You know what they say about relationships: “When it’s right, you just know.”
If you have any doubts about it, ask Doug Baker, 31, of Tarzana, CA.
“I know it sounds ridiculous and cliché, but we both knew from the first date.”
Oh, come on…
“No, really,” adds wife, Diana, 30. “The day after I met Doug, I said to my mom, “I just met the guy I’m gonna marry.”
But what led these two lovebirds to become the poster children for JDate’s Mazel Tov section? It’s not like they didn’t have a whole bunch of social options. Doug left New Jersey for the West Coast in ’95 and was the owner of his own clothing company. Diana was an L.A. native who was working in health insurance and dating casually. Their only source of discontent was that they weren’t meeting many Jewish people.
“Even though there was no pressure in my family, I felt that finding a Jewish guy would make the relationship a lot easier,” said Diana. Doug agrees. “After I had my first serious Jewish girlfriend, I knew for sure I was going to end up marrying someone Jewish.” Still, after six months on JDate, Doug hadn’t found anyone that clicked. Then he got an email from this cute brunette in the Valley, who was writing to a guy for the very first time…
“I was wary since I’d already had one bad lunch date,” said Diana, “But I agreed to meet Doug at his place that night.”
Wait…you went to his place? Before you even met him?
“We stayed out until 3 A.M. on the first date, then hung out the next night. The following night, he met my parents,” she laughs. “We didn’t exactly follow the rules.”
Three months later, Doug and Diana were engaged. They were married on the first anniversary of the day they met on JDate. And while they couldn’t plan their pregnancy with the same precision, their daughter, Giordanna Eve, was born nearly five years later.
Wow. Talk about a happy ending. So what does the happy couple say to people who have yet to appreciate the charms of meeting on the Internet?
“Even back then, I was never embarrassed about it. Going online wasn’t because I had a problem meeting guys. It was because I wasn’t meeting the right kind of guy.”
How about the skeptical JDaters who think that something like this could never happen to them?
“Don’t give up,” says Doug. “JDate’s easy. It’s safe. It’s convenient. You can always go online for twenty minutes, but it takes a lot more time to go to a local pub.”
“You gotta do your own shopping,” replies Diana. “If you see a guy you like, email him. Don’t just sit there and wait.”
Hey, are you gonna argue with her?