Where/how did you meet your spouse?

[karen l]

The year I graduated from college I was called to go on jury duty. Did NOT want to go because it was in Boston & jurors were in the jury pool for a month.
I couldn't get out of it so I went. The first case I was on dragged on for several
days & there were frequent breaks during the trial. The jury foreman started talking to me & a couple of the other jurors. We had a lot of fun talking & sharing funny stories. There were a half dozen of us who became friends & hung out the remainder of the time. The last day, we exchanged addresses & phone numbers at the suggestion of the foreman. Two days later I had a call from the foreman asking me out on a date. We went out & he told me I was the reason he suggested the exchange of info that last day. He didn't think I'd give him my info because he was 14 yrs older than me & he was afraid I wasn't interested. We fell in love & got married. Sadly, he passed away from cancer a couple of years ago but we have three fantastic kids & I still love him & miss him. That was the only time I had a fantastic time on jury duty!

 

[mickeyboat]

Gym class - 8th grade. It was love at first sight.

 

[doxdogy]

Three of us from High School were going to share an apartment together. For some odd reason, I decided I wanted to learn how to use a gun. The Resource Officer that worked at the same Junior High School told me that the police department offered a firearms course for women. I signed up and he was my instructor. I gave him my number (he wrote it on the back of a picture of his ex-wife and daughter). It took him two weeks to work up the courage to call me, after his dad finally convinced him to just do it. We dated for two and half years and one day before we were married. Monday we will celebrate 30 years together and our 30th wedding anniversary will be April 2013.

 

[Fantasmic23]

Aboard the Statue of Liberty Ferry in September 1991. He was a deckhand and I was a tourist.

 

[KatieA]

We met at work also but it took a co-worker to introduce us. He didn't think I would be interested in him so he wouldn't ask me out.

 

[scbelleatheart]

Short version, we were pen pals during the Gulf War.

Since I love our story, here is the long version (if yo uwant to read it)...

When I was 15 I was at church youth group. We were at our minister's house and watching the Gulf War begin on TV. A former member of the church was over there and many of the kids knew him and decided to write to him. I was new to the church and didn't know him, but decided to write a little message of good luck to him anyway. The letters were mailed off and of all of us (those who knew him and me) only I got a letter back. He wrote to me because he said he liked my handwriting. Well, we became pen pals over the months he was in the war. I wrote him all the time, though many of the letters never got to him as he was on the front lines, and when he could he wrote me back. I thought he was funny and sweet but wasn't interested in anything but a friendship. He called me from Saudi Arabia (at $3 a minute) and I was at school and he spoke with my grandma who fell in love with him (for me.) I got home from school and she couldn't stop talking about how perfect he was. (It kind of annoyed me because I had just been asked out by this really great looking guy but they wouldn't let me go cause he was 19 and here this guy was 19 and they were all for me dating him.)

Anyway, we continued to write after the war was over and he went back to Germany, then when he came home on leave I surprised him at the airport (along with some frineds from youth group.) He was very surprised we were there and hugged everyone but me, he shook my hand. No biggie, I wasn't interested. I wasn't in church the next week, but the next week I was and said hello, my grandma asked him to go to a baseball game with us after church. He accepted. We had fun but that was it. On the way home they asked him if he'd like to go to Cedar Point with us the next day. That was it. A whole day with him and I was hooked. He was (and is) so funny and charming and just the best person I have ever known. By lunch I was in love , smooching in the lines and thinking he was the one for me.

Funny thing, I was not at all attracted to him. I have always liked a big guy, give me the Vince Vaughn type anyway. He was so skinny and scrawny, I loved him but not so much the way he looked. And he smelled awful. I know, that sounds bad. But he was in the Gulf for 9 months and got 1 shower so he over used cologne and when he got back he still overused it. Anyway, that was all just becaue of the war. When he came back 6 months later he smelled great and had put some meat on his bones.

Anyway, we spent 2 wonderful weeks together before he was off again to Germany. I wouldn't see him again for 6 months. We wrote PILES of letters, literally we wrote to each other every day and we'd talk every once in a while. One night he called me and we spoke for 9.5 hours! FROM GERMANY!!! The phone bill was over $1000. AT&T called my grandma and told her the had made a mistake but the bill was already mailed out but they were reversing it, not to panic. She asked them waht the mistake was and told them it was not a mistake and it would be paid for by the 2 of us. That is when I got my first job! I, to this day, say that it ws well worth every penny, he bought my engagement ring the next day.

So he came back that Christmas, we had 2 amazing weeks together, we got engaged and set a wedding date. He came back one more time before getting stationed in Arizona, so much easier to visit. Over the next year and a half I went there 3 times he came home I think once. We spent a total of under 2 months together before we got married. He came home in June 1993 to see me graduate from HS and get married.

People were taking bets at our wedding how long it would last. We have been married for 17 amazing years. I don't think getting married so young is for everyone, but when you meet someone as amazing as my DH, you don't let him go cause someone else will snatch him up!

And that's the long version...

I love your story! "People were taking bets at our wedding how long it would last." Ours too! How funny! 32 years now so they lost the bets! I'll tell my story someday but everyday is wonderful with my best bud in the world. We work together everyday, pretty much 24/7 and I can't imagine a day without him!

 

[tigercat]

My husband married the boss's daughter. I was working the summer in my fathers business and he had just started. The plant closed down for 2 weeks in the summer except for a few people. Actually 3. I had to stay and answer phones, my brother in law as he was 2nd in command and of course the new guy. My parents had taken the rest of the family on a vacation except for one sister and myself. My bil told my future husband that he should take me out for dinner as there was no one there to cook me dinner. My husband was really shy so just said okay. We went out to his place (he was living with his sister at the time) and he cooked hamburgers. We were alone for the evening. Nothing happened but boy did I get in trouble. We got engaged 5 months later and were married 10 months after that. Still married and about to celebrate 36 years. My bil loves to say that his set us up. Good thing he did too because my husband said he really wanted to ask me out but was afraid of the boss.
tigercat

 

[snarlingcoyote]

Truthfully, it was a blind date. My college roommate at our little college where the girls outnumbered the boys over 2-to-1 had been set up on a blind date with her beau who was a student at LSU. She set me up with her BF's roommate, but at the last second he backed out, so her BF asked another buddy of theirs to fill in.

22+ years later, the "fill in" and I are still in love. (and lust, for that matter.).

ETA: I found out his name, told my mother, went on my date and came home late Friday night (or early Saturday morning). My mother called Saturday around 10ish. Thanks to the Baptist and Relative grapevine she already knew every single one of his particulars! She even knew he was adopted! It was a little scary.

 

[HannaBelle]

I love these stories!!!

DH and I met at church when we were 12. For him, it was love at first sight and he would tell me that he was going to marry me one day. For me, he was my best friend’s pesky little brother that would not leave me alone! All through jr high and high school he would follow me around, give me flowers and jewelry…still professing his intent to marry me. I always told him no chance…

Well, after we graduated from HS he joined the army reserves and left for boot camp/training and was gone for 6 months. Absence really does make the heart grow fonder! I missed him terribly and went with his family to pick him up from the airport when he flew home. He looked so good in his uniform and we have been together ever since.

We will celebrate our 19th anniversary on October 9th. He likes to point out that he was right all along… My greatest joy is that we literally grew up together and he is my heart.

 

[indimom]

Well, I knew my husband from Kindergarten on; in about third grade, I wrote S.B. M.W. under my best friends coffee table (I had a thing for blondies then); I "went" with him in seventh grade for a week or two until he "dumped" me for another girl. Then he fell off the face of the earth, more or less. He went to vocational school and I was taking college prep courses in high school, so we didn't exist in each others' world.

As it happens his best friend all through high school was dating MY best friend. Well, the summer after my first year of college he was home from Florida (a Marine) for a visit and was getting to be a fifth wheel for the couple. On one evening, my friend was working the cash register at a truck stop/diner. He and her boyfriend were there, waiting for her to be "off work" so they could go out.

She's not timid about her wants and opinions and told him he should call me. Well, he did, at about 10:30pm after I had gotten ready for bed (like NO makeup and brushed out my curly hair ). The whole time he was talking to me on the phone, I could hear his friend and my friend in the background, and MY impression was that they ALL wanted to get together. So, I agreed. Why not? I just threw my bushy/disastrous hair up and got dressed. Still no makeup.

He and his friend came and picked me up, then we drove back to the truck stop, just as my friend was ending her shift. His friend got out of the car and left with my friend....
I was like...... OH...this is a DATE!!! Duh.

Then I was embarassed about the makeup and hair thing. But, too late now. (So, the poor guy never got to have any illusions about me!) We went to a movie and had a burger. He was very cute with his military haircut (his hair was now brown - a good thing since I had outgrown the blonde thing...) and he was BUFF! He was cracking me up the entire night, so funny, and such a gentleman, opening doors, etc. When he dropped me off at my house, he asked if he could give me a "good night kiss." That, I think, won me over.

We dated through the next three years long distance. Mainly letters. (I still have them!) He was in Florida the bulk of that time, but was overseas for most of the last year (Mediterranean). I was in college in Terre Haute. I don't know if a lot of people were betting on our marriage or not, but I had one aunt who attempted an intervention that included having a friend who had "been there/done that" try to talk me out of marrying my Marine.

I graduated from college in May 1995. He got out of the Marines in July 1995, and we were married in August. A few years later, my friend was helping her mother move some furniture and found my gradeschool professions of love on the bottom of the coffee table. We got a real chuckle out of that, and I told her mom she can never sell that table, she has to give it to me if she gets tired of it.

We celebrated our 15th anniversary this year.

 

[polkadotsuitcase]

His housemate was dating my housemate. They came over, and I was standing in the kitchen making zucchini mock crabcakes, wearing sweats and these funky slippers that came up to my knees.

And he still fell for me!

 

[MickeyMomOfThree]

I forgot I wanted to post my grandparents story cause I love theirs as much as my own.

My grandpa moved to where my granmda lived when they were 8 and started school with her (they are 12 hours apart.) He saw her the first day of third grade on recess. He ran over to her, kissed her on the cheek and said he was going to marry her someday...then ran away. They were always close, and in HS my grandma's dad said they were getting too serious and she was not allowed to see him anymore. She was set up on a date wit someone else but didn't go. Neither one of them ever dated anyone else and they married right out of HS. They have been married almost 54 years and still act like newlyweds.

 

[Not My Fault!]

Laundromat. Seriously.

 

[jbear'smommy]

I met DH at work. I ended up on the same team as him. We sat next to each other. He would shoot rubber bands at me. Very kindergarten like. We've been together 13 years and married 11. We have a beautiful 8 year old son.

 

[keenercam]

I like to say I met DH in the middle of the woods.

Here is my very lengthy explanation (it was originally posted in my planning journal linked below for our Disney Fairy Tale Vow Renewal)

Howard and I met while at different Pennsylvania colleges in October 1982. We were both involved with Circle K International, a co-ed college service organization affiliated with Kiwanis (both our clubs worked with Special Olympics and the organization is still very important in our lives). He was at college in the Pittsburgh area and I was college at the eastern-most part of the state and, as officers at our respective clubs, we both attended a leadership training conference at a retreat center mid-state. When we walked into the lodge to register Friday night, the conversation with my friend Liza went something like this:
Me: Oh, my God. Who is that guy? (across the room)
Liza: “Kevin ___?”
Me: “No, I know Kevin. The other guy. The really cute guy with the baseball cap.”
Liza: “Howie? You think Howie is cute?”
Me: “Yeah, he has the greatest smile!” (He had just laughed at something Kevin said).
Liza: “He has braces and glasses!”
Me: “I don’t care. He has the greatest smile. You know what, Liza? I’m going to marry him.”
Liza: “What about C___?” (my unofficial no-ring-yet “fiancé”)
Me: “C who?”

Liza introduced us and apparently Howard asked to have me assigned to the group he was leading that weekend. We ended up dancing the last slow dance at the Saturday night party and I literally knew what it was to tremble in someone's arms. Someone happened to take a picture of us at some point that weekend, when we were doing a team-building exercise where you rub the person’s shoulders in front of you and ask three questions. I can’t remember the questions, but I remember having goosebumps being near him.

