How We Met

Well, it's really quite simple: we met through Tinder. 

For those of you who don't know what Tinder is, read this next paragraph. Everyone else can skip it. :)

Tinder is a social/dating mobile app used to connect you with potential date material wherever you go. You must have a Facebook account to link through because the app works off your profile. It draws your Facebook "About Me" information and profile pictures into the app, and then it will display to others viewing what common friends you have and interests you've both "liked" on Facebook. Through the app settings, you can customize certain preferences for the potential matches the app will show you: age range, distance from your location, and gender. Once you decide what you want to see, Tinder will send out its love radar and bring back profiles within your setting parameters. As soon as a profile pops up, you see their first name only and a picture of them. You can click on the profile to "open" it and see more pictures of the person, read their self description, see if you have common friends, and common interests. If you decide, "Hey, why not? Let's see if we'd get along," then you swipe your finger across their profile picture to the right, and as their profile disappears, the app registers your interest. If you decide, "meh/nah/ew," you swipe left and that profile is gone from your sights forever. So swipe wisely. ;) If the person whose profile you just swiped to the right already swiped or later swipes right on your profile, you'll receive a notification with a pop-up display filling your screen saying, "It's a Match!" Then you have access to chat with each other through your phones but you haven't had to give out your phone number and you can delete them from your list of matches anytime they get pushy/desperate/scary/dirty, etc. So, it's really quite a nice way to see who's around you if you don't get out and socialize much, and it's nice because you know it's legitimate people (most likely) on the other end, and you only get contacted by people you felt interested in getting to know in the first place.

So that's Tinder—a swipe-your-own-adventure never-ending pickup-line-infested club scene in your pocket!

Here's a demonstration of how it functions—and an example of how it works. ;)

Emily had set up her own profile very wisely, if she says so herself. She wanted to leave the ball in the man's court as it were—make him remember his instincts as a gentleman, to approach a lady with a simple greeting. She didn't want either party to have to come up with pickup lines, but she also didn't want to leave the man without a hook, an opening.

That bit about two body shots: Emily tried to include a full-body picture in her favorite blue-heeled high heels, but the app size restrictions only allowed for half of the picture to show at once. So she uploaded the picture twice and cropped in the top and the bottom halves to make one whole. Also, LDS stands for Latter-day Saint (Mormon :)). 

So, with this sentence "Let's say if we make a match and you say hello, I'll straight up tell you why I swiped right. Your move," all the man had to be brave enough to come up with was "hello" and he'd get a refreshing dose of ego-boosting flattery from the start. It helped Emily weed out anyone who obviously didn't read her profile information and thus didn't say hello (and so likely wasn't using the app legitimately for finding a real match), and start honest conversations with some really great guys. Including this one:

Emily appreciated his nerdiness and obvious manliness. James appreciated her beauty and genuineness. Spoiler alert: We both swiped right!

September 17, 2015

And since he went for the bait...

...we were able to begin a brilliant conversation and set up a date for the following Thursday, September 25th. But after some fun chatting and finding herself alone and bored on Sunday September 21st, Emily sent James a hugely hint-heavy text about not having many plans for her Sunday, which hints James instantly caught on to (so easily baited, this beautiful fish ;)), and they arranged to meet that very evening.

You never can be too certain with online dating whether the person will actually look like the pictures their profile displays. When the doorbell sounded and the two strangers saw each other for the first time, both were pleased to note exactness in representation. We felt instantly comfortable, which led to light and playful interaction, but hefty and substantial conversation, too. Basically we opened up and cleared out those usually avoided closeted skeletons and made room for trust on the very first date (which we feel was like skipping two months of the timid-tiptoeing and miscommunication-rife games of usual Utah dating). We were off to a good and rocket-speed start.

James recounted it well in the sweet letter he wrote and read to Emily as he proposed:

No better place to begin than the beginning, I suppose. Our first date. What an adventure that turned out to be! Quite the range of emotions! Nervousness and anxiety that tend to come with a first, practically blind date. Surprise at your real life beauty. Calm and comfort as I really began to see just how wonderful you are, and just how easy you are to get along with. Slight shock and extreme entertainment as we discussed your opinions on whether or not vanquished foes should be beheaded. Once again with the nervousness as I decided I was going to break my rule and kiss you, this girl I just met. Jubilation as you seemed to be keen on the kissing idea, helping me achieve pretty much the greatest and certainly the last of my first kisses. An eye to the future as I left your embrace, knowing that I would see you the very next day, and hope that I would be seeing you many days after that. And finally, slight panic as I realized my poor car, Stella, had been stolen away in the night. But even then, I slept calm and happy. Not even those dastardly tow truck drivers could ruin my night. I just knew somehow that great things were coming with that tall, beautiful girl named Emily Fairchild.

We both feel like the timing for meeting up earlier than planned, on Sunday instead of Thursday, was divinely influenced. The Thursday plan had been to meet at a restaurant for dinner, but in the calm and comfort of home on Sunday, we made a solid connection we're sure we wouldn't have made quite the same that Thursday in public.

Also, that Wednesday (which would have been a day before our original first date), we were both contacted by the people we'd been going on dates with (but that we weren't progressing much with) to set up next dates. So if we'd been able to set up next dates with other people, we might have had less drive to immediately give it a go with each other so that we could give that next date with the other people its chance. But instead, we were able to tell the people that we'd found a match we rather liked and had decided to give it a go!

If Emily could give any healthy pair of mutually interested people any advice, she might say, "Just go for it!" Give it a chance, be honest, and communicate every step of the way, and you'll find out so much about your abilities to trust and love. And whether you get your happy ending at last or instead your heart aches awhile for another relationship come and gone, you'll have benefited from honestly going for it and skipping the games and drama.

And well, folks—the rest, as they say, is history! Except for a week-long trip Emily took to Florida to visit the magical world of Harry Potter at Universal Studios Orlando, the couple has spent time together every day since, and my, what adventures their courtship has included!

So to all you ladies and gents out there using or considering Tinder, set your profile up right, swipe intently, and you just may come out with a monumental love story of your very own!

Like we said...rocket speeds. But when God has a hand in things, our lives fly on swift wings to fulfill greater purposes!