eHarmony

Are the Best Wingmen Actually Women?November 5, 2009

The pursuit of love may be more a cooperative team sport than a one-on-one pick-up game.  New research published in this month’s Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin reveals that both sexes cooperate to achieve romantic goals—either to create barriers that potential suitors have to overcome, or by teaming up to circumvent (or downright break down) such barriers.  Additionally, an individual’s relationship status may influence the type and intensity of help s/he gives.

Does this seem familiar?  If, dear reader, you are a female, have you ever gone to a social scene with a few of your girlfriends and found an unsuitable guy trying to pick you up the moment your friend goes to restroom?  When she returns, does his friend suddenly appear to chat-up your friend and prevent your getaway?  If you are a guy, have you and your friends ever employed such a tactic?  It’s not just flirting, but a time-tested mating strategy.

Read this post >>

In Their Own Words: Kristen and JamieOctober 30, 2009

Here’s a special Halloween edition of our “In Their Own Words” blog by one of our success couples, Kristen and Jamie. Halloween is one of their favorite holidays for a few reasons—tomorrow is not only the anniversary of when Jamie first told Kristen he loved her, but it’s also the day they’re getting married! Thanks, Kristen and Jamie, for sharing your story with us. We’re so excited for you and wish you the best!

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Jamie and I made it to open communication and met face to face in March 2008.  We live five hours away from each other, so we took turns traveling to see each other and would sometimes meet in a new place for a weekend getaway.  Last October he asked me to meet him in New Orleans for a concert on Halloween where we could dress up.  He was a skeleton and I was a zombie fairy!  We had a blast; we are kids at heart and love Halloween and the fall season.  Earlier that day Jamie told me for the first time that he loved me!  He always wants to make special moments truly memorable, and it was!

While we were putting the final touches on our Halloween make-up I made the comment, “Next year we are going as something sweet and not scary.  I want to be a princess and you are going to be Prince Charming.”

Jamie took me to Hawaii in June.  In keeping with his way of making special memories, he sat me on a park bench in front of a sunset melting into the ocean and asked me to marry him.  It was the most romantic moment of my life!

We thought we would wait until next April or October to marry.  We couldn’t wait!  He called one night and asked if I would marry him this November.  I was thinking earlier that day if October of this year was too soon to plan a wedding.  We called the venue we were interested in; the last Saturday in October was the only one open in all of October and November!  It is one of our favorite days of the year, the one year anniversary of when he said he loved me, and we will indeed get to be a prince and princess.

We have a beautiful outdoor, Southern fall wedding planned.  We asked the florist to decorate the aisle with gourds, potted mums and leaves in fall colors.  For the reception, we asked her to carve pumpkins with things like our monogram, an engagement ring, the wedding date.  She will place battery powered candles in them with fall flowers coming out of the tops.  When I asked Jamie’s five year old niece to be my flower girl, I have to admit I felt guilty for taking away her trick-or-treat time.  So, she will be the only one “in costume” wearing her beautiful flower girl dress and fairy wings I adorned with a flower and ribbons.

We didn’t want to do a theme wedding, but at the end of the evening we will have small candy bags and masquerade masks for our guests to grab as favors.  Along with our planner, Jamie has been involved in almost every aspect of the planning process.  He is my “modern groom”!  I thank God first and foremost for placing Jamie in my life, but I thank eHarmony for giving us the way to meet.

Tricks for Healthy Treats this Halloween from JustMommiesOctober 28, 2009

It is easy to throw the diet out the window as early as Halloween! JustMommies has come up with some ways to manage your sweet tooth this October 31.

Tip #1: Buy Halloween candy one day before the festivities – that way the sweet temptation is only around for the shortest amount of time possible.

Tip #2: Buy treats you don’t particularly like!

Tip #3: Take your kids out after you finish dinner and are pretty full.

Tip #4: Opt to give out non-edible, fun treats like spider rings, wax vampire teeth or sidewalk chalk.

Get more creepy tips right here at JustMommies.com. Have a safe and sweet Halloween!

2010 Bridal Fashion Invades Project Wedding and Weddingbee!October 26, 2009

The teams from Project Wedding and Weddingbee just returned from a week in exhilarating (and chilly!) New York City, where wedding designers previewed their spring 2010 lines. It was a whirlwind of wedding dresses, taxi rides, runway shows and a wonderful time!

Along the way, we posted photo updates from the shows on Project Wedding’s One Lovely Day blog and over on Weddingbee. Highlights from the trip? The Romona Keveza show, which included a retrospective of dresses she has created over the past decade. Keveza told me she is thinking about designing a line of wedding renewal dresses next!

Other standouts: the winter wonderland Monique Lhuillier show, Kirstie Kelly for Disney’s Fairy Tale Weddings show (featuring the most adorable flower girls ever!) and visiting with Adele Wechsler, who is creating eco-friendly wedding gowns that are absolutely stunning. Now you can have a green wedding – right down to an organic hemp and flaxseed dress!

What’s New in Relationship Research: Rebounding May be Good for the BrokenheartedOctober 23, 2009

Flying in the face of conventional wisdom, new research shows that a rebound relationship—or even just the promise of one—might be helpful in alleviating the attachment to a former relationship.

