How We Met

First off, I don’t know why I’ve put off the story of how we met for so long… I think because I didn’t want to put out the full story on the internet where it can live forever (eeeek! 😬) unless I knew we were 100% going to be together forever. Happy to report that as of March 5th, 2020 we’re engaged (!!!! 🍾) so I think it’s safe to put out the story of how we met! I promise I’ll write a post about our engagement story soon. 🥰❤️

Bodysuit (sold out from Abercrombie but linked similar) ||
Jeans (dark wash sold out but linked med wash) ||
His Shirt || His Pants || His Shoes ||

To summarize it in a short sentence, Geoff and I met on the app Tinder. 😱 I think there’s still people to this day that we’re close with that don’t actually know this. It feels freeing to put it out there. It’s not like we’ve been hiding it per se, but we also haven’t necessarily been shouting it from the rooftops. I guess there’s always been this feeling that maybe we’d be shamed if people knew how we met? Which even reading my own writing right now seems so stupid!

Like a lot of young women, I had this dreamt up Disney-like fairytale idea of how I would meet my future husband. We’d both be in a coffee shop, his eyes would lock with mine, he’d offer to buy me a coffee, and we’d know that we were both meant to spend together forever. Sound familiar?! 😂 It’s so ridiculous but I truly thought that would happen… I’m not sure how many people have actually met their significant other this way but it HAS to be rare, right?

The thing is, those dreamt up fairytales aren’t real. As the years have passed, I’ve realized that meeting at all – no matter how that is, is special. The fact that each of us even exist on this planet is rare, then combine that with meeting someone you click with combined with someone you’re attracted to and the timing is right…… It’s crazy how special everyone’s love is! Your story of how you met isn’t any less just because it isn’t 100% what you dreamt up at age eight. 💯Meeting at all is a rare and special thing.

Like most young people, after I graduated college in 2012, I moved back home with my parents to save money and started working. This was a very challenging time in my life as it is for most college graduates (read more about that here & here). You’re navigating life back at home for the first time in four or five years, getting used to life without your college friends being in your living room at all times. And for me, I was also trying to come to the grips with the fact that I was no longer an athlete for the first time in 15+ years.

For a while, I spent my days applying to jobs (and not feeling very motivated about it). I was then a substitute teacher to to try to make any connections at a school. I eventually got a more permanent role in special education at the school I had subbed at and then after I finished work at school each day, I would immediately drive to the restaurant I worked at to work the night shift. I’m tired just remembering back to these times 😴

I dated a little bit during this time and had an extremely short lived relationship, but other than that, my life was pretty much the same from 2012-2014. Trying to build my career, working a ton, trying to make as much money as possible so I could move out of my parent’s house, and reconnecting with high school friends in my home town. 

Somewhere along the way, I don’t remember if it was 2013 or 2014, I downloaded Tinder. I remember downloading it as a way to entertain myself. For me, it was a way to talk to guys, get attention and to also be entertained. There’s no harm in that, right?! 😂 Also, I have to add, that when you live in a tiny town, there’s only so many people that show up on Tinder that you don’t know. It was filled with people I went to high school with that I could never in a million years imagine dating after knowing their history. I don’t want my words to be misconstrued – many of these guys are amazing people – it’s just that when you grow up knowing someone since they were 5, it just feels weird. Like they’re your brother, right?!

SO I did what any girl would do…. I set the Tinder miles to the maximum. I forget what the maximum miles were  – 50 miles? 100 miles? Anyways, I did weeks, probably months of swiping. It became addictive… and extremely entertaining. Don’t get me wrong, I got WEIRD messages. Like messages that made me ask what is wrong with guys… and then I finally got a message from someone who seemed normal – meet Geoff. 😂

I think his first message to me was “Wow you’re so beautiful.” 😂 he’s going to kill me for this lol. Anyways, he seemed like a genuinely nice guy and wasn’t weird like most of the people I had encountered on the app. 

We chatted on Tinder for WEEKS. We got to know each other and eventually exchanged numbers and started texting constantly. At this time, he was living in Boston. Turns out the only reason he ever even showed up on the app is because he was in Bar Harbor, Maine for work. 

We texted for a couple weeks and then I went on vacation with my family. My flight was out of Boston and he was actually flying into Boston from his work trip just a couple hours before my flight took off. I thought about how crazy it would be if we ran into each other – but let’s be honest, Logan Airport isn’t that small and we didn’t run into each other haha. 

We texted a lot throughout my vacation which is when I realized okay, I actually like this guy. Sometime in the days/weeks following my trip, he called me out of the blue. I remember panicking for a hot second 😂”Should I answer….Should I ignore?!” If you know me, you know I used to hate talking on the phone. For whatever reason, I answered. And I think we talked on the phone for 3 hours?

In the coming weeks we continued to talk a lot both on the phone and texting. At the beginning of April, I went to visit my brother in Boston. His girlfriend at the time (and my dear friend!) had a birthday so we went out to celebrate. I told Geoff where we would be and that if he felt like coming out that’s where we’d be. It was important to me that it wasn’t a big deal and that we met up in a group of people. I didn’t want a one on one situation when I was meeting someone from an app for the first time!

Bless his soul – he was 29 at the time and met up with us at NED DEVINE’S. If you know, then you know, but this is very much a 21-23 year old spot. At 24, I was probably even a little old to be there 😂. Anyways, we had the BEST time and danced all night, talked (as best as you can in a packed bar), and made plans to meet up for the next day.

We both went our separate ways that night and then the next morning I met up with Geoff to get brunch. To this day, I love that our “first date” was technically a brunch date. It was casual, easy, and fun. Just like our relationship to this day. 

In the coming weeks we continued to meet up by meeting half way – we would either meet up in Portland, Maine or if Geoff was already in Bar Harbor, Maine for work, I would drive there to meet him. Looking back, those were such exciting times in our relationship. I actually really like that it was long distance in the beginning because I feel like our relationship had time to progress on its own without being forced in the same city.

We met up when we felt like it, and didn’t when we didn’t feel like it. Fast forward a few months… in August 2014 I moved to the Boston area and we were officially not long distance anymore! 

I hope you guys liked the story of how we met. To those with significant others, where did you meet?! And to my single ladies, what’s your ideal first date? Let me know in the comments! 🥰❤️

Photography: Taylor Made In Maine