Happily Married Couples Share Green Flags From Their First Date

Are you wondering what a good first date looks like? Here are some stories from real couples who have lasted years and years:

“I was poor, but found an unbuilt fighter model in my closet. So we built it together. It’s still on the shelf next to pictures of us.” — Sarahsmydog

“Online, over Skype. We had lit candles and everything. Then we watched a movie… I think it was Ace Ventura if I recall correctly.” — lambo100

“I asked her out on a date. She already had plans to have friends over for a board game night, so she counter-asked me to come over for that. I’d never met any of her friends before, so it was more than a little intimidating, but I figured meeting her friends would be a fast path to getting a good picture of her character. Her friends were super awesome and we all had a blast. I kind of felt like her friends were zoologists monitoring the last two pandas in captivity to see if they would mate, but they were good-natured about it. Five years later, we’re happily married with two kids.” — munificent

“The first time I saw him was at an interview for a job at the place where he worked. He poked his head in to ask the HR woman a question while she was talking to me, and it was like getting hit by lightning. He was just so handsome! I felt weak. Our first ‘date’ was a couple of weeks after I got hired. We went to hang out together at a nearby cafe over lunch, and I knew he was someone I wanted to spend time with. I think I fell in love with him a little on that day. Sometimes you just know. We’ve been together for eight years and married for three.” — [deleted]

“I was very wary about going on our first date but it ended up being the best date of my life. First we drove down to the beach and the bars were unusually dead so we bought a bottle of champagne and headed to the sand instead. On the beach under the moonlight we shared the bottle and just talked, we also saw a shooting star. The date was simple and perfect.” — Whoknew08

“This was the first time we had met in person. We’d been texting for a couple weeks since we met online, and it seemed like we had a good connection. We went to play pool and have some drinks with friends at a hole in the wall bar, and by the time the bar was closing, we weren’t ready to part ways. We went back to my place and played Apples to Apples until my friends left, and we still hadn’t gotten enough of each other. He spent the night, and I figured he’d just be another one night stand, fun while it lasted though. The next morning, I woke up to coffee and a cute red headed boy with a goofy smile on his face. It was really endearing.” — loveatthelisp

“I tricked her into a date. Asked her to cut my hair. She came over to my house to do it. As payment for the haircut I just happened to have the ingredients to a seafood linguine and a nice bottle of pinot gris on hand. After lunch we went to the pub. Game over.” — [deleted]

“Well we were arrested and kissed in the back of he cop car. It was pretty punk rock… And not as trashy as it sounds.” — SatanMD

“We met on MySpace and ended up chatting for several hours a day for three days. We decided to meet in person because we were seriously hitting it off just chatting online. We discovered that we both frequented a certain coffee shop so we decided this would be the best place to meet. I had only seen a very tiny picture of him and had sent him some very low quality pics just before meeting so neither of us really knew what the other looked like. I walked in and he was turned around but somehow knew it was him. I tapped him on the shoulder and we hugged and it was like everything was just right in the world. It’s very difficult to describe it. It was a bit awkward but we both just kinda laughed it off. We ended up going back to my place and hanging out. After talking for a few hours we ended up making out pretty hardcore on the floor. We spent the night (no boning) and he had to leave the next day for work. Neither of us wanted to part and it’s been that way for almost 10 years now. I can’t even begin to imagine my life without him in it. We are absolute soul mates; if there is such a thing.” — DarthBread

“She was babysitting a kid and we let him pick the restaurant. He picked Burger King. She got Chicken Sandwich combo, he got the chicken nugget kids meal and I got the grilled chicken sandwich. We then watched movies at my place.” — el_monstruo