Dear JDate,

In the spring of 2006, we both joined JDate as a unique change to meet Jewish locals. We can’t say that we both were expecting to find the love of our lives; instead we individually were just looking to make a few Jewish friends in the area.

At the time, I was in between semesters at medical school and Stephanie had recently moved to Chicago after finishing college at the University of Michigan. We both were at a point in our lives where finding and dating someone Jewish seemed to be getting more and more important (especially to my grandparents, haha). After college, venues to meet young Jewish professionals seemed to be quite limited and we both had heard great success stories about JDate and figured we would give it a try.

The unique part of our JDate story is the speed at which we met. The same day I joined, I received a message from Stephanie who had just joined the day before. We were each other’s first and ONLY correspondence on the website! We spoke for hours on the phone that evening (after I got over that she was a diehard St. Louis Cardinals fan and I of course was a huge Cubs fan) and decided to meet in person the following night for dinner. Needless to say, we hit it off from the beginning and have been with each other ever since. I think our JDate accounts were active for a total of 48 hours. Fast forward two years (to our two-year anniversary of first meeting), Steph was picked up by a horse drawn carriage which took her on a mini-scavenger hunt that symbolically guided her through the two years we have been together – it ended at a lakeside park where I waited on a rose-petal-covered blanket, down on one knee.

We were just married on September 6, 2009.

The story doesn’t stop there though – ironically, Stephanie’s sister also met her husband on JDate just a few weeks prior to us!

Thank you JDate for providing the platform to meet not only my gorgeous bride and love of my life, but also my best friend.

Best,

Derek and Stephanie
Chicago, Illinois