SUCCESS STORY: ELEANOR AND JON

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We’ve got another success story for you! We’d like you to meet Eleanor and Jon who met on the site a few years ago and have since been joined by another family member. Eleanor told us their story…

“I was initially sceptical about online dating until I met several nice people on other sites, but MSF was the only site where you could find out what people's friends thought about them, which turned out to be surprisingly accurate and much more reflective of who they were than their own bios. It also seemed a lot more light hearted and fun when your mates were writing the reviews.

“Our first date nearly didn't happen. He changed the time and I didn't get the message so went home assuming he had cancelled, but then he called me from the pub and I ended up dashing there on my bike. When I arrived I was so hot and thirsty that I downed my pint of cider in record time and bolted a plate of chips - luckily he was impressed not revolted! We spent the rest of the evening lost in conversation until well after closing time. I remember thinking when I got home that I might have just met my husband, and exactly two years later in Venice he asked me to marry him. I said yes before he finished speaking!

“We had a wonderful wedding in the church I grew up in, followed by a great party for all our friends in three tipis in a field in the Cotswolds, on a perfect sunny day in August. We left for our honeymoon after a barbecue the next day and flew to Corsica for two weeks of beaches, wine and amazing food. I wore my wedding tiara through airport security and we drank a bottle of champagne in the check in queue. It was magical!

“Our baby arrived last summer weighing 7lbs 10oz. She is turning our lives upside down in the most enchanting way and we are learning how to be parents - it's fun and terrifying and wonderful. I hope that many more people continue to find special people to spend their lives with on MSF. I never thought I would be one of those lucky people able to send in a success story, but I'm proof that you never know who you might meet tomorrow.”

Congratulations to this happy little family from all of us at MySingleFriend! If you’re looking for long term love, sign up free to mysinglefriend.com and get searching!

SUCCESS STORY: MELANIE AND TOBY

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We’ve got another lovely success story to share with you today. Melanie and Toby got in touch to let us know all about how they met on the site.

“I was nervous but also excited about joining up to the site,” says Melanie. “I was widowed two years previously and felt nervous about meeting someone and then introducing them to my son. My son was only three so very young. Being a single parent makes it more complicated meeting anyone/dating and having a relationship. I felt though that this was a good way to ‘vet’ someone. I didn’t feel pressure to meet initially or give my personal details as we were able to message through MySingleFriend. It felt safer. I think online dating is a great way for busy people to meet people that they may never have met otherwise. That was definitely the case for us.

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“Our first date (11 years ago) was two weeks after we first started ‘chatting’. We met for dinner at a restaurant. I was quite nervous but he soon put me at ease and made me laugh. He’d remembered my favourite movie was The Goonies and brought me the DVD wrapped in wallpaper that looked like it was 40 years old. He did admit he didn’t have any wrapping paper and found it under the stairs! We discovered on that first date that we may have inadvertently met years before when we were students at university. Toby had tried to gatecrash one of our parties in the halls where I was doing my nurse training.

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“We got engaged on a deserted beach in Barbados in 2011. We had our daughter by then (she was 8 months old) and we were away with her and my son. By this point he had been calling Toby ‘daddy’ for a while and our daughter had completed our family. Toby has been acting a bit weirdly the day we got engaged. He was kind of on edge and I thought something was wrong! He went for a walk with our daughter, and then gestured to my son and I to come over. He then got down on one knee with her and had written in the sand ‘Will you marry me?’ but said ‘Will you marry us’! It was a very special moment, just the four of us in the beach. There were a few tears!

“We got married a year later in 2012 at Parley Manor in Dorset. It was such a special day with friends and family and with our children. Our son did a reading and presented the rings. We had a last minute getaway honeymoon, but with two children in tow it was not your typical honeymoon!! We had a lovely week together but we are hoping to go away and have a ‘real’ honeymoon on our 10 year wedding anniversary, just the two of us!

