Meredith Maitner, a 40-year-old first-time bride reflected on her long road to The Magic Room. There were many men who didn’t work out, and she assumed she’d be single forever. But she made a discovery about love. In her twenties, she had kept a list of qualities she wanted in a husband. She sought an athletic, manly, high-powered professional.

Two decades later, she ended up marrying a low-key artist who is a “foodie’ like her. “I came to realize,” she said, “that, most of all, I wanted someone to support me emotionally, to share a bowl of popcorn with. I wanted to do the dishes and look out the window and see him cutting the grass. I wanted someone who could make the good times better and the hard times not as hard. I know it’s corny, but I wanted someone to grow old with me.”

That long-ago list of “manly” traits is now just a curiosity.

Pictured: Meredith’s wedding party