Last Valentine’s Day, we challenged you to share anecdotes from your most uncommon dates. We expected to hear about dinners that turned into happily every after, and bizarre blind dates that didn’t leave you in love at first sight, but we had no idea we would receive so many great entries! After choosing two winners, one experience that we wished we could replicate and one we’d rather not, we learned that every courtship has an interesting story.
Whether you’re swiping through the world of online dating, or you and your special someone are years past your “silver anniversary,” we want to hear your stories.
Tell us about your most #UncommonDate in the comments below or use the #UncommonDate hashtag on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram for your chance to win a prize package from our Valentine’s Day Gift Guides, worth up to $250!
Share your #UncommonDate story for a chance to win lovely goods from our Valentine’s Day Gift Guides!
Be sure to share your story by February 12, 2017 to be eligible to win! The two winning stories will be announced on February 14. From all of us at UncommonGoods, we wish you and your loved ones a Happy Valentine’s Day!
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My most recent date was fairly unusual. He turned out to be a magician (second job, his true passion in life? … Not what I knew about him), so my introduction was watching him pull multiple feet of blue paper out of his mouth. A little fascinating, a little disgusting. He then proceeded to turn credit cards in to playing cards and other fairly simple tricks. However, when he asked me to feed him a French fry, I had to tell him he was not allowed to put something else out of his mouth in its place. Luckily, he complied, though swallowing that trick was obviously a bit awkward.
It all started with four years before I even knew the man I would go on my most uncommon date with existed.
I had just started dating another guy and fell into that “we definitely don’t work but it’s too comfortable to leave” scenario. We moved into together and eventually decided we weren’t able to work… period. So after spending the greater part of my adult life in a relationship, I was lost. I rebounded… awkwardly. With my boss’ son. Who lived at home. 30 minutes away from my new found freedom. And lacked a license. But I tried to make the unconventional and forbidden love work. However, same concept, we didn’t work but I refused to follow the same path.
Cue modern dating. With a few drinks and some friendly persuasion, I decided to download a dating app. Not my original cup of tea, but what could go wrong? Or so I thought. After a few catfish and even more terribly awkward pickup lines I had perfected the perfect first date. Being the scientist I am, I came up with a plan to weed out the disasters without wasting anytime. Have two days worth of light discussion being careful to only ask superficial questions and try to gauge the interest and intelligence, suggest Chipotle, test his patience because the lines are long, test his people skills and how he treats workers, go first, pay for my own meal (as to not give any ideas), hope that like any normal person they get guacamole (which I’m allergic to!), have a date, eat quickly, if the date goes well say, sorry I’m allergic to guacamole but let’s hang out again, if it doesn’t (which is far more likely) say I’m allergic to guacamole and leave. Block numbers and unmatch. Easy? It was the perfect plan. Until him.
Now here’s where the story begins. 11pm, I come home from a late night of work and rehearsal and swipe right on a man with a Bloody Mary and think, well damn, this kid looks fun. So I send him just that, you look fun. Immediately the man calls me out and asks what I’m looking for, throwing my whole equation for a loop. This is deep. This hasn’t happened before… so I answer honestly, that I’m not sure. I want someone cool to hang out with and am willing to see where that goes. He then pulls my big no no and asks if I want to come over, right then to watch house of cards. I call him on his forwardness telling him I am not a Netflix and chill kinda gal. He then quickly recants and says of course he isn’t asking that but rather to be his companion into the apocalypse. Quick wit, I liked that so I threw my equation out the door and went straight to the suggestion of Chipotle for the next day. He agreed but made a few quips about my freckles and Irish looks to add to the cake. I blushed.
Figuring that the date would bomb, we agreed for a 6pm start time and I reluctantly allowed him to pick me up. Luckily the restaurant was walking distance. He picks me up, it’s a good sign, he looks better than his profile. We go, the line is out the door (thinking perfect, I can weed him out early) we start talking. The conversation flows as easily as the sour cream there. Then he doesn’t get guacamole, uhoh. Again, a wrench in my plan! The conversation continues easily and we are laughing and smiling like we’ve known each other for years not mere hours. Slowly we stop eating but the conversation is still alive and he suggets hitting a local bar and having a drink as he’s not ready for the date to end. I obliged because I am, for some reason, drawn to him.
