Words From Our Couples

Love Stories

Bradie & Nick Haines
Melissa Graham Melissa Graham

Bradie & Nick Haines

MARRIED SEPTEMBER 5, 2021

It was love at first sight! Nick and I met in a cafeteria at Fanshawe College, in 2013. We had been enrolled in the same program, and ended up sitting together in the cafeteria, after our professor didnโ€™t show up for the first class. If our professor had showed up as planned, I donโ€™t know that I would have had an excuse to sit next to the cute guy.

Read More
Samantha & Dylan Richardson
Melissa Graham Melissa Graham

Samantha & Dylan Richardson

MARRIED SEPTEMBER 4, 2021

We met in 2008, at the beginning of grade nine. At the time, we shared mutual friends, but we didnโ€™t have any classes together. When our friends introduced us, we instantly hit if off, quickly becoming high school sweethearts.

Read More
Kourtni & John Zalenko
Melissa Graham Melissa Graham

Kourtni & John Zalenko

MARRIED OCTOBER 5, 2019

We actually met on an online dating app (Tinder) in 2013. I thought John was good looking (obviously), and we ended up having a lot in common. Originally, I didnโ€™t want to go โ€“ it was a blind date, and it would be the first time I had ever done anything like that. Thank goodness my best friend convinced me to go!

Read More
Jenn & Mike Tracy
Melissa Graham Melissa Graham

Jenn & Mike Tracy

MARRIED SEPTEMBER 14, 2019

When people ask me how I met my husband, I usually start with, โ€œItโ€™s a really romantic storyโ€ฆโ€, and then it quickly ends by telling them that we met and got engaged at a trailer park. Mike and I grew up together, spending each summer at a campground that both of our families camped at. High school summer love grew into more, and because we spent so much of our time at the park together, it was the perfect place for him to propose.

Read More
Amy & Blake Leontowicz
Melissa Graham Melissa Graham

Amy & Blake Leontowicz

MARRIED JUNE 30, 2019

Blake and I met on Tinder, so we like to say that ours is a modern-day love story. But with or without Tinder, our paths were always meant to cross. On our first date, we realized that we only lived one street over from each other, and we couldnโ€™t believe we never had met before! From then on, we were inseparable.

Read More
Julia & Dan Van der Werf
Ashton Staffen Ashton Staffen

Julia & Dan Van der Werf

MARRIED OCTOBER 20, 2018

Julia and I met at the University of Guelph, in graduate school, where we were both studying Psychology. The psychology grad students at Guelph had a strange affinity for hosting themed costume parties. Naturally, it did not take long for our paths to cross at several of these parties, with things culminating during a magical Halloween evening where I was dressed as a baby and her as a black swan (more like Natalie Portman, less like the water bird in Stratford).

Read More
Emily & Kevin Alferink
Ashton Staffen Ashton Staffen

Emily & Kevin Alferink

MARRIED SEPTEMBER 8, 2018

Kevin and I met at a church event when I was only 14 years old and he was 16. At the time, I was living in Windsor and Kevin was based in London, so we only got to see each other every other week when I was home to visit my Mom. We talked for a few weeks (the first time either of us had ever been in any sort of relationship!), but the distance between our hometowns was too much for our age, so we decided to break things off.

Read More