By Kim Hilsenbeck.
He almost passed her up.
Perusing through profiles on Plenty of Fish (POF), Michael Stephens almost kept on looking at women on the online dating site.
“Her picture wasn’t that cute,” he said. “Something made me stop and take a look,” he said in a recent interview.
That profile was for Chelsea, now his wife, back in May 2011. He said they both laugh about it today.
| Above, about a quarter of people using online dating find long-term relationships through those services, including Michael and Chelsea. At top, Michael and Chelsea Stephens of Buda almost missed out on each other. After giving online dating a shot, they met on PlentyOfFish.com and married five months later. (Courtesy photos) |
Michael, now 28, wasn’t even looking for anything serious at the time. Companionship and casual dating were on his mind. But once he clicked on her profile, he saw Chelsea, now 23, wasn’t at all unattractive.
“I saw some of her other pictures and learned more about her personality,” he said.
“She was very modest and I admired that. I’d had enough of the other type of girls in my past.”
Why online dating?
“The bar scene wasn’t working for me,” he said. “They were not the kind of girls you want to take home to momma.”
Or in his case, great-grandmomma. His great-grandparents raised him in the little town of Kemp, about an hour southeast of Dallas.
He ended up in San Marcos when he followed a former girlfriend to Central Texas.
Chelsea was a Texas State University student at the time.
Michael said he took the plunge and messaged her through the POF site, saying something along the lines of, “I really liked what I read, you’re very cute and I want to get to know you more. If that’s OK, write me back.”
As he recalls, she messaged him back within 24 hours.
“She seemed excited in her reply,” he said. “I got a good vibe.”
Over the next few days, they messaged back and forth a few times, spoke on the phone and connected on Facebook, where they messaged each other more.
He finally asked if she wanted to meet in person. She said yes.
Michael chose the outdoor area near the pool at his apartment complex for the date.
“It was outside under the stars,” he said. “I was trying to be romantic.”
He admitted she seemed hesitant to meet him, but gave in anyway. He claims he wasn’t nervous at all.
How did that meeting go?
“It worked out better than we could have imagined,” Michael said.
When she stepped out of the vehicle, he recalls thinking, “Oh, wow. The pictures don’t do her justice. She was absolutely gorgeous.”
The pair sat under the stars talking for three hours – about everything under the sun. At one point, when talking about their favorite movie, “The Notebook,” he pulled her up to her feet.
“We made our own music and danced,” he said.
He remembers thinking, “This is awesome,” especially when she snuggled into his chest. Looking back, he thinks he fell in love with Chelsea that first night.
Five short months later, he asked Chelsea’s father for her hand in marriage. The old-fashioned country boy said he wanted to do it right.
Then he popped the question.
Michael said it was a little weird telling people he met his girlfriend, who became his wife, through an online dating company – at first.
“Then I embraced it,” he said.
The couple even wrote up their love story for publishing on the POF site.
He thinks the stigma of online dating is gone.
“You get to know more about a person and you get to pick and choose from the profiles,” he said.
Michael and Chelsea bought a home in Buda this past September. Their five-year plan is to purchase a few acres of land.
“I want to buy a house with some land and start a family,” he said. “I like BBQs and bonfires.”