So on a Thursday night, at 8pm, we go to a bar. Where there is a magician doing tricks. We run into people he knows and some of my friends as well, all of the sudden it’s no longer a date we are just hanging out not even talking to each other but still engaged. I was shocked, he was talking to my friends, I was talking to his, in such a bizarre turn of events our first date including the friend test. Eventually the friends leave and we resume first date topics. Which happens to include movies. He mentions he is excited about a new movie (Fantastic Beasts) that is coming out but he isn’t sure when it happens. Being a Harry Potter geek, I tell him it comes out that night, at midnight. He then suggests seeing it…. at midnight.
In a rush of sheer adrenaline for not missing a midnight premiere I jump at the idea and he quickly buys us tickets and off we go. My supposed to be less than an hour vetting date has reached a six hour mark with no signs of ending. Overwhelmed and under prepared, we arrive at the theatre.
Recliners and a bar greet us. I ask the bartender for a shot to help my nerves and get one for the man I’ve just met a few hours before. I asked for the bartender to just choose one… he chose banana rum. A drink I didn’t realize was served outside of mixed drinks and high school. But it was poured so why not? The date and I giggle at the prospect of having flavored shots and settle in for the movie.
The movie starts and is wonderful and I go to discuss the current plot and he’s asleep. I’ve been on quite a few dates and having someone fall asleep during one, that’s a first. Especially a first date! As the movie comes to a close, the clock is nearly 3am and he drives me home. With a quick kiss goodnight, away I go to recollect the events of the evening and realize that my first date was over 9 hours long… on a work night.
It didn’t take long for the two of us to realize we were an uncommon duo but what we had (or could have) was something special. In the past it was always about making things work that probably shouldn’t have even started and from the first date with him, it was obvious it was not about making anything work because it didn’t need help working, it was easy. He’s my uncommon, unexpected, whirlwind of a partner and I wouldn’t have it any other way!
When I was a poor college student (and dating one as well!), I was taken on the most interesting date and loved it. We went to a local grocery store and spent about an hour in the greeting card section just reading cards to each other. We found funny greeting cards and laughed together. We found sentimental cards that expressed how we felt about each other and cried (ok, so maybe I was the only one who cried.) After that we bought a pint of ice cream and walked around the rose gardens in Omaha, NE. It was romantic, fun and most importantly…cheap!
My hubby and I June 9th been married 55 years. first day of school met a girl and she asked me to double date with her and boyfriend. Well 2nd date. She and I decided to change dates,I was quiet and her boyfriend was wenwete at a drive in movie. Well next date the guys didn’t know what to do but we gravitated towards the change. They didn’t staying together but we have and still are.
We were fixed up by a friend in 1983 on a blind date. First time I met him was when he drove a half hour from his house and arrived at my door. It was Hanukkah and the house was filled with family. He didn’t even know which one I was. After all the introductions, we headed out to a local restaurant/bar. I had a very strict father and had been given a very strict curfew. When we arrived at the place, my date asked me to hold his keys and wallet in my purse. We talked for a couple of hours and he excused himself to the bathroom. He was gone a long time and I began to worry that I might miss curfew. I looked around for him and he was nowhere to be found. I didn’t really like him and I was not missing curfew for a guy I’d never see again. So I left. Took his car and drove myself the 2+ miles home. I left his wallet and keys on the front seat of his car, parked in my driveway, and went to bed. About an hour or so later, the doorbell was ringing like crazy and it woke everyone in the house. My date had walked in the dark of night to my house and was absolutely furious. It took some time to convince him not to call the police and have them charge me with grand theft auto. Four children and 33 years later and I am still driving his car. Just a nicer one!
