I love these kinds of threads. A lot of the stories are so cute.
I met the guy I’m dating now on an online dating site. Not so unusual, except that I’ve been there for (mumble mumble) number of years and never was that interested in dating anyone from it, until I met him.
Met my SO in 1971…in 2nd grade when I moved into her town. But she had cooties, so I decided to wait for 12 years for her to get well enough to date me in 1983. The rest of our lives has been cootie-free.
In the stone ages, I produced a zine, and reviewed zines. I was known for being “notoriously negative.” Whatever.
I traded zines with a couple from San Francisco, and they liked what I had to say. When I mentioned / announced in my zine that I was moving to San Fran (unrelated to the other couple - I was moving to get away from NJ and to meet a close zine friend), they told THEIR best friend that they thought she’d get along well with me. We exchanged some letters, met for dinner, and bam, that was it. We’ve been together for 13 years.
Joe
I have told our story several times on the Dope, but I met my husband on a blind date also. And we disliked each other on sight. So of course we had to get married.
Oh come on! You can’t leave us hanging like that! 
I met my wife at at job in Washington, DC, but I was dating someone at the time and so we were just friends. I still remember the first time I saw her, she was bent over putting paper in a copier and I though “nice butt!” A couple years later we were both working in Kosovo, and started dating.
ETA: it was a printer, not a copier.
I second this. Spill it, sistah.
Met at a combination Japanese all you can eat, all you can drink bar night that featured a winner gets trip to Hawaii wet t-shirt and beer chugging contest (two seperate contests) in Tokyo. My buddy was talking to a woman and asked “where are you from in Japan?”, she replied “I’m Chinese not japanese.” I hadn’t even seen her yet, just heard the exchange, turned to my buddy and said “dude, I’m cutting in.”
Then I turned to the woman and said “xiaojie, ni hao ma?” (howyadoing?) Been married 15 years.
I at one time made mead, lots of it. Five gallons a week, most weeks of the year. This at a time when regional brewfests featured too many beer brewers to grant all entry. I was the sole mead meister at these events.
A friend of mine said he knew someone that made it, so wanting to talk shop, I asked for a meeting. We drove to his house, but nobody home. I went back later, alone. His wife was there but not him, invited me back when he came home.
Turns out he and I shared a number of interests, became friends. But his wife and I had an instant and total attraction that started to get tense when their marriage hit turbulence. I wasn’t going to betray my friend, and lucky for me, his wife realised pursuing that wasn’t the best course of action.
The short story, she introduced me to my wife. The long, after the fact story, she conferred with her friends to pick who they thought most suitable of the available friends.
It has worked pretty well. Still very friendly with all concerned, but there is no way I would have met my SO in normal life.
She moved in with a friend of mine. When my friend decided to move out and get a place with her boyfriend, I thought about taking her place in the old apartment. To get to know me, she invited me to a party for a friend of hers. We bonded while trying to make brownies and over music - her friends had horrible taste, but she liked Ray Charles.
We didn’t take the apartment together, but we got to know each other better when my friend moved out the following month. Our first date was that night, and it’s been almost three years.
I met my wife in 1980, when I was 12 and she’d just turned 13. I was a new cadet at a military school, living far from home; she was a Girl Scout. The regional Girl Scouting organization and my school co-sponsored a dance, with Girl Scouts from all around the area converging on the little town where the school was located. Being from a tiny town where the biggest excitement to be had was going downtown and driving in an endless loop, the future Mrs. Chef jumped at the chance to actually DO something on a Saturday night.
We didn’t exactly hit it off that first night. She thought I was obnoxious (to be fair, she was right on in that character assessment), and I barely noticed her at all, because I had my hands full with a friend of hers who attached herself to me. I spent the evening dancing with the friend, who had . . . bloomed early.
(Want to know how clueless I was back then? She kept saying things like, “Wow, it’s HOT in here. Want to… go outside for a while?” I’d say sure, we’d go outside and just stand there, and after a while I’d say “Want to go back in now?” and she’d grit her teeth and say yes. I wish I could reach through time and dope-slap my dumb young self. On the other hand, I wouldn’t want things to have turned out differently.)
Anyway, the following year there was another Girl Scout dance, and the friend didn’t come back but Mrs. Chef did, and I thought to myself, “I’ve at least MET her before, so asking her to dance will be marginally less agonizing than approaching a complete stranger.” This time I was less obnoxious (having had the worst of it beaten out of me by then), and I noticed her a lot more, and we were off to the races.
