First dates are tricky to get right.
You're doing what you can to make a real connection with someone, forge a bond that perhaps could take you to the end of time. However, a mismanaged meal or bad weather can offset the blooming romance, taking the first date down into the "bad date" level. You save the date with the right moves, the right conversation, and a little bit of charm.
Then there's these dates, where the bloom couldn't be stopped no matter what happened, leaving you with butterflies in your gut and affection in your heart.
Reddit user, u/Trick_Prompt_5613, wanted to know what first date set your heart aflame when they asked:
What has been the best first date you went on?
It can't be described. That's the easiest way to explain why a first date goes so well. You return from the encounter, flurry of feelings rushing through you, unable to process your words, and that's when you know something is working.
The True Tunnel Of Love
"The first night I went out with my now-husband was pure cinematic magic. It wasn't even technically a date, we were 25, casual friends, and he was visiting my city and he met me out."
"Early in the night there was a moment where we went to the bar to get drinks, and it was super crowded. In my memory, it feels like we were in a tunnel of people swirling around us and we were the only two people in focus in the room. We stayed out dancing all night, I took him to see the nyc skyline, and we walked 2 miles back to my apartment and got street tacos at 5am. The whole night was just like a movie."
"3 months later, he moved to New York and we've been together for almost 8 years now."
Board Games And Hand Holding
"My current gf and I had our first date at a boardgame cafe in her hometown. We got there in the afternoon, and stayed for over 5 hours, well into the evening, talking surprisingly easily with one another and enjoying some games. It was a nice November night, so we went for a walk around the city block after leaving the cafe to continue chatting. We held hands, despite the cold. It ended with a kiss and promise of another date."
"She's been my person ever since :)"
Early Internet Days Of Meet Cutes
"I drove 4 hours to meet someone I had met online 6 months previously and spoke to pretty much daily, after she asked me to accompany her to her freshman roommate's wedding. We spent a week together bumming around upstate NY being gloriously happy, and have been together for the past 21 years."
"Gotta ask, how did you meet her in the first place?"
"September 2nd, 1999 - we met on the messageboard of our (then) favorite band. It was a "favorite quote" thread, and she Instant Messaged me that evening to say how glad she was that someone quoted the line I had used."
"The wife just now, after I told her about this: I have no idea how you remember such tiny things… ;-)"
You Know It's Real When They Don't Throw The Blue Shell At You
"My personal completely unexpected Tinder love story: I went to her place to eat pizza and play Mario Kart on a Friday evening. That would have been a great first date for me on its own."
"We ended up liking each other so much that our date basically lasted all weekend and I only went home to get some fresh clothes and stuff. We've been inseparable since then and we both knew very quickly that we wanted a relationship."
"So yeah, I went there with zero expectations and now we are moving in together."
Best Excuses For Late Assignments That Were Actually True | George Takei’s Oh Myyy
You can't predict how a first date is going to end, or even what it might lead to if it's good. All you can hope for is the good times continue on to the second and third date.
Fortunately, these ones all have happy endings.
When Technology Isn't Playing Along
"Before debit cards became ubiquitous. A very nice guy asked me out and had a nice evening planned. He said he needed to stop at a cash machine first. OK, sure. He couldn't get any money and was very embarrassed. "I know what my balance is, why is this happening?" We've all been there. So I volunteered to get cash. My card wouldn't work. Not declined due to NSF, just didn't register at all. The problem was genuinely the ATM."
"We could have gone to other ATMs, but decided instead to use the money we had on us to get ice cream cones.Sat at an outdoor table and talked. Perfect!"
Smooth Recovery, Bro
"Besides the one with my partner...."
"I was in high school. A boy asked me to the movies. We we're standing in the wide patch separating all the other rows from the last 3 decidingwhere to sit. (Before it started of course. ) He went to lean on one of the seats behind him forgetting that they weren't just right behind him because they were descending. He flipped over the row of seats, stood up, took orange juice out of his pocket and took a sip with so much nonchalant grace it's like it never happened. Fifteen years later and I'm still impressed."
All The Ribs
"We went to a rib shack.
"If you're both the kind of person to go get handsy at a rib shack when you're trying to impress each other, you might be onto something. He was fun, not afraid to look a bit silly, and somehow managed to make me feel like I was being dainty chowing down on a full rack (I absolutely, 100% was not, and nor was he)."