We took a hot air balloon ride which I had been dying to go on. It was professionally run with a great well maintained vehicle-I guess that’s what you’d classify a balloon as- and a funny pilot who was clear about when to laugh and when to pay attention. There were a couple other couples in the balloon as well and it was a sunset ride. Before we departed we were told several times that as the pilot cannot see everywhere we were to assist by shouting out any obstacles that were getting close. For example, a particularly tall tree could be on the blindside and should be noted so the pilot has time to react. As we cruised the PA countryside, we pointed out landmarks and noted the telephone poles and generally continued to ride the wind. As we approached the end of the ride, it was reiterated to watch out and shout out future obstacles. Due to the wind, we found ourselves nearing a residential development and as he started to let the air down, our basket shook and the couple to our right shouted “Is that a tree?!” As the couple to our left realized they had dropped the ball and forgot to check for obstacles, our pilot quickly scrambled to climb to get over the forest that had appeared on our left rapidly. We smashed into the top of a pine tree and knocked the top off another tree as we tried to continue our descent so as to land in a yard and not a house. When we hit the ground, the older lady who recognized the obstacle shouted “oh my knee” as we narrowly cleared a trampoline. It was certainly uncommon and is a source of laughter we reflect on often.
My now Husband and I had been dating for about a year and a half and I was 8 months pregnant with our first child. We had planned to go on a cruise to Alaska with a friend earlier that year but I obviously couldn’t go. My boyfriend seemed really disappointed but I thought about it and told him he could go. The trip was sort of a last vacation before the baby comes. We also decided that I would fly out to Las Vegas for a babymoon and he would fly down from Seattle after the cruise. After one week of waiting I packed my bags and boarded a plane to Vegas. We met up at the airport and took a cab to our hotel on the strip. Our room was amazing and we learned later that they had given us a hospitality suite for one night due to being booked that day. We even had an outdoor terrace with a fireplace! So romantic. Our first night in Vegas we decided to go to the Eiffel Tower. There was about an hour wait to go to the top but my boyfriend decided to pay extra for the express pass. I thought to myself, he never does that and would rather wait. Something is going on here. We got to the top of the tower and watched as the fountains started going at the Bellagio. I turned to look at my boyfriend and he says he has something for me. He pulled a diamond ring out of his pocket, got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. Of course I said yes and the rest of the night was a blur as I was in shock and so excited. How lucky can one get in Las Vegas? This was the best date ever and we came back one year later for our wedding at one of the chapels.
First day of orientation/freshmen week of university there were 15 people in my room playing cards against humanity…. my future boyfriend, a friend of someone I had met, was there and I had not talked to him nor did I remember he was there after the fact. That night him and his friends were talking about the girls and when asked who he liked the most he said I was the girl he would want to be with, at the time he had a girlfriend from high school. Three months later I knew his name but we had never spoken one on one, I was friends with his roommate. After going to my first frat party my friend had a big fight with her boyfriend from high school and we ended up with her crying in the hall outside of his room with nowhere to go because both of our roommates were asleep. He heard the crying, came into the hall, and told us to take his room and he would go elsewhere… I took him up on his offer of staying in his room for a bit and convinced him to stay. As she was on the phone with her boyfriend, my future boyfriend and I started talking and I was smitten. The next night I was doing laundry when he texted me and came to the laundry room to keep me company. That night we were in the laundry room laughing and talking until 5 a.m…. My red sweater ruined a white blazer but it was worth it. That was our first time alone together…. 3 and a half years later we are still together, traveled the world with one another, and talking about marriage and kids. Who would have thought that the laundry room would be where I got to know and kind of had my first date with the love of my life.
When you meet someone online you don’t just want to meet anywhere. My now husband and I had our first date during the 2010 World Series baseball playoffs. We were supposed to meet at a local brewing company but because it was so crowded we ended up having dinner at a restaurant next-door. Long story short, dinner went well and we decided to go for a walk. We sat down on a park bench to get to know each other some more and a homeless man ended up approaching us talking to us about how we were lovers forever and he could just tell that we were meant to be together. The next part of the date consisted of us grabbing coffee and happening upon a DUI checkpoint. We proceeded to watch three cars get towed and ended the evening with a hug goodbye and hope to be in touch soon.
