Words From Our Couples
Love Stories
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 didn’t show up for the first class. If our professor had showed up as planned, I don’t know that I would have had an excuse to sit next to the cute guy.
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 didn’t have any classes together. When our friends introduced us, we instantly hit if off, quickly becoming high school sweethearts.
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 didn’t want to go – 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!
Jessica & Tim Dyck
MARRIED SEPTEMBER 14, 2019
Tim and I met in the summer of 2014, while we were students at the University of Waterloo. Many of our spring-term days were spent in the sunshine playing beach volleyball with friends, and Tim says that from the moment he saw me through the net he knew I was the one! I can’t say the same, but I certainly noticed him (tall, handsome, and good at volleyball!), and by the end of the summer, I worked up the courage to text him.
Jenn & Mike Tracy
MARRIED SEPTEMBER 14, 2019
When people ask me how I met my husband, I usually start with, “It’s a really romantic story…”, 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.
Taylor & Kevin Sorichetti
MARRIED SEPTEMBER 7, 2019
Kevin proposed to me while I was attending a yoga class in downtown Toronto, hosted by a well known yoga instructor. It was an important weekend for me, as the instructor was one of my biggest mentors. I had just gotten up to teach my portion of the class, and next thing I know, Kevin walked in! This was VERY WELL played by him, as not much gets past me. I had absolutely NO idea a proposal was coming and was completely shocked!
Katie & Ian McNeil
MARRIED JULY 13, 2019
Never in a million years did I think I would end up marrying a Tinder date… 4 years later and we tied the knot. Although the beginning of the date did not go as I planned and almost didn’t go, I am so beyond happy that I sucked it up and went anyway. The first date turned into the second and third and I lost count by the fourth as we were together as much as possible after that.
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 couldn’t believe we never had met before! From then on, we were inseparable.
Julia & Jake Horsley
MARRIED MAY 24, 2019
Jake and I both grew up in Cambridge, knowing of each other through mutual friends. But our love story didn’t begin until I got my acceptance to the University of Guelph. I had reached out to Jake on Facebook with some questions about life at U of G, as he was already in his first year at the university. From then on, we started talking everyday, and he was such a great support for my big move to Guelph. Once I was settled into residence that first week, we met up and have been inseparable ever since!
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).
Megan & Adam Fontaine
MARRIED SEPTEMBER 15, 2018
Adam and I aren’t your typical high school sweethearts, although that is where we met. At a young age, I remember knowing that Adam was my person. We started out as friends, but by grade 10, he became the only man on my mind – and from that point on, I was pretty much on a mission. It took a few years, but right before I was about to make my big to move to Toronto for college, we made it official.
Julie & Brian Garel
MARRIED JUNE 30, 2018
Brian and I met almost 10 years ago on the first day of orientation, at the University of Waterloo. We were in the same orientation group, and aside from a few name games with the rest of the group, we didn’t officially meet until later in the day during a campus tour. Brian had broken his flip-flop during a really intense cheer-off earlier in the day, and was stuck at the back of the tour with one shoe. I felt bad (and also thought he was cute), so I walked slowly with him at the back of the group, and we chatted for the rest of the tour (not paying any attention to the actual tour!). Later that day (after getting lost on campus) I was talking to my friends about the cute boy I had met, and told them that I was pretty sure I had found my future husband!
Samantha & Spencer Ball
MARRIED MAY 11, 2018
I guess you could say that our love story began as a total cliché. Spencer and I met at the tender age of 14, in grade nine science class, where he sat directly behind me. At the time, Spencer was nursing a particularly bad ankle sprain, after being injured playing for the Huron Perth AAA Lakers. Being that he was on crutches, I figured that he could use some extra help carrying his books to and from class. So, I volunteered to help him out on many occasions and we got to know each other a little better. Spencer’s hilarious sense of humour, caring and charming personality, and beautiful blue eyes had me hooked, and I began to realize that I wanted to get to know him on an even deeper level.
Jasmine & Sean Smith
MARRIED MAY 13, 2017
Before all the dating apps of the world, there was a time when people met by chance, in places like coffee shops and bars. So, I guess you can say that our love story began the old-fashioned way. I was out with some girlfriends, celebrating my birthday at the Thorny Devil (a nightclub in London, Ontario), where Sean and his friends also happened to be that night. One of my friends started chatting with one of Sean’s friends, and then Sean and I struck up a conversation. Right away I thought he was cute, but it was the way he made me laugh that told me there was something really special about him. And I haven’t stopped laughing with him since.
Stephanie & Joel Strugnell
MARRIED OCTOBER 1, 2016
When you know, you know! That was the feeling Joel and I had after our very first date. Two small town kids, who attended high school in the same town, but who had never met - until our passion for fitness and health lead us to cross paths at the Stratford GoodLife. Only ever exchanging hellos at the gym, it wasn’t until mutual friends introduced us to each other at a local pub when we took the next step. We talked for what felt like hours, leaving our friends to entertain themselves. As the conversation continued to flow, I was feeling confident and happy about our first real encounter, and assumed Joel felt the same. But when he left to catch his ride and didn’t so much as ask for my phone number, I was left with a surprising reality check.
Ashton & Matt Staffen
MARRIED SEPTEMBER 10, 2016
Our love story began as an office romance, back when we were both working for a large Canadian retailer. I was finishing up my university degree and only in the office part-time, when Matt first started in my department. I would admire his ‘goldie locks’ from afar, and we would smile at each other in passing, since I wasn’t in the office too often through the week. When I began working full-time hours a few months later, overlapping tasks would encourage our email exchanges, and Matt finally mustered up the courage to ask me out. At the time, I was freshly out of a long-term relationship, and not looking for love. However, when Matt insisted that, being new to the city, he was simply looking to make more friends in the area, I thought that a friendly outing wouldn’t hurt. Of course, in actuality, he intended to sweep me off my feet – and that’s exactly what he did! It only took one conversation to convince both of us that there was something incredibly special about each other; and we’ve been inseparable ever since!
Barbara & Leonard Adams
MARRIED JULY 16, 2016
Len and I met at a lounge in downtown Toronto, one night in April 2013. We joke that our eyes met across the crowd, but really it was above the crowd, seeing as we’re both so tall! As we were leaving the lounge that night, he asked me for my number, and promptly sent me a text that said “nice to finally meet you”. Even though I wondered if Len was just really good at pickup lines, when he asked me to go out with him the next day, I agreed. And as it turns out, we really hit it off. We found out that we lived in the same area of the City, which made it so easy for us to begin to spend a lot of time together. It was quite the whirlwind romance, and a lot of the fun getting to know each other while also enjoying our city.
Danielle & Dan Bialas
MARRIED JUNE 11, 2016
They say ‘distance makes the heart grow fonder’ and this is how I would describe how our love story began. Dan and I originally met in high school, but it wasn’t until after we returned home from college when we really connected. In 2010, we started unofficially ‘dating’ for a few months, and then I took off to live in Australia for a year. We kept in touch throughout the early months of my trip, and sure enough, Dan ended up flying halfway across the world to visit me for a few weeks during the Christmas holidays. When I returned home from Australia later that year, we picked things up right where we left them.
Kira & Tristan Hughes
MARRIED MAY 21, 2016
Grade seven was when it all began. That’s when Tristan and I met for the first time. I quickly fell for his cute face, sporty style, and spiky hair. Tristan probably couldn’t have told you my name, but when my friend asked him out for me, he agreed to take me on a movie date. However, when date night came around, Tristan brought a friend on our date – so needless to say, there was no date number two (at least not for a while).