Voros headed to a mall to shop for a ring that week and presented Rowan with the diamond one month later.

"The terrorist attacks shook me up. I was really worried about her," said Voros, 42, who lives in Elmer, N.J., two hours away from Rowan, a New Yorker. "This made me think, maybe I shouldn't wait as long."

Added Rowan, 34: "I heard all those stories about people losing their loved ones. It made him more important."

There aren't any statistics to prove that more people have been getting engaged since the attacks — but there is plenty of anecdotal evidence.

Retailers from David's Bridal to Ashford.com and Bluenile.com are reporting a jump in sales of wedding merchandise including gowns and rings. The number of people setting up bridal registries is also up.

The surge in business is a pleasant surprise to the $70 billion bridal industry, which traditionally does most of its business from January through March as couples prepare for summer weddings.

"This is usually a quiet period, the least-busy time," said Ingrid Kelly, director of special events for David's Bridal, which operates 144 stores nationwide. "But we are seeing a tremendous increase in bridal registries."

Some customers, she said, are moving up wedding dates from 2004 and 2003 to next year.

Wedding World Inc., a 19-store bridal chain based in Altoona, Pa., so far has a 22 percent gain in sales in November at stores open at least a year.

"The Sept. 11 event is giving the business more momentum," company owner David Kaufman said, adding that business got a boost from people in the military who wanted to get married before being sent overseas.

The wedding industry typically is one of the few sectors that holds up in a recession, though couples tend to scale back on expenses. There are more than 2.2 million U.S. marriages annually.

The post-Sept. 11 rise in bridal business surprised David Liu, chief executive of The Knot.com, a leading wedding resource. The Knot.com compared its online traffic during the first week of September with traffic during the first week of October, expecting a negative impact. Instead, Liu found a 10 percent increase in bridal registries. The site also had a 17 percent gain in traffic to its marriage license finder, and has gained advertising from tuxedo retailers and photographers.