How did you meet someone in real life?

[rosajosephine]

So after two plus years of online dating, I'm done...

Can I hear your stories of meeting someone organically?

Not looking right now but love hearing how people meet each other 😊

I stopped OLD over 3 years ago and have since met people: out for a night at a private members club, security at an event I attended, my mums lodger (best forgotten and not advisable!), at a dance class, at the gym.
HTH
Ps removing myself from OLD was the best thing I’ve done!

Going out and accepting every single invite no matter what and no matter if I was tired or not.
met first husband at a party I didn't want to go to and 2nd husband at a barbeque I didn't want to go to.
Dating sites are a waste of time, you need to go out and attend real events.

Dh and I met at a bar when we were both out for after work drinks with colleagues.

Bar

I met DH in a pub. I was not looking to meet anyone, was happy on my own with dd.
We were on a works out. He was out with friends.

I've never done OLD.

I've met men through:

1. Friends of friends (or friends of friends' boyfriends)
2. Nightclub (when I was younger!)
3. The gym
4. Work (I always steer clear of getting involved with men at work but there was one wonderful man I broke my rule for).

Met my dh in a bar/clubby place, I was out with my sister and her friends for her birthday where she lived. Arranged to meet up with him again the following weekend but didn’t swop numbers. I wasn’t going to go as couldn’t really remember what he looked like and although I’d thought he’d seemed nice I was only just out of a 5yr relationship and wanted to be single. Also didn’t think he’d travel all the way to my town to meet me, especially as we hadn’t spoken all week.

Anyway, I decided to go last minute as some friends were meeting nearby and I thought if he’s not there I’ll just go to meet them. Saw a really gorgeous guy outside train station where we’d arranged to meet but thought ‘well it’s not him, I would’ve remembered’ then when I looked round again he was walking toward me! He hadn’t thought he’d come either as he was working in my town but had to get the train all the way home (over an hour) to get changed and then travelled all the way back, he thought I wouldn’t turn up. Made sure we stopped numbers after that!

This was 19 years ago, have two dc, been married 15 years.

DH came in to the small science library I was running on campus to take out a book. He decided on the spot I was the one for him. Turned out we had mutual friends and ended up on the same pub quiz team.

My previous BF had also come in to borrow a book, met another at a conference and another at church. Mine all sound rather wholesome having seen it written down. They all proposed as well.

I have been asked out in a supermarket checkout queue, whilst having lunch by myself in a cafe when the guy asked to share my table which was only a couple of years ago and I’m ancient now so was rather taken aback, guess he had a thing for older women.

I met DH when he was walking his dogs. They were a fairly unusual breed and absolutely gorgeous. I stopped to stroke them and we got chatting. He asked me if I wanted to go for a drink that evening. We did and we got married 5 months later! Been happily married 40 years

Meet in the coffe shop, making me late with hearts tought he is love of my life when in reality he is a cheating bastard who moved 4 hours away from his wife to start a new job and new life. Pretending to be divorced and have plenty girls on the sides. Always talk himself out of it but now he is fucked as I called a police on him due to DV and more things.. so yeah, don’t think i will trust anyone ever again..

Work. Completely unexpected, he wasn’t ‘my type’ 30 years on.....still very much in love! He’s everything to me.

My friends who met in real life were via friends, at meetup groups, holidays. Most are online couples. I definitely think accept every invite you can!

At a networking event which I was forced to go along to.
Before that I started a 'never-say-no' policy with invited. Gave out my number when asked, went to every night out/event I was invited to, put myself out there with men I was interested in. Eventually by the time I had met DH, I was more confident and nailed small talk and was quite forward with letting him know I was interested.

At work, we got together at his leaving do

My DH was the friend of a friend. We met at a work do, which I went to with the friend and my boyfriend - who was very soon my ex

First LTR - met through my sister, he was in her form at school and I thought he was gorgeous
Second LTR - hooked up at a young farmers do, went from there
Now-DH - a friend/colleague of mine is with one of his close friends and just ‘saw’ it, set us up and here we are

Work here too

Friend of a friend, in the pub.

Work here too. For other friends, it's been through volunteering or being neighbours.

Keep meaning to give up on online dating and focus on irl, there is a book I keep meaning to read called the offline dating method

The gym, or at least the cafe near by, through work (come into contact with different departments), just via friends, at parties, once at soft play ( not a good idea - his ex split up with him for good reasons)

Party
Bar
Old friends reunion.

My husband was in my friend group at school. When I was doing my post grad I went back to my home town and called up a (male) mate. He was busy that evening but called me back to say he'd checked and I could go with him to mutual friends house. Dh was married at the time so I assumed he and his wife and my mate plus one more we're going to be there. As we rang the doorbell mate said...oh btw did you know they're getting divorced??? Um....no!

So I basically gate crashed a lads night out, we all got crazy drunk, my (now) dh dropped a sofa on my tie which led to me emailing once I was back at uni to tell him that my toenail had dropped off.....and so began our relationship 🤣🤣 to be fair it was still a couple months talking via email before it became anything when I went home for a job interview and we went out.

My previous relationships were all unknown to me before I met them at party/bat. My most successful was definitely this slow burner!

Got any single friends?

Kickboxing! (It was the 90s!)

Did meet due to internet but not dating site. Meet via a meet up group, didn't talk or chat beforehand. We became friends as I wasn't looking for a relationship but he won be over in the end. Been together 3 years now.