Dear JDate,
After feeling as though I went on what seemed like a thousand first dates (some of them even turned into a “second date”), I was losing faith that I would ever meet the one that would lead to the last first date. I decided to take a break from JDate in June 2003. Before doing so, I noticed a nice looking man named Seth who had “hot listed” me, but since I really felt a break was in order, I didn’t even read his profile.
Finally, in August, I decided to log back onto JDate. I noticed that Seth still had me on his hot list, and after reading his profile, I realized that I knew who he was as we both attended University of Georgia at the same time. It wasn’t until September 25, 2003 that I finally sent Seth a note. Although we met online, it is absolutely amazing that we had not met before. Even though there are 40,000 plus students at UGA, I was a DPhiE and Seth an AEPi, which means our paths should have crossed many times. Despite knowing many of the same people, Seth and I never met while in school.
After school, Seth, who is from Tennessee, moved to Florida, and I, being from Florida, moved to Tennessee. Seth moved back to Georgia about seven years ago, and I moved back in 2002. After several emails (all of which I printed and kept in a book) and lengthy phone conversations, neither of us could believe how much we made each other laugh, how many things we had in common, and the similarities in our families. We planned a date (the day before Seth’s birthday).
For some reason, neither of us seemed to feel any of the usual first date jitters. We were both just really looking forward to the evening. Our first date was on October 3, 2003, and we have spoken or seen each other every day since then! Before leaving the restaurant on our first date, we had three more dates planned. We both knew early on that something special was happening. We spent the next ten months together laughing, talking, visiting waterfalls, going to Borders bookstore and planning our future.
We started planning a trip to Aspen in December of that year. Later, Seth asked me if I would like to have our parents plan a trip to Aspen while we were there. (He knew all along that he would be proposing and wanted to be able to celebrate with our families.) After the happiest 10 months of my life, on August 2, 2004, Seth surprised me by proposing on top of Aspen Mountain, which is now one of my most favorite places.
After lots of planning and preparation, we were married on February 27, 2005 in Tampa, Florida. Our wedding was beautiful, and we just wanted to thank JDate for helping us find each other. We were, and still are, the perfect match. My life would not be the way it is if it weren’t for JDate. This is just the beginning of our Happy Ending! 🙂
Melanie & Seth
Atlanta, Georgia