10 ‘How We Met’ Stories That Will Make You Laugh, Cry and Say ‘Daaawww’

My first question when chatting with a friend’s new boyfriend or girlfriend is always “So, how did you guys meet?” Why? Because there is no such thing as a bad meet-cute—yes, even if it was “through the apps,” it’s still always intriguing to know why and how two people fell for each other. If you’re like me and love tear-inducing “how we met” stories, here are ten that will have you asking for a tissue. 

“My best friend met this guy and his group of friends at a hotel out on Long Island in 2014. He said to her that it looked like they were on the lamest bachelorette party he’d ever seen, so he bought them a round of shots at the pool bar and ‘wooed them all night,’ as he likes to say. She liked him (not like that) and told him a bit about me, saying she thought we’d hit it off, and gave him my number. He texted me the next day and we agreed to go out that weekend. He showed up late because he ‘had a friend in town,’ but told me later that in reality he was at a bar watching the World Cup and didn’t want to miss the end of the match. He made up for it with his hip-shaking, finger-pointing dance moves and we were ‘official’ three months later. We just celebrated our first wedding anniversary this summer!” —Lindsey R., 30 (married 1 year)

“On my first day of school as a high school biology teacher in 2013, I was so nervous and busy preparing that I hadn’t paid much attention to my classroom ‘roommate,’ a physics teacher named Ryo. He first noticed me that day, sobbing in front of my laptop near the printer, as time ticked down to the start of first period. I was quickly falling apart. Some people have a hero in shining armor, but mine was armed with a USB drive. He patiently worked with me to save my teaching materials and plugged it into the printer. He literally saved my first day on the job.

“That year we went from quietly occupying the same classroom and sitting in on each other’s lessons (he’s still one of the best teachers I've ever observed) to hanging out on the weekends. Our friendship turned into more in July 2014, and two years later, Ryo proposed to me surrounded by a crowd of our family and friends under the blue whale at the American Museum of Natural History. Now married, we both work at different schools, but Ryo has been asking recently if I would work with him again. I’m definitely considering it.” —Marisa M., 33 (married 2.5 years)

“We’re the same age and went to the same grade school in Ohio but didn’t know each other yet—it was a big school! Later on, we attended separate high schools (all boys for him and all girls for me) and were eventually set up on a blind date through mutual friends. We really hit it off and have been together ever since. We went to our senior prom together, dated long-distance through college in different states (I stayed home; he went to Notre Dame) and got married three years later.” —Patricia G., 57 (married 32 years)

“It’s funny to look back on how our story began, more than 13 years ago. I was on my senior class trip with all of my friends in the Bahamas, and Mickey was there on vacation. Our two friend groups were staying at the same hotel, and after we all met, we hung out for the rest of the trip. Little did we know then that we had just met our life partners. We both ended up going away to college in Maryland but only loosely stayed in touch. Then, ten years after we first met, I realized we were at the same New York Rangers game when he posted a picture on Instagram. I commented on it, and he messaged me right away. It was then that we realized it was meant to be.” —Cara C., 31 (married 1 month)

“I was out with a group of friends at a dive-y karaoke bar (please note that I do not under any circumstances sing karaoke) when I noticed a cute girl at a nearby table. I was just out of a relationship and not looking to meet anybody, but my very drunk friend decided to play matchmaker. She marched right over to the girl, told her I had a new puppy (true!) and that she should talk to me. We ended up talking all night, and when it was time to part ways, I realized my phone had died. Very excited, the girl applied some lipstick, kissed a cocktail napkin and wrote down her digits. And that would have been a very classy end to the evening…except that when I got home and plugged my phone in, I attempted to enter her number…and ended up butt dialing her three times at two in the morning. Luckily, she still called me back the next day, and the rest, as they say, is history. We’re now married with two kids.” —Dan Q., 42 (married 7 years)

“Mark and I were colleagues at a newspaper. I offered to cover a Mets game for work, and because I knew he loved baseball, I asked if he wanted to come too. It was literally the second MLB game I’d ever been to in my life, but I was trying to get him outside the office. He agreed, and we were both obviously excited, but when the rest of our team found out, they wanted to come too! Thankfully none of them actually showed up, and we spent the day together. We’ve been together ever since, and while we were traveling last year—after deciding to quit our jobs, move into a camper and drive around the country—he proposed on the beach in Florida.” —Diana C., 27 (engaged 10 months)

“I had been living alone with my dog in Hollywood in an overpriced apartment for a few years when my friend from school, Rebecca, made me an offer. She was living in a three-bedroom house with a yard and kept urging me to move in with her and her soon-to-be third roommate, Connor, a friend she knew from when she lived in North Carolina. I wasn’t sure if I wanted roommates again or how it would be to live with a guy I didn’t know, but ultimately, I decided to move in. Later that year, Rebecca went traveling, and while she was gone, Connor and I fell in love. Fast-forward three years and we’re engaged and have a baby boy.” —Sara T., 30 (engaged 9 months)

“I was an event director at a nursing home, and Bienvenido—Ben for short—from Paraguay, was doing a carpentry job there. We were friendly and would say hello to each other often, until one day he came up to me and said, ‘It’s my last day on this job, I’mleaving, you know.’ I was like, ‘OK! Nice meeting you. Bye!’ And he responded, ‘No, no, like, I’m leaving to go back to my country. Would you like to go out to dinner with me?’ I said, ‘OK, I guess.’ I grabbed a pen, and as I turned to give it to him to write his number, I had a fleeting thought: ‘This is the man I’m going to marry.’ We had our first date on Christmas at my parents’apartment. I invited him over for dinner since he didn’t have any family in the country. We ended up getting married that same year.” —Codi G., 62 (married 21 years)

“As I waited at my gate to fly home for Christmas during my freshman year of college, I recognized a face from school sitting across from me. We’d never talked, but our school was so small that I already knew his name was Phillip. Ice storms kept delaying our flight, so I decided to talk to him. I found out he was flying standby to Atlanta and had been waiting all day in the airport. 

“When it came time to board, he was called to the desk and got the very last seat on the plane. We walked the tight aisle in the commuter jet until I found my seat, 5C. After trading seats with the woman who would’ve been my neighbor, Phillip and I were sitting together. When the flight attendant announced it was time to turn off our electronic devices, I couldn’t find my phone and he offered to call it for me. Once we landed, I had to rush to catch a connection. When I got to my new gate, I scrolled through texts from my roommate and my mom, and there was a text from a number I didn’t recognize. The message read: ‘Have a safe flight—Phillip.’” —Hillary J., 27 (married 5 years)

“I actually met my husband’s family before I met him. I went to his eldest brother’s engagement party because I was friends with his fiancée, my now sister-in-law. (My now-husband was absent because he was in the Navy.) His family was a blast, and I thought, ‘I’d love to meet someone for myself with a family like this.’ We finally met each other at their wedding and immediately hit it off. We danced, we ate, we drank...we were caught kissing outside of the reception hall. I went with him to his family’s home for the after-party and gave him my phone number, which he used the next day. He eventually got orders to relocate to Spain and thought we would break up, but I said, ‘Great, I’m in!’ We rented an apartment there that ended up being our home for the next five years before we eventually got married and I couldn’t be happier.” —Janice G., 59 (married 36 years)