TOWN OF HARTFORD - Before new friends and potential mates were a mouse click away, Jim and Kathy Weber found each other through a classified ad written in jest by four sisters.

But it wasn’t the courtship that brought the town of Hartford couple’s relationship to the notice of the National Enquirer, it was the wedding.

The Webers celebrated their 23rd anniversary Sunday, the same date as her sister’s wedding anniversary.

"I was 35 and my mom was very aggressive in wanting to have me married," said Kathy Weber.

It was 1985, and she was a hospital consultant working in Minnesota.

Amused by their mother’s efforts to see her four daughters wed, Kathy Weber and her sisters sat down at their parents’ kitchen table at Christmas time and, over a few glasses of their father's homemade wine, passed the time by writing their own personal ads.

When Kathy Weber returned home, the last thing on her mind was the notice they left crumpled in a wastebasket back home - until her landlady left a note on her door.

"She had over 200 letters from Hoard's Dairyman for me," said Kathy Weber, whose mother had fished the letter out of the garbage and had it run in the agricultural magazine.

"For three or four months, every time I turned around, there were letters stuffed in my mailbox," she said.

Letters came for the four fun-loving sisters from all over the world, including Saudi Arabia.

"I was so upset with my mom, I told her she would have to write them back," said Kathy Weber.

She figured her mother wouldn’t respond to the hundreds of hopefuls whose letters were piling up, but her sister Susan agreed to answer a few.

Kathy Weber took on the lion’s share, responding with a polite thank you, but letting the literary Romeos know there would be no further correspondence.

Jim Weber won an interview through his persistence and a bit of bravado.

"I saw the notice, saw it and pondered over it," he said. "It seemed like something clicked, that gut feeling that you can’t describe."

He wrote a letter "to get the ball rolling and see what was out there."

"He wrote back through Hoard’s saying (that) if I didn’t want to write him, I should give his letter to one of my other sisters," said Kathy Weber.

She couldn’t let the matter pass. She wrote back, telling Jim Webert he was too old for her younger siblings, and then made a slip she insists was unintentional: she included her return address on the envelope.

"After two or three months of writing, we ended up calling each other," said Kathy Weber.

"We visited back and forth after that," Jim Weber said. "I would talk on the phone ‘til I thought my arm was going to fall off. We could talk about any thing."

Eventually a meeting was arranged.

"The first meeting was awful," said Kathy Weber. "I drove out to Wisconsin in a three-piece suit, expecting to meet a nice, well-rounded young man. What I saw was a red-headed man in a pink shirt with a brown fringe vest about 15 years out of style. He was not (the kind of man) I typically went out with."

They went to a fish fry in Huilsburg.

"I didn’t think he was ever going to finish eating," said Kathy Weber.

"I was so nervous I was literally vibrating," said Jim Weber. "I didn’t even realize I was putting ketchup on every french fry."

Before he dropped her off at a local hotel for the night, she told him she didn’t think it would work out.

"At first I felt little rejected. I thought appearance isn’t everything," said Jim Weber.

But after talking with a girlfriend and doing a little pondering of her own, Kathy Weber decided to give her suitor another chance.

"I figured he could be cleaned up around the edges, but I was very honest with him. I told him I was used to dating men with little more finesse. He said, ‘I'll change,’ and he did," said Kathy Weber.

She was worth the effort, Jim Weber said.

"In talking to her, I realized (she) had qualities that were not like anybody I knew before," Jim Weber said. "There was something different, something positive. She was a down-home type and that was a big plus. Then I found out she was a really good cook."

Jim Weber, who had never left the family farm, traveled to North Dakota to meet his future wife’s parents.

That September, Kathy Weber’s sister Susan, who was also corresponding with a young man, announced her engagement and the celebration that December became a double wedding.

The news literally flashed around the world - from Hoard’s to the National Enquirer to Woman's Day. News of the courtship and double wedding was broadcast on Radio Free Europe.

But the actual wedding day didn’t match up to the Princess Di-Prince Charles fete.

"I remember pushing the van out of a snow bank in North Dakota with 20-below wind chill," Jim Weber said. ""When people wanted to leave the reception, they went out and started their vehicle up about 15 minutes early to get a little bit of heat out of it."

Jim Weber said his devotion didn't begin with the first date, "but as time went on, it was like building a wall. You keep laying a brick and laying a brick and suddenly, you have a solid foundation."

Both agree the match was a good decision, even though there have been some eye-openers along the way.