Melanie & Shawn in Jekyll Island, GA

Though their relationship first took flight in 2000, Melanie and Shawn were literally flying high a few years later. They met when Melanie was a medical student and Shawn was chief resident of neurosurgery at a New Orleans hospital. The Bride Melanie Hodge, 32, radiologist The Groom Shawn Clark, 42, neurosurgeon The Date September 13 Their friendship turned into more, later that year. In 2001, Shawn opened a practice in Virginia, and an interest in radiology brought Melanie to a program in Pittsburgh after that. To make visiting each other easier, Shawn got a pilot's license and bought a single-engine plane. Eight years after they began dating, while on one of his trips to see Melanie in Pittsburgh, Shawn proposed on the wing of his plane at the airport.