I hope I’m supposed to post our “uncommon date” here:
We’ve lived in Arizona for 18 years. About 10-12 years ago my husband of many years decided it would be romantic to go on a hike. We were just hiking up to the wind caves. A very low-key hike. His plan included dinner at the top of the hike and staying long enough to see the sunset. Sounds lovely, dinner was a hit, chocolate covered strawberries for dessert were yummy. All was beautiful and after a gorgeous Arizona sunset, we started down. The only problem was, my sweetheart hadn’t factored in the dark that comes after a sunset. No flashlights, our only source of light was his cellphone, which as is often the case with him, was very low on charge. I had visions of us tripping and being eaten alive by coyotes. Our children were all grown, no one to miss us for days…all was well, and that year will be a Valentines Day to remember.
My husband took me on an awesome date when we first started getting serious – since I’d known him (several years by that point, although we hadn’t been very close), he had always been attentive and respectful, but when we officially started dating, he became The Perfect Boyfriend. My favorite night was a night very soon after we became official, where he picked me up from work with a bunch of soft pink peruvian lilies and chocolates, wouldn’t tell me where we were going, and drove about 45 minutes away from our town. Turns out, he had been working for a contractor to renovate a huge, beautiful, old mansion/estate not far from our suburban Philadelphia town, which is definitely not known for our rich, southern-style estates. No one was living in the mansion while it was under construction, so we got to walk through the gardens in full bloom and watch the sun set while sitting on the grass. My now-husband told me all about the rooms inside the house, pointed out all the chimneys, told me a little about the history. Almost as soon as the sun was over the horizon, out of nowhere, clouds rolled in and a huge storm started. I personally love windy thunderstorms, and got him to run through the huge meadows with me for a few minutes. The rain was coming down in buckets, and we got to do the romantic rainy kissing and dancing in the grass while tree frogs were hopping all around. That was the night I knew I was going to fall in love with him, and it’s stayed one of my top five favorite memories. A little over a year later, we got married, and we’re now in the early stages of our happily ever after 🙂
My boyfriend took me to lunch at a Thai restaurant, then to a rare/out of print bookstore where he got me an entire collection of Louisa May Alcott books, and finally to a vineyard for a wine tasting. Best date I ever had
When my husband and I were dating I planned our first Valentines date. We got all dressed up in a suit and formal dress and went for dinner at Taco Bell. For dessert we went to Walmart and bought ice cream. It was a fun, silly and cheap date, but it is one we still remember 11 years later.
#UncommonDate On one of our first dates years ago, my future husband wanted to take me for a ride on his new Triumph motorcycle. All went well until a few miles away from my house on a country road, we ran out of gas. Yep, we both took turns pushing it all the way back. Sad to say, it happened several more times over the years but we kept that bike until a couple of years ago. We were married in 1977.
Years ago when I was about 20-21 I met a guy at work. On our first date he asked if I liked to shoot pool & I said yes! I even had my own pool cue. So he picks me up & takes me to a STRIP club that had 6 tables in the back & free buffet. We played 2 games & I was DONE! I passed on the buffet & had him take me home. Needless to say- we NEVER went out again!! #UncommonDate
Well we were always told you hardly ever meet your soul mate at a bar, rite. Well I met my soul mate working a drive thru McDonald’s! Yeah I know that never happens, lol.
Well after seeing him every day for a couple months, I asked him if he was married/single, divorced.
We made plans to meet up, I chickened out, and planned again, nope didn’t happen so the 3rd time he came to pick me up. I’ve never been happier 25 years later it’s wonderful❤
My husband Daniel and I went on our first date on Friday the 13th, 2014. Not only was it a Friday the 13th, but it was the first full moon to occur on a Friday the 13th in June since 1919. It’s especially unique because June is the month of summer solstice, so the moon is at its closest to the sun. This proximity to the sun gives the moon an amber color, so it’s referred to as a “honey moon.” It won’t happen again until June 13th, 2098. Talk about uncommon! It wasn’t intentional that our first date was on a Friday the 13th, but we decided to make the best of it. We’ve gone on a date or done something special every Friday the 13th since. On November 13th, 2015 (a Friday, of course), Daniel proposed to me. We got married on the second anniversary of our first date (June 13th, 2016). We plan to continue our Friday the 13th tradition until death do us part. It’s a fun story to tell. Some people might think we’re crazy since it’s a day typically associated with bad luck, but for us, it’s a day associated with love and good times.
