In honour of Valentine's Day, we got all the deets on real-life couples and how they met…
With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, there’s never been a more perfect time to read a good, romantic story. After all, who doesn’t enjoy melting into a syrupy mess every now and then? Our thoughts? Real-life love stories are even better! They’re relatable, realistic and everyone’s secret guilty indulgence. So in honour of St. Valentine, we’ve rounded up some of our favourite real-life love stories. The best part? They all have happy endings… Enjoy!
Real-life love stories
1. Grappling for love
“Everybody gets a little thrill (myself included, but don’t tell my husband) when I tell people I met the father of my two kids in a martial arts class. He was my instructor, and I was the clueless student. Actually, the truth is, I pursued him first because I thought he was cute. How could I not? He was smart and we had a lot in common… plus he had a nice set of abs! Eleven years later, he’s still smart and we have a lot more in common, but the abs are (sadly) gone!”
2. The stalker
“I pretty much stalked my partner for over a year until he had no choice but to date me. He actually had a girlfriend when we first met, so I patiently waited in the shadows until it came to an end. In the meantime, I became friends with his parents and got them on board with the idea of a future wedding, too (they happened to be my neighbours – I’m not THAT much of a stalker). Anyway, one thing led to another, and four years later, I guess it really was love at first sight (I promise he’s not tied up in my basement!).”
3. My funny valentine
“We met in school during our polytechnic days. We were in the same acapella group. He was my junior but somehow found his way into the senior clique, thanks to my nosy friends (they were very concerned about my dating life). We all hung out almost every day after school and even though he was the only junior in the group, he never failed to make his presence felt by making all of us laugh. He asked me out a year later. Fast forward eight years and I’m glad he clawed his way to me. Cheesy much?”
4. A tinder-rific romance
“I’ve seen some gross, cheesy lines on Tinder, hilarious put-downs and NSFW profile pictures, but I didn’t let the stigma of Tinder being ‘just for flings’ dash my hope of finding love. I swiped; we matched. Our first date was incredibly nerve-wracking, but a Mookata meal did the trick in calming me down. The conversation turned out great and it soon became a weekly thing. One fine day, after six months of dating, I received a surprise puzzle box from Italy from my partner. After an hour of attempting to solve the puzzle, I finally uncovered the secret compartment that carried a small white note that simply stated, ‘Would you be my one and only?’ Today, we are five years strong.”
5. Try and try until you succeed
“I didn’t believe in love at first sight until I met my husband. It was the first day of orientation and instead of concentrating on my studies, all I could think of was plotting how to get close to him. Thirteen years on, I am happy to call him my husband – there’s no one else I want to irritate for the rest of my life. This is a message to encourage women to fight for what you want because if you don’t try, you’ll never get what you want!”
6. Another kind of sourcing
“He sat behind me in class. We took the same class and while we didn’t learn much, we sourced each other. I had a crush on him (but never admitted it), but I was too shy to speak to him until he made the initiative. The first time we went out was for a classmate’s birthday dinner. The birthday celebration finished and the crowd left, but we were the only two remaining. We’ve never left each other’s sight ever since. After 15 years, a daughter and a furkid later, he still gives me butterflies.”
7. Ten things I like about you…
“The old ball and chain and I met on OkCupid. From the first date, I knew that we weren’t meant to be and kind of put the whole thing down to at least a good night out. But I’d promised to buy the next meal and about six months later I got a text message reminding me of the fact. I slept through our next platonic meeting (#jetlag) but took him out for dinner that night. He’d decided that we were meant to be together and gave me a list of 10 reasons why. I broke it off with the guy I was seeing and moved in with him three weeks later. That was four years ago and now I kinda like him.”
8. From co-workers to co-partners in life
“It’s probably not overly glamorous or exciting meeting your partner at work… although the company in question did run the country’s national lottery, so choose your own cheese bomb line about hitting the jackpot/landing the prize/etc here! When we got married four years later, we gave each guest at the wedding a lottery scratchcard at their place card setting as a nice little nod to how we’d met. Aww, shucks…”
Psst – talking of real-life love stories, we thought who better to consult than our own kids?! So we asked the Honeykids’ kids what they think love is all about… Happy Valentine’s Day, people!
