It was back in the summer of 2004 when we found each other on JDate. Actually, he’s the first to say, he found me. He was home for the summer from college looking for dates, and I was four years older and in the middle of graduate school. He wrote me to say ‘hi,’ and after a couple minutes of good conversation, he flat out insulted my alma mater. I went to Penn State and he was at Pitt (this rivalry is still alive and well in our household), so I thought to myself, ‘forget this kid!’ I went back to packing up my apartment to move and forgot about him. About ten minutes later, I was back on the computer (a testament to how I feel about packing and moving in general), and surprisingly enough, I found an apology from him. He said he had a feeling that he really messed up and that we should meet. I tried to fend him off with the whole ‘you’re too young’ thing, but he persisted. I worked at a bar at the time, so I had written in my profile that I spend enough time at bars and would rather be asked out for coffee. Lucky for him, being 20 years old, he thought this was perfect. I gave into my hatred of packing and agreed to meet him.

I got to the coffee shop early and was actually on the phone talking to my friend (about how I’d only be meeting this guy briefly and then I’d be over for a party), when he walked in the door. Meanwhile, five hours later, we were still sitting on a bench outside chatting away. We spent every night together for the next two weeks. I was content to call it an end of summer romance (since he was heading back to school), but when our time was up, he said he wanted to stay together. And so we’ve been together ever since.

Once he graduated and moved back to Philadelphia, we got a place together. We got engaged at a Foo Fighters concert on July 26, 2008 back in Pittsburgh where I had visited him all those times during the first year of our relationship. We had the most amazing wedding on October 3, 2009 at the National Constitution Center.

We are both definite believers in JDate (no matter how short the encounter before we met!) and are so thankful to have found each other!

Thank you!

Ronni and John
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania