Belinda and Neil

Well I’m ringing to tell you Neil and I have become engaged. It’s so great and quite amazing. If anyone had said to me this time last year that I’d be engeaged now I’d have definitely said not. The thing is you just neve know how these things are going to work out. I’d like to say a very big thank you to you. Neil was in my first set of profiles that I received from you but I sat on them for 3 weeks before doing anything about them. Then I wrote to him (but forgot completely to mention friends1st!) He emailed back and we started a sporadic email conversation. I wondered at one point if we were ever going to meet – and having tried internet dating before I’m wary of having a long email conversastion without meeting and finding out of there’s a connection there in reality. So I suggested after a bit that we met for coffee and I was surprised by what I thought of him. He’s nice I thought!

A month later we met again and that was it – we both just knew. We met at Petworth Park and didn’t stop talking for 3 hours. We had so much to talk about and lots of interests in common. We just really enjoyed being together. On the third meeting we decided to give it a go. He took me out for my birthday and that was it. He proposed at Christmas (less than a year after I’d joined you) which wasn’t a surprise as we’d already choosen the ring! It’s just really special what’s happened and just goes to show you really don’t know what will happen.

What’s interesting is that he’s definitely different to the kind of person I’d have written to 10 years ago. I know I’ve changed over that time which is interesting when you consider the type of person you’re looking for. Everything has just come together for us.

I did read through a lot of the stuff you produce and definitely am glad I joined friends1st. It’s definitely worth being encouraged to do the profile well, have the photoshoot etc. And it’s certainly worth making the effort to get out and be out there. So a very big thank you to you.