Bridal Bliss: Love at First Sight

That What Friends Are For When Aisha’s dear friend Rashad accepted a job in NYC, he invited her and another close friend over to help him pack and reflect on his life in Washington D.C. But when Danielle walked through the door, Aisha put down the cardboard boxes and the packing tape and focused on the vision of love in front of her. It was love at first sight. “Danielle and I sat in Rashad’s window sill and talked about our lives for hours,” Aisha remembers. Six and a half years later, Aisha and Danielle continue their conversation of love.

Sushi Surprise For their first date, Aisha took Danielle to Perry’s in Adam’s Morgan, D.C. Five years later, Aisha invited her sweetheart back. Aisha suggested she wear something special, and Danielle obliged. As the two sat on the rooftop terrace, eating sushi, sipping cocktails and reminiscing on their relationship, Danielle was shocked to realize their server was Sheldon, the same waiter who had served them five years before. As Sheldon set a plate down on the table he said, “This is the special of the night, five years in the making.” “Nestled in the sushi is my engagement ring,” Danielle gushes. “I burst into tears as Aisha said, ‘Will you marry me?’ Then an entire storm broke out across D.C.” The clouds were not about to spoil their special night, though. Aisha had another surprise for her new fiancee. They headed down the street to a champagne lounge named Napoleons. “We walk inside and go downstairs and as I walk in the door all our friends say, ‘Surprise!’ and ‘Congratulations!’ Aisha and Danielle finished the night off basking in their love with friends and sipping on their signature cocktail — the “La Danisha,” a play on their name.

Love Is All You Need Before learning that they could apply for a marriage license in their hometown, Aisha and Danielle had resolved to file in Connecticut where marriage was legal. “I thought, ‘It’s a travesty that we have to go through a series of hoops and hurdles just to say ‘I do,'” says Danielle. “But at the same time the amount of love that we have is so tremendous that there would be no obstacle high enough to keep it from happening.” On December 18, 2009, D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty signed a bill to legalize marriage for gay and lesbian couples. In March 2010, the bill became law and Danielle and Aisha and other couples in limbo were able to apply for their marriage licenses in the nation’s capital. “To do it at home was really the wowing part for us,” Aisha says.