"That guy was a real winner. If it'd turned out I was straight, 100% would have married him."
Pictures Only Tell So Much
"I met a guy on tinder, he was DREAMY in his pictures. We texted for a couple weeks, I had just moved to that area so I wanted to make sure he wasn't some creepy weirdo. We got to know each-other pretty well so I agreed on a first date, watching the sunset on the river after work. My apartment at the time shared a parking lot with some other local businesses, so I had him pick me up outside one of the storefronts. We drove like 3 miles down the road to where the pull off was, he brought chairs for us to sit in and a couple beers and we sat and enjoyed the sunset. The date was going really well, you could tell he was nervous around me, so I asked if we could go for a drive (he had jeep with the doors and top off)."
"We went for a drive down the river and I was singing my heart out, I kept seeing him peaking at me. I told him to pull off at another area and we just unloaded on each other, about our pasts, what we wanted, what we saw for our futures, etc etc... it was going so well. On the way back to my place I made him pull over, I grabbed his face and kissed him.
"We get married in 26 days."
Beach Day! Night? Day.
"We were both foreign grad students in Italy. We went bar hopping on a Friday night until 4 am, when bars were required by local law to close. I asked her where should we go and she said "the beach." Then we went to each other's places to pick our swimming suits, towels, extra clothes, etc, and took the first train to Cinque Terre. What was supposed to be a just a night out turned into a weekend at the beach."
Not every date is navigated like sailing on a calm lake during a windless day. There can be stormy sessions, periods where you're not sure where it might be going, but all you can pray for to happen is the bond you wished was there to keep things together.
And then it does.
A Romantic Evening In The E.R.
"I was meant to go on a date with a guy I'd liked for ages, but I got suddenly, dramatically sick and ended up in hospital. I messaged the night before to cancel and when I explained why, he was like 'obviously I'll just come and visit you.'"
"Being hospitalized, I wasn't at my best. I probably looked the worst I'd ever looked. He turned up with a book of '100 unbelievable facts' because he figured the done thing was to give books to people stuck in the hospital and that had been all he'd had at hand."
"The staff immediately started harassing him about whether or not he was my boyfriend, and then he sat through a really lengthy, over-the-top lecture about a medical condition that I have."
"His only response to the whole thing was that I was beautiful and it had been good not to miss out on spending that time with me."
"Anyway, I married him."
Still In Progress...
"Last weekend I had my best first date ever."
"A common acquaintance kinda set us up."
"We initially wanted to go for a walk, but it was raining heavily. So she picked me up at the train station and we went to her place. The moment I entered her room I saw five books that I read and liked. Off to a good start."
"We talked for hours and when we looked at the time figured we'd better get something to eat so we ordered some sushi. Always fun eating with chopsticks."
"After that we both felt like going for a walk so we took that walk and had a lot of fun. After that went to her place again for a drink. Talked for hours again, totally forgot the time and almost missed my last train home."
"The date lasted for over 8 hours and it was honestly my most enjoyable first date ever. To be continued."
Just A Little Bit Closer
"I remember how I used to be depressed (maybe more just 'annoyed') that my stock answer for questions like these was a really fantastic date that I'd been on back in 2013. We matched on Tinder when I was home for Christmas but didn't live in the area, I made that clear but she didn't care, literally said; 'Whatever. You seem fun. Wanna grab a beer sometime this week anyways?'"
"We went on 3 really great dates. On that first date we talked for hours, ended up getting told the bar was closing and we had to leave. I just really clicked with her on a level you don't with most people; but since we lived on opposite sides of the country (literally... Portland, OR, and Savannah, GA) I figured it was a wash and didn't really pursue much. We stayed in casual contact and both went on to date other people and live our lives... I always kinda knew in the back of my head it was a big 'what if' and felt like a major league 'missed connection.' I remember in like 2015 a friend saw me texting her out at a bar one night and asked who I was texting. I explained the background and insisted I didn't have any designs when he pressed me a little. He asked if we lived in the same city if things might be different, I kind of jokingly said: "Oh. 100% would be trying to wifey her up if I lived closer."
"It turns out that I wasn't joking quite as much as I thought. In 2016, I moved to the West Coast (a different state but technically closer) and now we will be celebrating our 3rd wedding anniversary this Summer."
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