Marta + Shelby
Shelby
Marta
Shelby
My profile on Bumble wasn’t anything too crazy. I tried to make sure that my pictures clearly showed who I was unlike other profiles where you have to guess out of a group. I included a picture of my dog because everyone loves dogs.
Marta
I'd like to think that is was inviting! Most of my photos were of just me so no one had to guess which one I was. I also think a bio is important so I think I had mentioned something about having a beer on the beach, which funny enough we ended up doing a lot!
Shelby
Her photos caught my attention as well as her bio. She was always at the beach and looked like she was always happy. Her bio mentioned that she lived in New York City and it caught my eye because my brother lives in NYC too.
Marta
He has an amazing smile, also the fact that he was tall was GREAT (all of my friends know I love the taller men)! I also have a soft spot for red heads and although he would deny it his hair is a little red! He just seemed genuine too which I know can be hard to "see" in just a couple of pictures but he did!
Shelby
Sarasota, FL - Boulder, CO Firefighter/ EMT
Marta
Something along the lines of lets go drink a beer on the beach or take me fishing and I'll bring the beer.
Shelby
Marta
Shelby
I was looking for someone that had the same interests that I have. Someone that had the same hobby’s as me.
Marta
To be honest I wasn't really looking for a partner even. I wanted to meet someone nice who I could hang out with for a couple of weeks until I headed back to NYC!
Shelby
Profiles that only had one picture of themselves. Also profiles that didn’t have pictures of themselves in it.
Profiles that clearly showed who that profile belonged to. I didn’t have to guess out of a group of friends who I was talking to.
Marta
Mirror selfies! I really do not like those!
I love big smiles, a witty bio and pictures with family! If you happen to throw a cute dog pic in there somewhere that never hurts!
Shelby
Marta
I like to start off with a bit of sass or snark so my opening line was acknowledging the fact that he is younger. It played off well!
Shelby
We talked for about 2 weeks before our first date. It would’ve been sooner but our original plan got rained out.
Marta
I'd guess it was about a week or so. We had an initial date planned but hurricane season forced us to push it back a bit (street flooding). He was really good on initiating a first date and making a plan.
Shelby
After talking about getting drinks somewhere we both decided that we should try and stay outside. And of course we wore our masks.
Marta
There was definitely a conversation about us not having it, wearing a mask and being in an outdoor space.
Shelby
We got drinks on our first date. I asked her if she wanted to get drinks earlier that day. She stated that she was going to get drinks with her sister and if I had a friend we could double date.
Marta
Our first date was actually a double date with a friend of his and my sister too. We went to Daiquiri Deck which was really fun and then the boys took us to downtown Sarasota to a fun rooftop. Shelby planned pretty much the whole date, I love when a guy shows initiative.
Shelby
My first impression of her was that I thought she was cute, confident and knows how to have fun.
Marta
Oh gosh, take the awkwardness that comes from a first date and then add in 2 extra people, having to wear a mask and a pandemic. Honestly it could have been a lot worse. We got to laugh immediately about having to elbow bump instead of hug and I definitely thought he was cute and tall! However he had rolled his pants up and was wearing long socks and vans, there was some slight judgement there but I make fun of him for that now too.
Shelby
Ever since our first date we have kept things fun and entertaining. Every day we hung out it was something different.
Marta
There were never games and gosh that was awesome! If we wanted to see each other we did and if we wanted to text we did. We also spent an entire week together straight and I didn't get sick of him, coming from me that's pretty big!
Shelby
We made it “official” on September 18th over FaceTime. She asked me the question of “what are we?“
Marta
September 18th, it was a Friday and I had facetimed him when I got home from a friends. I had had some cocktails and must've been feeling bold because I pushed at what we "were". I remember him saying that we were dating which to me is not official but to him it is. I think I proceeded to tell him that if he wanted to make it official he was going to have to ask me a certain question, wink wink. We were both more than happy to make it official though so that was good. The next morning I woke up to a text that said "Good morning my beautiful girlfriend".
Shelby
I would never have matched with her if it wasn’t for Covid. I would have still been in Colorado and she would still be in NYC.
Marta
No, that's the craziest thing. Shelby and I can say that if not for the pandemic and Bumble we would have not met. He was living in Colorado and I was in NYC but both of us relocated to Florida to be with family, stayed for longer than anticipated and the rest is history.
Shelby
Dating during a pandemic has made us appreciate our one on one time and being away from large groups.
Marta
I'm so confident about our relationship. Since we haven't been with each other a lot there's just always been this element of trust even from day one. We're also on the same page about not having to constantly be in communication. We'll text a little during the day but we both understand that the other person has a life and we'll talk later in the day when we have time.
