"'Do you want to grab drinks on Thursday?' - Javi

'Aw, I'd love to, Javier!' - Mandy


It's 2018, and Bumble is the hottest dating app - back when dating apps were still novel and fun. Mandy and Javi, having realized they live in neighboring buildings, arrange a first date in no time, at Good Night Sonny in the East Village. 

A harbinger of things to come, Mandy had “good-bye drinks” scheduled for her work friend, Maddy, that same evening, and misjudged the time it would take to get from the West Side to the East Side of Manhattan, and showed up an hour late to the date. They missed their reservation..."

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“Chu’s friends like to joke that not even a pandemic could stop her from her dating goals. Lucky for Wil, this was based in truth. Chu and Wil met in September of 2020. Trying to at least maintain the facade of pandemic social responsibility, they planned their first date around a local hike in Great Falls, Virginia. This hike allowed for reasonable social distancing and gave Wil the opportunity to meet Chu’s new puppy, Marzo. Wil was happy to demonstrate the dog handling skills accumulated over a childhood growing up with four special pets. The trail Chu chose for the first date, known as Difficult Run, would host another important milestone for the couple two and half years later…when Wil proposed to Chu.

To add some flavor and excitement to the date, Chu suggested a sandwich swap…”

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“Payton and I met in college, at The University of Alabama. I was in my junior year of undergrad, while Payton was completing his Masters. It was my last sorority date party of the year, and our mutual friends set us up. We instantly connected, bonding over our shared love of traveling and adventure! 

That summer, while I was studying abroad in a hospital in Athens, Greece, Payton was backpacking around Europe. We had kept in touch and decided to meet up as our paths crossed in Greece. We had so much fun together and got along so well. It was as if we had known each other much longer than we had. On our first “date,” we spent hours together exploring the streets of Athens, including…”

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“Duncan and I actually met back in college at Clemson. It was during our undergrad studies, and we hit it off right away. Our first date is actually a pretty funny story. We decided to meet up at a Walmart parking lot and then headed to a park. Looking back, we both knew right from the start that it was love. It's one of our favorite memories.

As we got to know each other better, we realized something amazing. We had so many mutual friends, and we could have crossed paths many times before actually meeting. But we believe that things happen for a reason, and we were meant to meet when we did. After just a few months of dating, our friends and families were amazed. They couldn't believe…”

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“Bryce and I first met back in 2019 after we swiped right on Tinder. We exchanged a few messages and decided to meet each other for dinner. At first, I didn’t know if I wanted to meet Bryce in person just because I feared it wasn’t going to work out (I’m sure whoever has used the dating app Tinder would understand). I ended up telling myself ‘why not’ all while I had a gut feeling that I needed to go on this date. Little did I know, it would be the best decision I ever made.”

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“Leighton and I met on a crisp fall night on October 12th, 2018 in Charleston, SC on the rooftop of Saltwater Cowboys. After a few dates, we realized how much we had in common, including both of us having older sisters, attending the University of South Carolina at the same time, and having German Shorthaired Pointer dogs. It was on our third date that we realized that our dogs (Bentley and Cooper) actually have the same dad, are one month apart in age, and are both from Georgia. We were…”

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