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“It’s been a busy 11 years since we met.! A few months after we married we moved house to a village where Toby grew up. We wanted to have a more ‘country’ lifestyle and for our children to have the opportunity to go to a village school. We feel so privileged to have met each other and have had a wonderful life to date. We have made so many memories on holidays in this country and abroad. Most importantly we’ve enjoyed the life that we have made for ourselves in our home which we have renovated over the past 8 years. Now the children are older (Jack is now 14 at secondary school and Jessica is 10) I work full time again as a lung cancer specialist nurse and life is pretty busy!”

If you’re looking for someone special, sign up free to mysinglefriend.com and get searching!

SUCCESS STORY: DANNY AND SARAH

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We’ve got another lovely success for you in the shape of Danny and Sarah who met on mysinglefriend.com last year. Their story is proof that you should never give up after a first go at online dating, because that perfect someone is probably just around the corner.

“I was a bit sceptical of online dating and had been doing it for 13 months before my first date, “ Danny told us. “That went on for a couple of months and fizzled out in a haze of wine and misunderstanding. My lovely friend who added me to mysinglefriend, from work kept telling me to keep trying because “you’re going to meet your future wife through it.” As I said, I was sceptical, but then Sarah popped up last summer.

“The only way online dating works is to be open minded and beat the nerves and get out to meet people. For us, it’s been a lovely success and has brought us together when otherwise we would never have any just cause to meet! We had a perfect start to our dating as we went into it with the attitude to not take ourselves seriously. Start with wanting to meet a new friend and give it time.

“Also, with being busy professionals, it’s crucial to seek having fun experiences first. This is what worked for Sarah and me. My first date eighteen months earlier was a bit heavy because we had messaged each other
for a month beforehand and therefore built up a picture of personalities through this. I remember thinking how difficult it was to meet someone you had already formulated an opinion about, only to have to readjust when we finally met. With Sarah, I asked that we meet asap so we wouldn’t ‘waste’ time messaging only to find each other different. However, not so this time. We met within a week of messaging. We have not looked back!

“Our first date was at a lovely walking location ( and pub!) between Wakefield and Sheffield. We walked along the Transpennine Trail and talked non stop!! We stopped at the pub for something to eat and a shandy. We were aiming for a 3 hour date but it turned into 8 hours 9 minutes! We kissed in the car park and it was a kiss I had never expected or experienced before!!! I was smitten! We love each other’s company and every date we have we laugh out loud and do daft things like dancing to Symphony in the cereal aisle at the Co-op! We love walking and beers so we just love the time we share because we do the things we love doing.

“I proposed on Xmas day. I had ordered a specific ring from a jewellers in Spain and it arrived a week before Xmas so the timing was perfect. We aim to get married on the 27th December at 15:03 because I love trains and timetables and Sarah thinks this is hilarious! We aim to pack out the church with our friends and family with the theme of ‘sparkles ‘ as it’s Xmas and we both love it. Honeymoon will be next early summer, probably in either Corfu or Croatia. Also, land traveling by train to suit both our hobbies as Sarah loves traveling too. Food, beer, wine, old churches and buildings are what we aim for on our Honeymoon!

“We both have two boys each who are grown up or on the cusp of; they’re so supportive and lovely to us. That’s also important, that they know their parents are making decisions to secure happiness in our lives. Our beliefs is about living the moments and seeing a beauty in the everyday . It’s not true that you only live once; you die once but you live every day. To live and love someone every day is a precious find we will never let go of. We always walk holding hands. We dance together when there’s music to dance to and share the deep belly laughs of life. And Sarah keeps saying that she has learned that life needn’t be filled with failed relationships with tattooed balding men called Dave. I am the exact opposite!”

We’d like to wish Danny and Sarah huge congratulations and best wishes for the future from everyone here at mysinglefriend.com. And we can’t wait to hear all about the wedding!

If you’re looking for someone special, sign up free to mysinglefriend.com and get searching!

Success story: Louise and Edd

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Occasionally, our members are lucky enough to hit it off with the very first person they meet on MySingleFriend, which is what happened to Louise when she went on a date with Edd. The happy couple got in touch to share their story with us…

“Before MySingleFriend, I had only tried dating apps previously and that was awful so I was apprehensive. I’m also very shy and the thought of meeting new people terrifies me so it was a big step, but luckily my friend talked me into it and wrote my profile. Now I tell everyone that online dating is wonderful!

I had a running event the day after our first date, so Edd kindly agreed to come to somewhere near me for an early drink so that I wasn’t too late to bed in preparation for the next day. We went to a local pub for a few drinks and hit it off straight away. I think he ended up getting the last train home and I ended up with a bit of a fuzz head in the morning, and we arranged our second date almost straight away. There are no wedding bells for us yet, but I moved in with Edd in June. We are still finding a home for all my stuff in his flat so I think a house might be next on the agenda.

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I was very lucky: Edd was the first (and only) person I met from MySingleFriend. We have both met each other’s profile writers and thanked them dearly. While Edd was trying to impress me he told me he would love for us to cook together with a nice glass of wine - two and a half years later and I’m still waiting! We have had a great time and seen and done so many nice things that I may let him off… we shall see!”

We’d like thank Louise and Edd for dropping us a line and wish them all the best for the future! If you are part of a MySingleFriend success story we’d love to hear from you too! Get in touch at blog@mysinglefriend.com and tell us all about it!

Looking for a lovely date? Join now and find someone wonderful.

Success story: Liz and Andy

Liz and Andy just a few moments after they got engaged.

Liz and Andy just a few moments after they got engaged.

A while ago we introduced you to Liz and Andy, who had recently got together after meeting on MySingleFriend. They’ve just got back to us with an update to let us know that things are going swimmingly and they’ve just got engaged! Here’s a reminder of what they originally told us, plus their most recent news.

“I only went on one date, though, and I wonder whether I have missed out on having some of those funny stories to tell, or whether I would have cringed and ditched the whole idea after one or two tries. . I would definitely recommend it to others with a caution to have an open mind and not judge people just on their photos or profiles. What are their emails like? What questions are they asking you and how are they responding to yours? And people can appear very different when you meet them face to face.

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"Since we both lived in the same town we met somewhere local and low-key. I was late (this was beginning to be a theme) and he was waiting. As I approached and he turned to greet me, my heart leaped! He was so charming looking. This was it! My first date and its already better than I expected. We hit it off and chatted and laughed over dinner. Then I challenged him to a game of pool at my local - he didn’t let me win - I didn’t want that kind of treatment from an accomplished snooker player - but I think he went easy on me! The date was lovely and he was such a gentleman.”

“Since then we’ve moved in together and been on a couple of holidays. Andy comes to see my band play and comes to all my theatre shows, and I sometimes watch the snooker with him! We got engaged on our most recent trip to the Caribbean where Andy proposed to me on the beach. It was very romantic and we went out the next day and bought the ring together on the island, which will always be a lovely reminder of our dream holiday.

I wasn’t expecting him to pop the question so we haven’t made any plans for our wedding yet, but we know we’ll want to share it with lots of our friends and family. As for the honeymoon, we might go back to that dream destination or perhaps we’ll go on a whole new adventure!”

Huge congratulations to Liz and Andy from all of us here at MySingleFriend! If you’re looking for someone special, sign up free to mysinglefriend.com and get searching!

Success story: Simon and Thea

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OUR WEDDING WAS TRULY MAGICAL AND THE FRIENDS WHO PROFILED US GOT VERY DRUNK AS THEY DID A SHOT EVERY TIME THEY WERE MENTIONED IN THE SPEECH!

One of the best parts of doing what we do is hearing from people who have met through the site and are now living happily ever after. Online success stories definitely do happen, and you have every reason to believe that the next one could be you! We recently heard from Simon and Thea who met on mysinglefriend back in 2011 and are now married with two gorgeous children.

“Before MSF we had both used another dating website and were of the opinion that online dating was for geeks, loners or slime balls. Neither of us shine socially so the idea of a friend highlighting our assets was really appealing. At the time online dating was in its infancy but also a feasible option for both of us as our social circles were highly limited. We were glad to be able to read true profiles of potential suitors.

“Our first date was in Ely. Simon arrived over an hour early (he always arrives with time to spare even 9 years later!), and had spilt hot chocolate down his shirt before he met me! Prezzo was full, and I had a stinking cold (again, this is true to form!). We went to Pizza Express and the rest is history! Simon proposed 16 months later and we married in December 2012. We commuted to see one another throughout our dating and engagement so had living together to look forward to. Our wedding was on a sunny winter’s day in North Oxfordshire, at the Tythe Barn (Bicester). It was truly magical, and the friends who profiled us got very drunk as they drank a shot every time they were mentioned in a speech! Our honeymoon was in NE Slovenia - a chalet in the mountains - where we achieved driving on the right, navigating to attractions that were in seasonal shutdown, and reflecting on our next steps.

 “We have been through two house moves, a major house renovation project, a Masters degree and bringing two wonderful children into the world. We wouldn’t change a thing. Our ups and downs are a part of the rich tapestry of our life together, and may the weaving continue making memories together!

 “We have recommended MSF to friends who have also had success. We as a couple would very much like to thank the MSF team as without you we wouldn’t gave met.”

Huge congratulations to you both from everyone here at MSF!

Would you like to become part of a mysinglefriend.com success story? Join now and find someone wonderful.

Success story: Tara and Mark

            Tara and Mark on their wedding day

            Tara and Mark on their wedding day

We're very pleased to introduce you to our latest success story, Tara and Mark! This fabulous pair got in touch to let us know all about how they met on mysinglefriend, a story that involves everything from a beautiful wedding in New Zealand to lawnmowers!

"I was very pragmatic about starting online dating. My son was 3 years old and we had not long been in the UK when I went online. I am a very social, outgoing person but circumstances prevented me from meeting potential partners the way I had previously - at work, through sport and via my three New Zealand-based brothers. Online dating was for me a way of striking up conversations from my living room. In my eyes it was just a matter of getting on with it.

"Mark postponed our first two dates, the first for a work dinner, the second due to illness. I told him ‘three strikes and you’re out’, which would have been a pity as he made me laugh. We ended up meeting on a week where Mark was Mr Thursday and I also had dates with a Mr Tuesday and a Mr Friday. We joked at the wedding that Mark became Mr Sunday Lunch and he’s now Mr Everyday.

"Our wedding was on a Vineyard in New Zealand near where I grew up, 8 years after we met (having both been married before we didn’t rush). My son gave me away to the man that had proved his love and commitment to us. 

"As to our plans for the future….continuing to support each other in our endeavours and help ‘our’ son get through his fast approaching teenage years. We’re a sporty family with Mark being an avid golfer, myself competing dressage at a National level, hoping soon to be International and our son being good at almost everything at which he turns his hand. We both run our own businesses and Mark would like to sell his soon and stop. When I met him he’d moved to a flat due to his divorce and on our first date he said he never wanted to own a lawnmower again. It nearly put me off as I had plans for land in my future. Now we live on 15 acres and Mark’s got a tractor, ride-on and three heavy-duty lawnmowers. He says he’d just like to stop work and play with the machinery all day. Proof that you never know where MSF will take you!"

Proof, indeed! Many congratulations and best wishes for the future to Tara and Mark from all of us here at MSF! If you're still on the lookout for your perfect person, sign up to mysinglefriend.com now and get searching!

YET ANOTHER MSF SUCCESS STORY!

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We're always happy to hear about an MSF success story, and we received a lovely message from a happy couple via Twitter. These guys didn't provide their names (we know some people like to remain anonymous!), but that doesn't detract from what sounds like a wonderful romance...

'Hello! It was about 10 years ago but we met on MSF - he was my 2nd date. We clearly clicked and he proposed on top of the Empire State Building 6 months later and we got married in 2009. Now 2 girls aged 3 and 6 and haven’t looked back. In fact one of his best friends also was on MSF and met his now wife a few years ago too. He is god father to my youngest! So thanks MSF!'

Our pleasure! If you'd like to let us know about your MSF success story (anonymously or otherwise!) drop us a line at blog@mysinglefriend.com. We'd love to hear from you! And if you're still on the lookout for your perfect person, sign up to mysinglefriend.com now and get searching!