My most uncommon date was when I met my ex and he and I lived far from each other Seattle and NY. We talked for months and then finally he asked me around his birthday if I could be his Valentine present and he sent for me. NY is my favorite city in the world. Though ti was his birthday I’m the one that felt so spoiled and treated like a Queen. It was the best vacay ever!
When my now husband and I were first dating, I invited him to go on a hiking and camping trip with me. It’s usually a guy who asks a gal to go with him, but my dad raised me to love the outdoors and took me hiking and camping. My husband was a thoroughly city-bred guy who had no inkling of what to expect, but he was game. I brought all the camping gear and made all the arrangements. He enjoyed himself immensely, even on one of the more difficult trails that we hiked. That was 40 years ago and we’ve gone on many more camping trips since then.
My husband and I were neighbors when we first met, so our first date was cautious (great, but simple, just in case things didn’t work out and we still had to live in the same building). Second date though… after an evening of jaunts around the city, dinner in one spot and dessert elsewhere, we were discussing sights we’d never seen and he suddenly offered at 1am in the morning to take me up the Empire State Building. So we head across town, get in the very short line at 1:45am, and make it to the top for the final minutes below closing. We walk around and take in the view. The viewing platform closes at 2am, but true love was blooming and the guards apparently had a romantic side. As 2am ticked by, they stepped back and let us be. Our first kiss happened at about 2:03am, on top of the Empire State, virtually alone above NYC. A pretty memorable start from the guy I could already tell was a keeper!
My most uncommon date was with a Greek exchange student. My family is Greek and we had heard about him and invited him to the Greek Orthodox Church in our town. My dad had to go pick him up in a nearby town and come back and pick us up. We got to know each other and my senior prom was coming up and I didn’t have a date, so I asked him if he would like to go. He said yes. He was so good-looking and a great dancer too. In fact, when we got on the dance floor, everyone at the prom stopped dancing and watched us dance. I lost tough with him after he went back home and have often wondered how his life turned out.
My most uncommon Valentine’s date was 4 years ago. My husband and I have a daughter who was 6 months old at the time, and my mom offered to watch her for a few hours. We had friends of ours who had recently had a baby, but there were complications and he was in the NICU at a large children’s hospital in the city. We decided that the parents needed to take an hour away from the hospital, so we paid them a visit to check in on them and the baby, and talked them into leaving long enough to have a nice dinner for Valentine’s. Since it was so impromtu, there was no nice, sit down restaurant that we could get into AT ALL that night, so we had to get creative. The 4 of us ended up celebrating Valentine’s Day at Firehouse Subs that night, however it was perfect. They needed to get their minds on something else for a few minutes, to take a short break from the hospital, have real food, and adult, non-medical related conversation. After they returned to the hospital, my husband and I went window shopping at a car dealership nearby, and I ended up getting my mommy-mobile, my Nissan Armada. All in all, it was a weird, but nice and sweet Valentine’s Date.
Alas, all of my dates have been pretty common: dinner out, a hiking trip, weekend at a lake side cabin (rustic), a movie or a evening of darts and pool. Those that stand out, do so for the company I was with.
Maybe the hike in the woods of New Hampshire with my parents where we got lost! We were lost in the White Mountains with half a water bottle and an oreo cookie between the 5 of us. He stuck around and 23 years later we are still happy and now with 2 kids!
I had a guy take me grocery shopping with his college roommates as the second half of our date. I went home (by myself) right afterwards! #UncommonDate
He was trying to hide from his stalker ex-girlfriend and met me in the corner of the room. #UncommonDate
A romantic dinner out. ~ Earthquake ~ Sudden chaos. Windows rattling, glasses breaking, and tables shaking…except for ours. A sign? We thought so.
