Who doesn’t love Black love?! We do and we celebrate it with our “Put A Ring On It” series. Each week, we’ll feature YOUR engagement and wedding stories, romantic photos and even tips that’ll help other Beauties out on their Big Day. Check back each week for a new installment!
This week, we spoke with Lakeisha Hall and John Branch about their online dating love story and how they managed a long-distance relationship for over five months, before deciding to spend their life together.
HER STORY
I met John on BlackPeopleMeet.com in January 2012. I’d interacted with several people on the site, but didn’t have success so after a few months I decided to close my account. I hadn’t gotten around to deactivating the account when I received a message from John. From our initial contact, I felt he was truly interested in me and wanted to get to know me better. We also spoke fairly early in our interactions about expectations and what we were truly looking for in a relationship (we both were serious about finding a life partner/spouse and, ultimately, marriage). We also did not let our online interactions drag on for too long before we decided to meet in person. We met for the first time at a local coffee shop. I was so nervous to meet, but John had the ability to put me at ease. We talked for hours and I found leaving to go home very hard.
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After only a couple of months we were officially a couple. Both of us had always had the desire to relocate, but the logistics of both of us finding jobs and relocating at the same time proved to be problematic and unrealistic for us. With John’s love and support, I accepted a great position in Houston, Texas but that meant that we would have to be separated for an undetermined amount of time. We dated long-distance from January 2013 to August 2013, when John was able to also find a job and relocate.
The Surprising Moment
John proposed to me on March 14, 2013 while I was in Florida visiting him during my spring break. He proposed to me at a small jazz club in front of all of the other customers! One of the best memories I have from the proposal was just how nervous John was leading up to the actual proposal. Looking back, that should have been a tip off, but I did not put it together until they invited him on stage to do it! John then invited me up on stage! Although both John and I had talked about the possibility of marriage very early on in our relationship, the actual moment was still unexpected but a great blessing. We are truly in love; he is my best friend and I can’t wait to marry him on June 14, 2014.
NEXT: Check out his side of the story and that BEAUTIFUL ring!
PUT A RING ON IT: Lakeisha Was Over BlackPeopleMeet.com…Until She Met John was originally published on hellobeautiful.com
