For the purposes of this thread, I’m going to allow a broad interpretation of both “meeting” and “serious.” Y’all are free to argue amongst yourselves (and I know you will), but each person gets to define those terms as he or she sees fit. I was inspired by this thread, for the record.
So, share with us the length of time from when you first met someone to the time when you both said (or otherwise indicated) that you were committed to one another in a way that was more than just casual dating.
Poll options to follow shortly, for those of you quick on the draw.
The woman I’m currently dating and in love with is someone I began talking to over the telephone. We talked every day for hours before meeting in person for the first time nearly two-and-a-half months later. We both developed some strong feelings in that time, but we held off on committing to anything at all until we’d met in person and figured out whether or not the chemistry was there.
Within a couple of days of going home after meeting, we both felt that what had developed over the phone wasn’t just a fluke, and within a week of that, we definitely considered ourselves to be in a serious relationship. So I’m going to vote for within a week or less after meeting, despite the fact we’d been talking for several weeks beforehand.
And, of course, you’re welcome to argue with my definition.
You know, I don’t think my husband and I ever had an actual discussion about being committed or exclusive or anything like that. We met on an online dating site, we met in person a couple of weeks later, we went on an actual date a couple of days after we met, we started seeing each other regularly after that, and next thing we knew we were living together then married. It was the tenth anniversary of the day we met two months ago.
I’ve been in plenty of relationships, but only one I’d call “serious.” We’re both online gamers and so we met over the interwebs. We’d been talking for maybe five or six months online before we even considered getting into a relationship. She flew down shortly thereafter and we were immediately living together.
I’m not sure whether to count that as a week or less or as between three and six months. I voted between three and six months.
I met an ex one afternoon at his brother’s house (his SIL and I were good friends). He asked me if I’d like to go canoing the next day. Little did I know that it would be his first time. Three months after he dumped my ass in the river on our first date, we were living together and continued to do so for almost eight years.
It felt instant, but the fact is, we met at a wedding, and through miscommunications didn’t speak again for a month or so. Then we arranged a visit (lived in different cities), and it was within hours of the start of the visit.
We’re almost the same as Asimovian, except we met first in an IRC chat room and I came to meet him a month and a half later. We committed to each other on the second day together, because the chemistry was just perfect. It was 9 months from meeting online to our wedding day, and we’ve been married almost 12 1/2 years.
Met on July 1, 1998 - started talking that day…the spark was there but we were both in (bad) relationships, so we just hung out. July 22 we officially acknowleged that we were attracted to each other and had our first kiss. Within a week we both dumped our other relationships. Within 8 weeks from 7/22 we were talking about marriage.
Took us three years to get around to it, though. But yeah, still going strong almost 12 years later.
Let’s see - my wife and I got set up via email (long distance) in November, first spoke on the phone at Thanksgiving, first met in person in December, got engaged in February, I moved to her city in May, and we got married in September. I put “less than three months” measuring from our first phone call to our engagement.
The quickest was less than two days. We met the first day of one of my law school classes- a Thursday. We went out the next night, and by the time I left her apartment Saturday morning, I knew we were off to the races. It was a “serious” relationship until it ended just under a year later.
We went out on a date on a Tuesday night. Three and a half weeks later, we knew we were in love. Four weeks later, he proposed. We waited a year and a half to get married, just to be sure. Our first date was 10 years ago this past October.
I met my wife at a party in grad school. I was standing in the living room, when a group of four girls walked in. I saw her and immediately thought, “I’m talking to her tonight.”
I struck up a nervous conversation, and we talked the rest of the night.
I asked her on a date the next day. We ended up dating for 6 years, and have been married for 5. We just had our first son.
Usually within a month of dating someone I know if it’s something I’d like to be more serious, which is usually when labels are given (boyfriend/girlfriend). My current SO and I talked online and over the phone for a week or two, then met. At the end of our first date he asked if I wanted us to be ‘dating’ to which I said sure. The following date he referred to himself as my boyfriend to which I went “Huh? My what??” …and about a week after that I accepted the titles and the exclusiveness implied.
I had been tranferred by my company from Calgary to Toronto and was being introduced around the office when one of the admins handed me some interoffice mail. While we were chatting I was opening the package and it was some games I’d loaned to a co-worker in Calgary being returned.
One of the guys reached out and took one of the games and started talking about how much he’d enjoyed the first games in the series. We went on our first date 2 days later and within a week we were together constantly. We moved in together after a month and he proposed shortly after that. I turned him down the first time but we discussed it again 6 months later and set a date. We were married about 14 months after our first meeting and have now been married for 17 years this July.
For those who care about the details - it was the last SSI gold box game, Pools of Darkness.
Met a young woman at work. Anita was a new employee in a different department, we knew each other by name, that was about it.
A month or two later, a colleague expressed surprise that I hadn’t noticed Anita was “interested” in me.
So I just kind of walked up and asked her for a date. She had an out-of-town family event to attend the next weekend, but two weeks later we went on our first date.
A week later, date #2. And the week after that, etc. and continue.
Although neither one of us made any conscious decision to do so, we were dating exclusively from the get-go. A few months later we decided to get married, and we did so ten months after that first date.
We will be celebrating the 40th Anniversary of that wedding in five weeks.
Trivia of interest to no one but Me & She: that first date took place on August 15, 1969; Day One of Woodstock, not that we were aware of it at the time.
