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 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.

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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 didn’t have any classes together. When our friends introduced us, we instantly hit if off, quickly becoming high school sweethearts.

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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 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!

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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, “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.

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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 couldn’t believe we never had met before! From then on, we were inseparable.

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Julia & Jake Horsley
Melissa Graham Melissa Graham

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!

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Erica & Chris Hayes
Melissa Graham Melissa Graham

Erica & Chris Hayes

MARRIED DECEMBER 31, 2018

Chris and I met in September of 2011, at the University of Guelph, where we were in the same department completing our graduate studies. It was the first day of orientation when we saw each other for the first time. Chris was sitting behind me and ‘accidentally’ flicked his pen at me – and would you believe, he still remembers what I was wearing that day! Luckily, our interactions continued, as we would see each other around campus and at various department events. Our friendship grew stronger in January of 2012, when we began running together.

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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).

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Kristen & Jacob Nuhn
Ashton Staffen Ashton Staffen

Kristen & Jacob Nuhn

MARRIED AUGUST 19, 2017

When you have a twin, there are so many perks that the two of you share. Perks like having a built-in best friend, reading each other’s minds, finishing each other’s sentences, and understanding what the other person would want in a romantic partner. That last perk is particularly important for this story. About five years ago, my twin sister, Jessica, set me up on a blind date with Jacob, a friend of her boyfriend’s, who she said would be perfect for me. Jacob and I went on a double date with my sister and her boyfriend, and when it came to an end, Jacob and I continued to hang out and talk until three in the morning! With chemistry like that, you’d think that the rest was smooth sailing.

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Jasmine & Sean Smith
Ashton Staffen Ashton Staffen

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.

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