Success story: Liz and Andy

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We'd like to wish a huge congratulations to our latest success story, the wonderful Andy and Liz! The happy couple got in touch recently to let us know about their new relationship.

"I knew that online dating worked, and now I can say so from experience," says Liz. "I only went on one date, though, and I wonder whether I have missed out on having some of those funny stories to tell, or whether I would have cringed and ditched the whole idea after one or two tries. . I would definitely recommend it to others with a caution to have an open mind and not judge people just on their photos or profiles. What are their emails like? What questions are they asking you and how are they responding to yours? And people can appear very different when you meet them face to face.

"Since we both lived in the same town we met somewhere local and low-key. I was late (this was beginning to be a theme) and he was waiting. As I approached and he turned to greet me, my heart leaped! He was so charming looking. This was it! My first date and its already better than I expected. We hit it off and chatted and laughed over dinner. Then I challenged him to a game of pool at my local - he didn’t let me win - I didn’t want that kind of treatment from an accomplished snooker player - but I think he went easy on me! The date was lovely and he was such a gentleman.

"MSF is the only site I tried and I chose it because (a) some of my friends found love on it and (b) because it meant I didn’t have to write my own profile and blow my own trumpet. Having others do it for me was a bit of an emotional experience - is what they think I’m like? Are these my best characteristics and my funniest stories? It was very interesting but I confess I made them change it a few times so I didn’t sound like a drunken loon! And of course you can write your own profile and respond to theirs so it’s very flexible. I love that your friends can also search the site for you. That could be quite fun and, if nothing else, you can get a second opinion on some potentials!

"Andy and I are looking at moving in together and seeing what happens from there. We’re looking forward to some great holidays and getting involved in each other’s hobbies. We’ve had so much fun together so far and I never imagined I could meet someone so decent online - why wasn’t he snapped up already? Same reason as me, I guess - he hadn’t met the right One."

We're so happy that we helped Liz and Andy both find The One! If you're still on the lookout for your perfect person, sign up to mysinglefriend.com now and get searching!

Success Story: Caroline and Sid

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The best part of our job is hearing from happy couples who met through mysinglefriend.com. Today we'd like to introduce you to Caroline and Sid, who met on the site 7 years ago and are now about to get married!

"We actually met by mistake because when I first went on MSF I saw all these gorgeous men and I just clicked the heart on the photo on all the chaps I found attractive. It was only later I discovered the filter of age, area, height etc. By this point I had received a few messages and started a conversation with Sid, who had the most gorgeous photo, he was wearing a blue polo shirt and I remember his arms looked amazing!

We went for lunch at 1pm and left the restaurant at 10pm. We chatted non stop and had so much in common. We are getting married in Norfolk next September and we are currently living together in Fulham with our 2 spaniels Bruno and Dyson. Thank you MSF and Sarah Beeny for giving us this opportunity to meet. We are very grateful."

It's our pleasure! Huge congrats to Caroline and Sid from all of us here at MSF! Are you looking to meet The One? Sign up to mysinglefriend.com now and get searching! 

We need your success stories!

Gareth and Annabelle, who recently met on mysinglefriend.com

Gareth and Annabelle, who recently met on mysinglefriend.com

Over the years, mysinglefriend has brought together countless singles who have gone on to form long-lasting relationships, live together, get married and even have babies. Hearing about MSF success stories always makes our day, as helping people to meet is what we're all about, and it's the cherry on top of the cake when romance blossoms and true love is found. 

As well as making us feel good, success stories go to show that mysinglefriend.com really works. We've always been proud of our community of singles and their friends, and we want to shout it from the rooftops when one of our highly valued bunch of members meets someone special. We'll be featuring future success stories on our brand new blog, so if you are part of a happy MSF couple, or you know someone who is, please get in touch and let us know all about it! Apart from being a wonderful celebration of a budding new (or even old - we often hear from couples who have been together for years) relationship, reading about other people's transformation from hopeful single to happily loved up other half is a wonderful morale booster for everyone else on the site! Drop us a line atblog@mysinglefriend.com if you'd like to share your story.