Dear JDate,

In November 2002, Alan and I connected on JDate and corresponded by email for a couple of weeks. For our first date we decided to meet for coffee. There weren’t any big fireworks, but he seemed nice enough. I would have been glad to give a second date a try, but I never heard back from him.

Fast forward three years to November 2005. Alan and I had both dated other people, but neither of us had found “The One.” We were both becoming discouraged with JDate and with dating in general. Luckily, Alan took it upon himself to contact me through JDate again. He figured that we were both still on JDate, and noticed that I had recently looked at his profile again. He sent me a very sweet email admitting that he really wasn’t quite sure why he hadn’t asked me out again, but he liked me at the time and wanted to know if I’d be willing to try going out again. How could I refuse?

So, we began dating, and it didn’t take long for us to know that we had a connection. On our third date, we went to a restaurant, that unbeknownst to both of us, was getting ready to shut down permanently. Neither of us felt quite comfortable with each other enough yet to say “hey, let’s go somewhere else.” So we quickly had dinner and went for coffee and dessert, as not to cut the evening short. We talked for a very long time about many things, and didn’t leave until we absolutely had to, because the bookstore was closing. At this point, we began to discover how much we had in common, and this was our first inkling that our relationship was more than just a “flash in the pan.”

For the next several months we spent more and more time together and got to know each other’s family and friends. By early summer we knew things seemed headed towards permanent, and after Labor Day we started discussing rings.

On December 22, 2006, Alan proposed. Because during our time dating were so open with each other, he was concerned that I wouldn’t be surprised when he proposed. Well, he achieved his goal. He came to my office (I’m a physician) and pretended to be a new patient. He hid in an exam room and waited for me. To this day I’m still not sure how he got in there without me noticing. I grabbed the new patient chart (complete with a fake name that my staff came up with), went into the room, and there he was! He then proceeded to get down on one knee and propose – I was totally shocked!

We were married on August 25, 2007, and I feel lucky everyday that JDate helped us find each other.

Cheryl & Alan
West Bloomfield, Michigan