At the end of the weekend, we exchanged addresses and started a penpal relationship that lasted until we got married. In the meantime, I went home the next weekend on fall break and C and I looked at rings, though always intending that he’d finish college and med school and I’d finish college and law school and THEN we’d marry.

It took me until February to break up with him (we'd been best friends since I was in 7th grade and he was in 8th grade and we'd sort of evolved into being the couple everyone assumed we'd end up being). By that point, I was completely convinced that my penpal was “the one” and if I could wait more than 8 years to marry C, then he definitely was NOT “the one.” In the interim, Howard wrote to me constantly and was way over the top about me. So much so that I even broke up with him for a while that spring because I thought he was "too over the top" about me. We only saw each other at three conventions and state organization meetings that spring and summer, but the time we spent together was wonderful. Unfortunately, I started to doubt us and I wasn’t sure I wanted someone who was so seemingly infatuated with me. I had no self-esteem and didn’t trust that his feelings were real or warranted.

I broke up with him in early fall. But I got to missing him so much by November that I called to say “hi.” His step-Dad told me he was in Texas interviewing for a job, had just accepted it and was coming home to get his stuff and then moving to Texas. I left a message for him to call me and I thank God that it was Dave (his step-Dad) that took the message and passed it along. I am not confident anyone else in his family would have. When he called me when he got home from the interview, I congratulated him on the job, but persuaded him to visit me at my campus for a weekend - -“after all, we’ll probably never see each other again.” Kissing him that weekend convinced me we belonged together. Apparently, he had been convinced all along. This is us that weekend:

He moved to Texas but didn’t stay long partly because we missed each other so desperately. By the end of Thanksgiving weekend, he was back in Western PA and we talked a lot about how we’d support ourselves for the next several years if we decided to marry rather than wait. We saw each other a couple times during the spring semester and he came to visit me when I went home late May. At that point, we’d been together a grand total of 18 days between conventions, state officer meetings and other visits when we could afford a bus ticket for him. We’d exchanged easily more than a hundred letters, and I was convinced we knew each other better than if we’d been best friends since childhood. So, my parents finally met him that May and they were seriously prejudiced against him (too ugly to get into here) because of his family background. My father begrudgingly “gave permission” for us to marry but did the Old-World Italian not-so-veiled-threat thing. Thank God Howard didn’t take him seriously. Howard proposed at Six Flags Great Adventure on the sky ride on 5/26/84 and I settled in to enjoy a long engagement. This is our engagement picture:

I met his family in October 1984 and I’m not so sure they liked me. As far as they were concerned it seemed, I was a spoiled girl who had persuaded their Howard to give up a great opportunity in Texas and then Pittsburgh for the possibility of us getting married. In the interim we were 325 miles apart, burning up the phone lines and killing a lot of trees writing letters and spending pennies neither of us had buying stamps. By December 7, I decided all I wanted for Christmas was to begin my life with Howard. We were married on December 22, 1984 (everyone thought I was pregnant and that our marriage would not survive me attending law school, or that I would not attend at all -- they were wrong on all counts). We renewed our vows on January 12, 2009. He is the most amazing man in the world -- for some reason he absolutely adores me and spoils me rotten with his love and attention, he is funny and sweet and romantic and passionate. We have a 22 year old daughter and a 17 year old son.

(whew, sorry for the novella!)

 

[MarkBarbieri]

Justice of the Peace office

 

[Sgt Mickey]

In the Air Force.

 

[tsme]

We have known each other since grade school. But we didn't start dating until high school when he offered me a ride home. We were marrying about 10 yrs later.

 

[DawnM]

I was dating someone else when I met my DH. He was interested in my friend and so she kept inviting him to hang out with all of us. We became very good friends first and when we talked of dating we knew it was either going to have to be really serious or not at all because we didn't want to ruin our friendship.

Dawn

 

[HannaBelle]

few years later, my friend was helping her mother move some furniture and found my gradeschool professions of love on the bottom of the coffee table. We got a real chuckle out of that, and I told her mom she can never sell that table, she has to give it to me if she gets tired of it.

It does not get any sweeter than that!