Mandy and Mike: “I showed up to meet Mandy, a girl I had been talking to on 100hookup…”

Four years ago, I showed up at a bar in the East Village to meet Mandy, a girl I had been talking to on 100hookup. Most of the date was pretty awkward, and we didn’t have much in common except hailing from New Jersey.

She was a lawyer; I was a teacher. She wasn’t much into movies; I was a cinephile. We didn’t read the same books, and we didn’t watch the same TV shows. When I pressed her about music, she had a thing for Vertical Horizon (seriously?) while I was more into Springsteen, and Hall and Oates (yes, seriously).

However, she mentioned that she had been into this small New Jersey band in the ‘90s that I probably never heard of. And sure enough, she was wrong. We had both seen “From Good Homes” dozens of times, and had been to a handful of the same shows. She and her best friend had even gone backstage a few times. I was incredibly jealous, but more than that, I was smitten. Consequentially, our second date went much better.

Three years ago, at the band’s reunion show at the Wellmont Theater in Montclair, NJ we trekked into Montclair from Manhattan, even with a huge blizzard coming. Our ride bailed out on us last minute, so we took the train. After the show, (and all mass transit was suspended), we walked in the snow on

Bloomfield Avenue for half an hour, until we ran into some strangers who had also been at the show, and generously offered us a ride to a nearby friend’s house for the night. It was an incredible experience and one of the fondest memories we have. That was the night I knew that this was the woman I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.

Earlier this year, when Mandy was away on business in London, I flew there to surprise her and propose. You can watch the video on our website (I had the waiter video tape!): www.dorfmantenner.ourwedding.com

We are getting married Sunday, September 23, 2012 in Montville, New Jersey.

Thanks so much for helping us find each other.

Mike and Mandy
New York, New York