5 Terrible first dates that turned into amazing relationships

The most astonishing part about these date stories is that every single one of these led to a happy long-term relationship.

1. I see your cowboy costume and raise you one giant booger

“My husband and I met when I was 15 and he was 19. He was a sophomore in college and was dating my friend. She was all excited and wanted me to meet her new boyfriend so my mom dropped me off at her house and we had to walk down to where he was working at the time, Dairy Queen. When I first saw him I about died. First off, what is a 19-year-old college kid doing dating a 15-year-old kid? The second problem was his outfit. He was wearing a long black trench coat, cowboy boots, a blue polo shirt, pleated khaki pants and a cowboy hat. It was August! In Minneapolis! And to make matters worse he was smoking. Fast forward many years later we ended up meeting up again. But on our first official date I was recovering from a sinus infection. I went to sneeze into a tissue and completely missed it without knowing it. I left a huge booger down my shirt. So now we both laugh about it today and have just agreed to forgive and forget our first impressions of each other.” – Jenny Sundberg

2. When you said go out on a date, you didn’t actually mean we’d go out on a date, did you?

“I stood my husband up on our first date! We met about two months before and I had given him my number. Two months later he still hadn’t called so one of his friends had to help him get up the courage to finally call. But it was so out of the blue that I didn’t believe it was for real. So he waited at the restaurant for 30 minutes and I didn’t show up. Afterwards, he called me and asked what had happened. We ended up having our first real date later that week and I felt so guilty that I ended up paying for both our meals!” – Lora Mays

3. Throwing up is never not funny

“Juston and I decided to go to the movie theater to watch a recording of the opera Carmen for our first date. When we got there we were the youngest people there by at least 30 years, but it was still fun. After the movie we decided to go get ice cream which we just ate in his car. Well, I should say I ate. He took one bite, set his ice cream down and said, “I have a confession to make” — which is exactly what you never want to hear on a first date. He then told me he got so nervous when he went out with girls that he couldn’t eat anything or else he would throw up. He had thought the ice cream would be OK but apparently it was not and so he asked if we could walk around the parking lot until the nausea passed. This was about the funniest thing I’d ever heard so I spent the rest of the time teasing him about it, which is why he asked me out again. He said everyone else he’d ever gone out with had been really nice and told him it was nothing to be embarrassed about. I was the only girl who had laughed at him and he liked that. I don’t know how I feel about that but I’m glad it worked out!” – Bekky Cunningham

4. Even Mother Nature was opposed to this union

“We met during a tornado. I probably should have taken that as a sign! Instead, after the weather cleared, we decided to walk around, or rather through, a wooded scenic trail. I got about a thousand bug bites and spent the rest of the date applying ice and calamine lotion and bitching about what a horrible place that was to take a date. Seriously, who takes someone on a date like that? But over a decade and three kids later, I’ve forgiven him!” – Jeni Svestka

5. The couple that fights together, stays together?

“A mutual friend had been trying to set my husband and me up for months but I was too busy prepping for my college recital. So instead, my friend made him come to watch me at my recital. Afterwards she introduced us and we did not hit it off. Little did we know, the cameraman filming the recital left the video running so we have a tape of me being a jerk to my future husband the first time we met. We went out the next day and things got worse when my husband called me out about being rude. Thankfully, we got ourselves figured out and have been married for 15 years.” – Mary Smith