Preston that they were meeting friends. When she arrived at the restaurant, he told her their friends couldn't make it.

"It was very romantic," she says. "I walked in, saw the flowers and candles. I thought it was odd that the newspaper was there."

To explain the paper, Miller showed her the cover story about the reopening of Campbell's Heritage Theatre, telling her he was among the community's donors in the remodeling project. He then told her to look on page 10 and waited for her to read his written proposal.

"I was really surprised," Preston says. "We started talking, he was asking me questions, then finally he said, 'What's your answer?' and I realized I hadn't given him an answer."

The couple, who have both been married previously, met through Yahoo! Personals. Preston says she has personally participated in online personals on and off for four years. "When you're 50 and over and a female, it's difficult finding a dating arena," she says. "I've met a lot of great people this way."

During their online exchanges, Preston and Miller also discovered they shared similar backgrounds—both moved to the Bay Area with their families in 1962, both have worked since a very young age. They also found out they lived within a mile and a half of each other.

Miller called Preston in November to suggest they meet. She agreed, arriving at a local coffee shop thinking the "meet and greet" would last about 20 minutes. "We were there talking for hours," Preston said. "I felt a chemistry, and he did, too."

The next day, Miller called Preston, and while leaving a message on her answering machine, impulsively asked Preston to join him for a weekend at his second home in Paradise. "I said, 'This is really off the wall, but would you like to go with me for the weekend? Just platonic? Take a chance?'" Miller says. "When I got home, she'd called and said she would."

Preston said it seemed risky, but she had "a sense" about it.

"It was like I'd known him a long time," she says. "He was a perfect gentleman. There was no monkey business."

The long drive gave the couple hours to talk, and the three-day weekend included a visit to meet Miller's sister. "It felt so strange to meet his family because we'd barely seen each other for 24 hours, and that's something you do when it's the one," she says. "But it was also a way to check on him, and all of his friends were as down to earth as he is."

The couple has since traveled to San Diego, Preston's hometown. Preston says her family—parents, two sisters, and four children—like Miller, and so do her friends.

"At first, my friends said, 'It's so soon, what do you know about him?' Then they meet him, and they like him immediately," she says. "It's all been very positive."

Even their pets—Preston's cat, Yoda, a black shorthair, and Miller's dog, a vizsla named Eddie—live in harmony. "That was our worst worry," Preston says, "bringing the dog and cat together."

What Preston doesn't know is where she and Miller will be going on their honeymoon. "He hasn't told me what he's planning," she says.