Those who think the tossing of the bride's bouquet is nothing more than a time-honored tradition haven't heard the story of Danielle Brown.

Danielle had been to dozens of weddings. And dozens of times, she had stood in a group of single ladies, all clambering to catch the flowers that signal a trip down the aisle. Never had she caught them.

Then, last March, her luck changed. At a friend's wedding in Baltimore, Danielle again found herself in a scramble of satin dresses. Again, she reached out her arms and held her breath. In a flash, the flowers fell into her arms.

"I was definitely surprised," said Danielle, who's now 28. "But I'd been there so many times that I tried to just take it for what it was worth and have fun with it."

The day after the wedding, Danielle dragged herself out of bed for a blind date arranged by the bride and groom. Feeling exhausted from the wedding celebration, she tried to cancel. At the time she was living in San Francisco, and wondered what good it would do her to meet a man from Baltimore.

"I didn't want to go at all," said Danielle. "I was tired, and had to pack to go home. But then I thought it would be wrong to bail out, so I threw some clothes on and went."

Meanwhile, Carnell Cooper, a surgeon at the University of Maryland Medical Center, was sitting at home watching basketball, thinking up excuses to cancel the blind date his friends had arranged for him.

"I was comfortable on my couch, curled up in a beat-up blanket and really didn't want to go," said Carnell, 46. "But then I thought, 'I'm not seeing anyone -- I better do this.' "

They arranged to meet at the home of the bride and groom for a drink. Danielle, who got stuck in traffic, showed up half an hour late. Carnell was waiting with a gift in his hand.

"He gave me this box and in it was this beautiful, dainty pendant," said Danielle. "I was shocked. I thought 'What happened to flowers?' But I was really touched."

"I gave it to her because I thought it was really brave of her to show up and give me a chance," said Carnell.

After some initial conversation, Carnell knew he wanted to get to know Danielle better and asked her to dinner at a restaurant in Ellicott City. Despite their almost 20-year difference in age, the two found they had much in common.

"I was immediately impressed with her," said Carnell. "She was beautiful, bright and so easy to talk to."

"It was just an instant love connection," said Danielle. "Over dinner my only thought was that I couldn't find anything wrong with him."

The only thing wrong was the distance between them. As Danielle flew home to San Francisco the next day and Carnell went to work, both of them recall wondering, "What next?"

That week, Carnell called Danielle several times, and asked her to a party at a medical conference he was attending in Boston. She agreed.

Several cross-country trips later, Danielle came home from work one evening to find Carnell sitting in the courtyard of her apartment. That night, over a sushi dinner, he asked her to marry him.

Danielle and Carnell were married on Oct. 19 at St. James Episcopal Church in Baltimore, followed by a reception at the Gramercy Mansion. The couple reside in Baltimore, where Danielle works as a fund-raiser for the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

"We found love blindly," said Danielle. "I just caught the bouquet, and it all happened like a fairy tale."