Today we’re talking love stories, Charleston love stories that is. Y’all were kind enough to share your first date stories, engagement tales, and other scenes that could’ve been plucked straight out of a Charleston movie with us, and we’d like to share them with you while love is still in the air.
Without further ado, here are 11 times that cupid visited the Holy City.
A proposal heard ‘round the world
My daughter just got engaged the day after Christmas on the rooftop of the Dewberry Hotel. The proposal has gone viral! It’s on Tik Tok. (Watch here.)
-Helen S.
A romantic day peeling shrimp
I’m a native South Carolinian who has been living in Atlanta and met my husband six months after moving here. He was in the Hospitality industry and I was in sales so I called on him and scored a sale. After several appointments he asked me out and I accepted. First date? He took me out in the Charleston Harbor and we went shrimping and the second date was popping the heads off the shrimp. Twenty five and a half years later we still laugh about our “romantic” first date. BTW he’s one of the good ones and I didn’t throw him back.
-Susan K.
“Hey, are you the guy with the cinderblock movie screen?”
Yes! My girlfriends were out after the bars closed during college and we met random guys also meandering home. We hung out at their place and they had a makeshift movie theater they had created out of cement blocks, a sheet and a projector. Three years later he sat next to me at the bar at Kickin’ Chicken and I asked him if he was the guy with the movie theater in his house. The rest is history. We were married at the county park on Folly and live on James Island.
-@jessicazieche
Secured the bag
We had been dating for about a year when we moved to Charleston together. We both quickly fell in love with the city. Eventually his work moved him to a job site in NC but we kept our home here and he came back on the weekends.
Prior to his job moving him we had joined a Cornhole league at My Father’s Mustache in Mt. Pleasant. He snuck back into town without me knowing. While I was playing in a tournament with my back turned to the parking lot he snuck in and got down on one knee. I noticed a figure behind me and looked back and he proposed. It might not have been the most romantic location to some, but I loved it so much! I still can’t believe he was able to surprise me so well! We got married the following year at Wild Dunes and just recently bought a house on Johns Island!
-Kathryn W.
The one with the cute Uber driver
In 2016 I lived in Philadelphia, PA and decided to go on vacation to Charleston with my girl friend for a long New Years weekend. When we arrived, we called an Uber, and Michael was our Uber driver. I thought he was cute so I gave him my number! (He was professional and did not give me his. I figured if he was interested, he would reach out when he was off the clock). He did, and we spent that whole week of vacation together, and then started a long distance relationship. July 2017-I move to Charleston to be with him. April 2018-Engaged. July 2019-Married. October 2020-Found out we are expecting. June 2021-First baby due! Should we name it Uber?
-Erica B.
Healing love
I moved to Charleston for a new job around February of last year. As y’all know, COVID ensued and shut down the entire city shortly after. It was incredibly difficult to make friends or do anything social, so I was understandably lonely and depressed. I certainly did not love this city.
But one summer afternoon, I met up with a man with whom I had been talking to online to have a socially distanced date. So we sat at a park bench along the waterfront and shared a charcuterie board while we talked about our lives, interests, and passions. The connection was electric and magical. He walked me through the city admiring its beauty and romanticism of its architecture and courtyards. I was swept away.
This led to seven more glorious months of explorations through the Lowcountry, further admirations of Charleston’s aesthetics, learning new skills together (pottery FTW!), having random dance breaks, eating some of the most delicious food I’ve ever had the pleasure of consuming from to-go containers, and backpacking my little dog throughout the streets of downtown. And in this time, he also helped me to transition jobs, move apartments, and even come out to my parents and friends.
Every day Steven would fall more in love with Charleston all while I was falling more and more in love with him. 2020 brought me so much pain and frustration in the beginning, but in the end it brought me the love of my life and for that The Holy City will always hold a special place in my heart. Happy Valentine’s Day!!
-Kyle M.
Confidence is key
Yes! @jasonteknut approached me one day at lunch at The Workshop in 2017. Told me I was the prettiest girl in the room and that he’d like the chance to get to know me better. Handed me his business card, and walked out. We were married 2 years later. 💜
-@heziggy
Black shirt, silver sunglasses + jorts
In the summer of 2010, as I began to prepare for my first job as a teacher, my bookkeeper from my soon-to-be school asked if I could help a guy moving from New York to Charleston find an apartment.
She never told me who he was, just that he was going to be living downtown. I assumed he was a college kid so when we first talked - me sitting on my kitchen counter on St. Philip Street, and him somewhere in New York - I was pitching all kinds of locations close to campus. We chatted a few times throughout the summer as he got ready for his move but it never came up how old he was or where he would be working.
We agree to meet in person August 1, so we can finally put a face with a name. On the morning of August 1, I drive from my apartment and park on Spring Street, right by Rose’s Florist. As I walk down the street, I see a man wearing a black shirt, silver sunglasses, and jorts. I instantly knew that this was the man I was going to marry...and apparently work with, too.
We went to grab coffee, at his suggestion, so I was dismayed when he told me he didn’t actually drink coffee. I sat quietly drinking my liquid lava (who drinks hot coffee in the middle of the day in August?!) while he browsed through apartment listings. We eventually parted with him going back to his hotel and me back to my apartment. As soon as I got back, I told my roommate that the guy I’d been chatting with was going to be a teacher at my school and that he needed a place to sleep for a bit. I asked if he could sleep on our couch til he found an apartment and, surprisingly, she agreed.
We officially got together in May of 2011, engaged in January 2012, and married November 2012. We were married here in Charleston and have two precious babies!
-Laura D.
From a TV proposal to the real deal
So, a friend of mine was working at Wild Dunes in the marketing department when TLC came on site to film an episode of “The Perfect Proposal”. They needed extras and although I was already dressed for the beach that day, I was talked into changing plans. I put on my business casual clothes and met my now husband (who was also recruited) in the lobby of the Boardwalk Inn. He was in a seersucker suit looking good. We were paired up in the episode, and being a southern gentleman, he walked me to my car afterwards. We still have it all recorded on an old VHS. We will be married 14 years this June, and you can now find us at Wild Dunes playing on the beach with our 4 year old son, Wilson.
-Brooke A.
Never too late
“Late in Life Love Story”. Reconnected with a fellow alumni from St Andrews High School from 1966. Facebook friend request, first date at LoLo’s on Folly Road (2/11/2020), and getting ready to celebrate our one year anniversary (2/11/2021). He said it took him over 50 years to get a date with me!😎
-Linda W.
Singles, can we get an “amen”?
Lol absolutely not.
-@fraserspeaks
