TONY dating success stories

Photographs: Sion Fullana

Heather + Tim

The couple: Heather, 23, freelance photographer–photo assistant, and Tim, 27, paralegal
The status: Engaged and living together in Greenpoint
The story: The last time we checked on Heather and Tim (March of 2008), they were celebrating their one-year anniversary; now they’re busy planning their wedding.

It started when Heather was nannying for a family and she ran across Tim in “Date Our Friends.” She didn’t think much of it, but later decided to e-mail and see if they clicked platonically. Forget that. “It was immediate in a very movie kind of way,” says Heather of their first encounter. Four months later, the couple was splitting a tiny room in Fort Greene—the kind of place that’d break less formidable matches. “It was sickeningly blissful,” says Tim. “I don’t think we ever fought.” Eventually Tim drove in secret to Heather’s parents’ house to ask for her hand in marriage, and proposed on his 26th birthday: “Heather was sitting on the floor, and I asked her if she could help me open one more present,” he says. Heather cuts in: “So he went to his underwear drawer, turned around and had this digital camera. He kneels down, hands me the ring box, he’s all shaking, and I was like, ‘What the hell…’ We’re both crying, and he asked me if I would be his wife. I said, ‘Yes, of course!’”

And as for those kids Heather was nannying while flipping through TONY? They’ll be the flower girls in the couple’s September wedding. “It’s nearly storybook,” says Tim. “To me, it’s the most awesome way we could’ve met.”

Jennie + Billy

The couple: Jennie, 38, co-owner of Blue Marble Ice Cream, and Billy, 29, head chef at Fort Greene’s Bonita
The status: Eight months strong; moved into an apartment together in Boerum Hill on July 1
The story: “The main reason I agreed to do this was to get attention for my business,” admits Jennie, who appeared in the mag last October. “I was really embarrassed; I told my friends, ‘I’m not writing back to anyone!’ ”

Fortunately fate (and a pushy pal) intervened. “My business partner, Alexis, had tried this amazing soft-serve at Bonita, and said that we had to try it. Not four days later, I’m checking my Time Out e-mails and she physically forces me out of my chair to look through them. One of the subject lines reads, ‘I make soft-serve.’ So she starts squealing and is like, ‘This is the chef at the restaurant I told you about!’”

Indeed, Billy had spotted a link to Jennie’s profile on Eater. “When you work in restaurants, you get off at 2am and meet people in bars,” he says. “So I thought, This ice-cream girl is pretty and seems normal, what do I have to lose?” When Jennie finally wrote him, she says, “he wrote back right away and was all, ‘I’m gonna take you out for a great first date: Clover Club for cocktails, Char No. 4 for dinner, and if we have fun, we’ll end the night at Hank’s.’ I was like, uh, clearly this guy’s never done online dating. He was so optimistic, it was refreshing.” In person, she was even more taken: By dinner’s end, they’d already made plans for a second date. “We’re completely in it to win it,” says Jennie. “When something feels this right and this good, you just have to celebrate.”

Marshall + Heidi

The couple: Marshall, 36, museum curator, and Heidi, 28, features writer for Metro
The status: Six months strong
The story: Heidi knew three people who worked at TONY; when one mentioned the “Date Our Friends” feature, she agreed to give it a go. “Dating in New York is just ridiculous,” says Heidi. “I’d never gotten past a third date.”

TONY reader Marshall e-mailed Heidi on a whim after seeing her ad: “I liked what she said—something about being ‘idiosyncratic without being precious.’ And she was definitely cute.”

At the time, both parties’ expectations were low. “Of the responses I got, only four people were acceptable,” says Heidi. “The rest obviously hadn’t read my profile; I said ‘no sporty types’ and this one guy kept going on about baseball.” Ultimately, Marshall was the only guy Heidi agreed to meet: “He sounded ambitious and engaged.” Adds Marshall: “She didn’t look like the type of person who’d go for a lawyer; I knew I could pull out the curator card.”

Three weeks later, they met for coffee on the Upper East Side. “We talked forever,” says Marshall. “Eventually I told her I had to get back to work—or get fired.” Now, six months later, the couple vacations together and has met one another’s parents. They’ve even spoken in vague terms about shacking up. “We’re not embarrassed about the way we met,” says Heidi, “we’re just surprised it worked so well. It’s an amazing story.”

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