From fun nights out to meeting through friends or school, there are various ways couples come to be. The journey may be rough, but one thing's for sure -- the beginning of a relationship is always exciting. Every couple has a story. Here are three ...
Young Love
"Ryan and I met at our Java programming class," recalls Joanne. "We became study buddies (which later turned into study dates, then movie dates, then dinner dates)." Within a semester, the two computer students became intrigued by each other's life stories and goals. They were inseparable and the best of friends.
One night Ryan took Joanne to Carnegie Lake in Princeton, NJ -- a romantic setting where many young couples frequent. "We laughed all night while we held each other's hands," Joanne says. "He opened the moonroof [of his car] and we stargazed the moonlit sky." That was when Ryan asked Joanne to be his girl. Naturally, she replied yes without hesitation. "He smiled and kissed my forehead,"she remembers. That night, Joanne believes they had fallen madly, deeply in love.
On the couple's third-year anniversary, they took their relationship to the next level. "Ryan proposed to me," Joanne says, "but thats another story ... ”
A Saucy Meeting
For Maria and Alan, the love story has a bit of a twist. They didn't start out "dating." They were acquaintances first before locking lips at a party. "We were at my friend's get-together in college," Maria recalls. "We had mutual friends, and he was there. I thought he was cute, but I didn't know if anything would really happen there.”
At the get-together, both Maria and Alan had a little too much to drink and became frisky ... with each other. "We totally made out," Maria explains. "It was fun at the time and I thought it would end there and that's all it was." Little did Maria know that this acquaintance of hers who she just happened to make out with at a party would later become her husband. It was the beginning of a beautiful relationship.
"Like I said, I didn't expect anything to happen, but he asked me out and we fell in love," she points out. Maria and Alan recently celebrated their one-year anniversary. They were married last fall -- Alan serenaded Maria with a Jack Johnson song. "When he plays the guitar, it's hot," she says.
From Drinks to Marriage
Claire met Seth in the most unlikely of places to find a husband: a club. She had gone out with her girlfriends for a night of drinking and dancing. After all, girls just want to have fun. "I didn't expect to meet anyone that night," Claire recalls. "When we met, I was a little tipsy so I couldn't even remember what he looked like.”
Fast-forward to the couple's first date, Claire was completely sober and Seth was completely smitten. Looking back at their New York City night -- a walk through Central Park and an early dinner -- Claire is surprised Seth wanted to go on a second date at all. "He bought me a handful of roses from a street vendor. I didn't know what to do with them, so I kept on giving ‘em to random people,"she chuckles. "Then, it gets worse." Claire told Seth she needed to head home (she was tired). Seth brings Claire to the train station only for Claire to realize long after he has left that she missed the last one until the next morning. "I ended up meeting up with my girlfriends who were still in the city,"she adds. Later, Seth calls Claire to tell her he had a great time only to find out that she was out.
Regardless of Claire's first-date weirdness, Seth gave her another chance and realized he was beginning to fall in love for with her personality -- she's sweet, caring, honest and beautiful. Claire and Seth have been married for three years now and have a baby on the way.