Hi Jennifer, welcome.
Funny, I've recently found myself in that market again

Only for myself, I'm really not interested in the online thing at the moment...
That said, it seems to work really well for many people. What can I/we do for you? Are you basically looking for some ideas for the future site?
I'd be happy to suggest a few things if you're interested. First and foremost, we're now in the age of Social Networking. I would definitely consider allowing interactions of real people on the site. There's no better endorsement than having your community able to speak for themselves, I would think especially on a dating site.
When considering just how much social networking to add there are a number of options and philosophies, which of course will depend on budget as well. I would say there's no reason to limit yourself to what other dating sites do. Of course there's a lot to learn from them, but why not think out of the box? For example, besides allowing users to interact with each other by sending notes and virtual roses and things, maybe you could make it more community style where people can have ongoing Journals/scapbooks of themselves. Let them upload photos, to a community pool of photos where people can vote on them, etc. The more people get to know each other, the more welcome it will feel. Many people are getting more and more into social networking these days.
Then again I could be wrong... maybe you see yourself more as matchmaker than a dating site where people interact...