Not only was Matthew working full time when he joined JDate, but he was also in graduate school, working towards two masters degrees at once. Needless to say he had little time between a 60-hour work week and school to enter the dating scene. Fresh on a new journey to find himself, however, Matthew had also started a weight-loss regime and lost 80 lbs. That’s when he decided it was time to let someone else in.

Matthew Joined JDate and the first three months were filled with disappointment. He went on many dates, but none led him to his Beshert. At about month five of Matthew’s JDate subscription, after thinning out his JDate activity from his schedule, a woman who would later become his wife joined JDate for a second time. That’s me, Ariela.

I am so grateful to JDate for introducing me to the man of my dreams. I was fresh off a rough breakup and about six months out from moving out of Jacksonville, Florida where I was living (the Jewish population in Jacksonville is slim pickings, I’ll have you know! Haha). I knew I wanted to move to South Florida, so I thought I’d browse the JDate community in that area, and that’s where I found Matthew. I shot him a message. Luckily, it was the one day of every two weeks Matthew had come on to check his account.

We slowly started messaging, then Instant Messaging, then exchanged phone numbers and the text encounters began. About two weeks after initially contacting Matt, he called me. From that moment, I knew I had found something special. Later that night, after a four-and-a-half hour phone conversation, I was out with my girlfriends and he called again. He knew I would be in South Florida in a month, but didn’t want to wait to meet me; Matthew had called to ask if he could drive up (five hours) the next day to take me to dinner.

The best first date of my life turned into checking for cheap plane flights, driving to and from each other every other weekend, and video chatting nightly over the next six months. Five months after the long-distance game was over, Matthew, my Beshert, the man who NEVER thought he’d get married, looked into my eyes at the top of a Ferris wheel and asked me to be his wife with the most beautiful proposal ever.

Without JDate, despite all the mutual friends we ended up having, our paths would never have crossed, and we are so thankful for the match JDate has created! We wish the best of luck to all those still searching. Take it from us — one previous account, or four months of filtering through people who aren’t “The One,” doesn’t mean there’s no hope! It just means, keep your eyes open, the best is yet to come!

Ariela and Matthew
Hollywood, Florida