Match.com worked for us!

Standard “make-your-own-wedding-website” have sections for the bridal party, event info, gift registry and the ooey-gooey “how we met” story. So here is the ooey-gooey story of how we met – there is even love at first site involved.

Location: Grass Valley, CA – a beautiful town in the foothills of the Sierras, once a center of the gold rush. Grass Valley today is an interesting mix of retirees, aging hippies, farmers, tourists and rural druggies. There are two schools of massage, a school of ayurveda, the gorgeous South Yuba River, extraordinary house prices and very little in the way of professional opportunities. It is not a booming metropolis teeming with bright, ambitious 20-somethings.

Brooke was new to Grass Valley, there for schooling at one of the massage schools. As part of a new year’s resolution to “be more social,” she vowed to accept invitations, go out to lunches, parties, events, etc. and, at the urging of friend Sarah, somehow agreed to give the dating site Match.com a try. She had zero intention of actually “dating” anyone and put disclaimers all over her profile such as, “looking for friends” and “new to the area, just want to find someone to play tennis with.”

Meanwhile, Christopher had been back in his hometown after college for a couple of years, was working at a nice job and was a little bored with the limited social scene in Grass Valley. He was on Match.com somewhat passively as something to do and hadn’t actually gone on any dates or even chatted with anyone.

Then Brooke happened upon Christopher’s profile. She hadn’t ever initiated “chatting” with someone on Match.com before, but thought, “what the heck, why not?” Christopher hadn’t ever responded to such notes, but figured, “what the heck, why not?” The first, “hi” turned into a few emails. The emails turned into a plan to meet for tea at a local coffee shop. Within the first few minutes Brooke inadvertently dumped all her loose tea leaves into her tea water and Christopher knocked the table, sloshing Brooke with hot peppermint-y water. How could it possibly fail?

The non-committal “let’s meet for tea” stretched for hours and then turned into a very long dinner. Two days later they went to a Coldplay concert in Sacramento and before you knew it they were moving to Portland together, buying a house and were engaged just shy of their two-year anniversary. There was a moment there early on when Brooke had a little freak out (“I didn’t mean to actually meet someone! I didn’t want to date anyone! But I really like you!”) She got over it and decided spending the rest of her life with a smart, charming, handsome, fun, nice, handy, loving, sweet, funny, radiant, wonderful person was okay. And our friends get some free food, beer and cake out of the deal this summer. Win-win really.