Brandon and I probably crossed paths a dozen times in our lives…we’re from the same hometown in Washington, we had the same major at BYU, we had been EFY counselors together at the same sessions in Washington in 2012, I’d snuck his best friend into my high school’s prom, we had both been folk dancers at BYU, he had even attended a a murder mystery performance I was in while at BYU…the list goes on. Our dads even served missions together in Spain! Ironically, it took a dating app to finally bring us together.
It’s ironic because I was always kind of anti-dating app. My best friend met her husband on a dating app 5 years ago and I remember making fun of her for it, asking “what are you going to tell people your whole lives when they ask how you met?!”
Around the time Mutual hit the app store, I was producing a podcast called “This is Provo” and did an episode on dating apps. As I was interviewing people for the episode, I was intrigued by the things I heard about a new dating app called Mutual. A lot of the people I talked to had tried it and and were having good experiences. After publishing the episode, I had a handful of listeners come to me and tell me that they had gone out and downloaded a dating app (usually Mutual) because of the episode. One of these people was my roommate, who was also incredibly skeptical of dating apps. She started going on dates and having good experiences and encouraged me to give Mutual a try. After she mentioned it, I kept having this little nudging feeling that I should get on the app. I thought about it for a couple weeks, trying to ignore the thought.
Finally, a bit reluctantly, I swallowed my pride and downloaded the app in July. I felt a little sheepish since I’d just declared to the world (or at least to my podcast listeners in Provo) that I had sworn off dating apps for life. But I quickly forgot my pride in lieu of all the free dinners I was racking up and started (mostly) enjoying my experiences.
In August of 2017, Brandon and I matched and his first message to me was that he thought I looked familiar…hadn’t we been EFY counselors together? I didn’t recognize him, but I was surprised to see that he was from my hometown in Washington. We started chatting and quickly realized that we had bumped into each other a surprising number of times over the last 10+ years and decided to actually meet for real.
Long story short, we hit it off on our first date and ended staying up talking until almost 3 in the morning. We got engaged about eight months later and just had our one-year wedding anniversary last week. The proposal was pretty spectacular–Brandon knew I had always wanted to go to Iceland because of my love for the movie “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” (much of it was filmed in Iceland). He organized a weekend trip for the two of us plus my roommate, and the two of them somehow managed to convince me that he was NOT planning to propose because he didn’t want to pressure me, didn’t have a ring, etc. I figured the trip would be just a fun adventure with my two favorite people, but it turned into something even more when Brandon proposed in front of Skogafoss Waterfall, which is featured in the movie.
The craziest part to me is how we could cross paths so many times and never actually meet (or at least recall meeting each other). It’s the most cliche phrase ever, but the two of us were obviously “meant to be”! Without Mutual, I wonder how much longer it would have taken us to find each other…or if we would have! I never would have guessed that I would meet my future husband on a dating app…but I have to say thanks, Mutual!
Met On Mutual
These stories are submitted by real people who met on Mutual. You could be next!
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