Everyone talks about the thrill of the chase. We never had that. Instead, for us, it was love at first sight. Love, however, doesn’t always equal romance. I knew if I wanted to have a lifetime of being swept off my feet on Valentines day, I needed to do some sweeping first!
The year was 1992 and we were both in college. Lady in red was a popular song so I dressed accordingly for our Valentine’s date. I told him to meet me at 6pm at my dorm room and be dressed to go to a fancy restaurant (and make sure to have a full tank of gas!) However, when he arrived I was not there. Instead, he found a shiny wrapped present with the tag “Open Me”. Inside was a black tie with small red hearts- and a clue. The first clue told him to put on the tie and figure out where he needed to go next.
Each clue sent him to various haunts near campus that we had been to together. The first clue led him to a hole-in-the-wall bar where I had purchased him a specific drink- and the bartender had his next clue. Next, he headed to a video tape rental place (remember those?). A video was at the front desk waiting for him- already purchased and containing the next clue. The final clue led him to a restaurant by the ocean, where I had been sitting alone at a table for two, in my red dress. I didn’t have a contingency plan. We didn’t have cell phones if something went wrong. I showed up for our 7:30pm reservation and anxiously waited for him to arrive.
I can still remember seeing him for the first time, looking around the restaurant, before his eyes found me. I felt a mix of relief and giddiness- and love. We still celebrate Valentines Day every year- even after twenty years of marriage! We create a Valentines Day hunt with clues, too— but now it is for our three children instead. Happy LOVE Day, everyone!
We went to a new restaurant. Beautiful decor, the food was too spicy….I had a few too many wines, got sick, home early. No new things on special occasions for us!
1987 -I was 17, he was 18. We were the wild, rebellious kids, me from the city, he was from the country. He asked me out on a date. An hour before he was to pick me up, my best friend showed up at my house, another friend in tow. They got dropped off & had no where else to go that night. He had borrowed his friend’s car to take me out – a Mustang, one of the tiny ones they made, completely blacked-out windows! He wasn’t bothered by my friends showing up, (I was a little, but they were my friends), so right off I knew he was considerate.
As it turned out, the car had a problem, and sometimes had to be pushed while someone else worked the clutch – the other friend was the only one of the three of us girls that could drive a stick shift!
He took what little money he was able to scrape up for our date and bought us all snacks & drinks, and he drove us all over the country back roads, long-haired country-boy style. It was exciting, and crazy, and we all had a blast.
Later on that night when we were finally alone, he asked me to marry him. I told him he was insane. He agreed, but that had nothing to do with it. We got married in 1989. I turned 46 on the first of February, and he’ll be 47. We finished growing up together. We’ve had four beautiful children, we celebrate our anniversary in April – 28 years. He still makes my heart skip, he makes me laugh, he is my true other half.
The fairy tales said a knight in shining armor would ride in on their horse to save you, but they were wrong. They drive up in their friend’s wonky Mustang, with a shining spirit, to treat you like their queen for the rest of both your lives. Happy Valentine’s Day to everyone!
My #UncommonDate is my husband. I finally found someone as weird as me!
After a lot of teasing from my co-workers, I agreed to go out with them for drinks after work. Figured I’d go and shut them up and wouldn’t have to go again. Afterwards we went to a cafe/bar to finish the night. One by one, each of my friends potentially “hooked up”. So the following Friday they made plans to go again to meet up with their potential dates and told me I had to come along because the numbers would be off. So I went. I was paired off with the oddball friend and we didn’t hit it off. By the night’s end my friends were harassing me to no end to “get a phone number”, “get a kiss”, etc. So as we were all walking to our cars, my friends had circled us with their lights on us so I said, “just to shut them up, would you mind if we pretended to kiss? I’ll put my arm around you and cover your mouth with my hand and no one will be the wiser.” Agreed. So we “kissed and exchanged numbers”. #uncommondate … Update,by the second weekend our friends all had parted ways and we … have been together every day since, for 26 years! <3 The proposal was just as uncommon … let's just say it was done with an onion ring.