We had a pen-pal, “see you at the dance” kind of relationship until she got her driver’s license; once she could drive, she started coming around more often and we just morphed into a couple. Her dad used to monitor the odometer to see how far she was driving, so she’d drive into her town, get a friend who was handy with cars to unhook the odometer cable, and drive the 40-odd miles to my school, then reverse the process on the way back. He never caught on, as far as I know.
We were each other’s senior prom dates. Once she graduated and went to college, she and I saw each other every weekend; once I graduated and went to college, I fell under the evil influence of my fraternity brothers and dumped her, but she just outwaited me and eventually I came to my senses. We were married in 1991 and I couldn’t be more content.
Okay, see, now here’s an example where we need more details.
I met my SO when one of my very good friends said to me, “Hey, straggler, meet my younger sister…”
I met my girlfriend on Thanksgiving, we had mutual friends of friends, and I was new to town. The busybody of the group said to us, at the table “Hey, you’ve been complaining about lack of nookie, and so has she, why don’t you two…”
So we did.
Now I wish I hadn’t said that, because it was kind of a joke. Sorry to disappoint.
We did meet in Vegas, there was gambling afoot, and I believe a wager was placed at some point that we would be married before the weekend was over, but that’s not exactly how the wedding bit went down. We married three weeks later in an arrangement completely unrelated to the wager. Love takes time, you know. Our anniversary is in July, and we’re going back to Vegas as we do every year.
I met my wife at work (I posted this in the thread referenced above, but what the heck).
Here’s the scenario: Middling-to-large New York law firm. I’m the word processing manager. Middle-aged guy, a bit eccentric, or so I’m told She’s a hot-shit, partner-track associate. Drop-dead gorgeous. Quite a few years younger than me. She’d come in to the word processing center from time to time with work. We’d chat. We realize we enjoy chatting.
She invites me to a party she’s hosting. For her boyfriend. I go. I have a great time. Me and the future wife talk for ages.
Unbeknowst to me at the time, she breaks up with the boyfriend mentioned above, right after the party.
Back at work, we talk more. Eventually we decide to carry on a conversation after work, and go out for drinks. We have a great time. We repeat. Sometimes with other co-workers, sometimes not. Which is strange. Don’t know if any of you are familiar with New York law firms, but the support staff does not socialize with the lawyers. There’s a huge class divide.
This goes on for about a month or two.
Eventually, one evening, we’re out for drinks. It’s late. We decide to have dinner. We do. The restaurant is not far from her apartment, so after dinner I walk her back. I can’t take it any more. I say to her, "I know I’m on thin ice here, but I don’t care. . . " and I kiss her. Somewhat to my surprise, she responds enthusiastically. No more than a kiss (OK, a long one) that night, but I was very happy. I took a cab home in a daze.
Dating ensues. Then marriage.
Naked in a hot tub.
I was a member of the local Rocky Horror Picture Show cast (Janet, mostly). Our director (and Frank) brought along his sister’s brother-in-law, who had just recently ended a long relationship. While sitting naked in the hot tub, my future husband offered me a backrub, so I accepted. And all he did was rub my back - didn’t even try for a side-boob grope or anything! At the end of the night, I remember saying to my best friend, “You know, that Phil guy was kind of cute … and he’s a Scorpio, too!” Then Phil joined cast (to get my number), and pursued me relentlessly for weeks, until he finally embarassed me into calling him back (he called me out in front of everyone because I never returned his calls). I called him back, we talked for hours, went out on our first date two days later, and we’ve never looked back. (Until our theater closed down, we often played Brad and Janet together, which people thought was a real hoot, since we were engaged in real life.) That was 9 1/2 years ago. Our 8th wedding anniversary is in June.
He was my ex boyfriend’s roomate back in college.
We met in Mensa. Our IQs are within a point of each other; we both were tested twice, and once I was higher, and once he was higher.
Secret of a happy marriage.
She was a senior in HS, I was a college frosh. Her best friend wanted to date my cousin, and we happened to run into them amongst a group of people after a HS football game at a local Big Boy. Future Mrs. S. saw me wandering from table to table looking for a place to sit because I didn’t know many people there, and my cousin was off chatting with another table. She told me to sit down… more demanded “SIT DOWN”.
I was impressed with her aggressiveness, she was impressed with my sense of humor, and my willingness to bicker back and forth with her. We went out to play pool after eating, more flirting ensued, and before she left, I asked her if she was seeing anyone. She thought I was kind of cute, and I had a gut feeling going home from the pool hall that I had something good here.
8.5 years of dating/ parenting/ near breakups, etc later, we ran off to Vegas and got married. Will be 6 years a week from today. I still gush about how great she is, and can’t stop talking about her, and we still bicker like the first night we met.