Are you the type that often has trouble “letting go” of a partner?  Do you wonder if you should just return to a failed relationship?  Have you ruminated over certain aspects of your past love over and over, straining the patience of your friends and family?  It’s possible that the best thing to do in order to get over an ex- partner might not be spending time “self-reflecting” on the death of the relationship, but imagining yourself with someone new—and fast.  New research shows that for those who are “anxiously attached,” simply feeling optimistic about finding a new partner may engender a release of feelings over an ex-partner.    Researchers at the University of Toronto had individuals recovering from a breakup read optimistically-themed articles about finding a new romantic partner, and this strategy proved effective in enervating feelings of attachment to an ex.

Read this post >>

New on Project Wedding: Classifieds!October 22, 2009

Hi, I’m Joe, one of the founders of Project Wedding. I’m excited to tell you about Project Wedding’s brand new classifieds section where brides can buy and sell wedding items, share info about events like trunk sales and bridal shows, and get the latest on discounts from retailers and wedding vendors alike.  We’ve seen a lot of demand for a classifieds section from our Project Wedding brides over the past few months.  For brides who have gotten married, it’s a great way to recoup some of their wedding costs by selling wedding items they no longer need.  For brides who are still planning their wedding, it’s a great way to save money by finding discounted items from other brides and hot coupons at name brand stores.

Even though our classifieds section just launched, we’ve already seen hundreds of items posted.  Here’s a quick sample of some of the great deals you’ll find:

•    A Gorgeous Watters Wedding Dress – 50% off
•    A Beautiful Oleg Cassini Gown – 37% off
•    A Swarovski Pearl and Crystal Set – $40

Head over to the classifieds section and start saving!

Also on Project Wedding: Wedding Songs, Wedding Dresses, and Free Wedding Websites

It’s Not Just Free Communication Weekend…It’s a Free Communication Event!October 19, 2009

Get ready…starting Wednesday, it’s eHarmony’s Free Communication Event—the first time free communication has been five days long!  From Wednesday, October 21 through Sunday, October 25, you can communicate with your matches for free and experience the difference of eHarmony. Once you complete our Relationship Questionnaire, we’ll look for your matches based on 29 Dimensions® of Compatibility — like humor, intellect and character.

You have nothing to lose, so why not try eHarmony this week? Get started by logging on to www.eharmony.com today. And here’s a little inspiration—read about these couples who met during a past Free Communication Weekend:

Chelsea and David
Married 09/13/2009
Texas
“He became a member and I started during a free communication weekend.  David and I found each other on Day 2. David and I emailed daily and within two weeks he flew [to meet me] for the first time.  I’m pretty sure we both knew immediately.  I told a friend of mine, ‘If it isn’t him, it’s no one’ and I just learned that he went home after that first meeting and told one of his friends he was going to marry me.”

Rebecca and Jordan
Married 07/05/2009
Virginia
“My dad suggested eHarmony, since I had the time on my hands, so I decided to give it a try. Jordan took advantage of a free communication weekend in late October, and we made it through all the steps in like a day and a half!! He knew from the very beginning that I was his ’soul mate’.”

Paige and Stacey
Engaged to be married 12/19/2009
Florida
“My friends encouraged me to try [eHarmony] one more time on a free communication weekend around the New Year 2009.  That was when I decided to join again and soon after Stacey initiated communication. It has just been so hard to meet guys and find someone like this to date so I decided to give eHarmony a try after some other success stories from friends.  Stacey is definitely the most wonderful man I have ever met and we are just so rightly matched.  It’s been a long wait but now we both see that it has been worth it!  I am so thankful for my experience on eHarmony since it has led me to the man of my dreams.  I couldn’t ask to be matched to anyone more right for me!”

Celesta and Thomas
Engaged to be Married 06/05/2010
Canada
“Thomas and I met on eHarmony on a Free Communication weekend at the end of March 2009, after going through the steps on eHarmony we communicated via email and chat programs. Thomas invited me to Canada to see a movie one night and that’s how it started. I’m afraid that without eHarmony I would have never met Thomas, but am so grateful to you for ‘introducing’ me to him. He is more than I ever would have thought I would have and we are very much in love.”

From the UK: Love in the WorkplaceOctober 13, 2009

In the UK, we joined forces with Touchstone Pictures to promote the Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds rom-com “The Proposal”.  Since the movie comes out on DVD today, it’s a great opportunity to discuss finding love in the workplace.

We thought it would be interesting to find out what UK consumers really thought about finding love at work so we conducted a study with 1,000 people and the results were quite surprising!

Read this post >>

eHarmony Celebrates Customer Care Appreciation WeekOctober 12, 2009

eHarmony’s corporate offices in Pasadena are never dull or drab.  But last week, our halls looked like a carnival, decked out with balloons and banners in celebration of Customer Care Appreciation Week.

Each day, we had prize raffles hosted by our VPs along with lunches, snacks, and goodies for our valued Customer Care Agents.  And Friday morning, I heard a few cries of “BINGO!” coming from several cubicles as the troops wrapped up last week’s bingo challenges for awards such as gift cards and vouchers for free food.  I got into the act on Monday, and actually won a gift card myself (thank you, O-75!).

It’s good to know that we work for a company that loves us, especially when our company is in the business of love.  We want to extend that appreciation forward and let our customers know that we thank them for making our job so enjoyable.  Customer Care Week has definitely encouraged us to stay the course, and make every email and phone call a pleasant and useful one for you, the customers we are entrusted to care for.

In Their Own Words: Nicole and StevenOctober 7, 2009

Meet Nicole and Steven, one of eHarmony’s recently-betrothed success couples. While every one of our couples has compatibility in common, we’re always amazed at the uniqueness of each of their stories. Here’s their engagement story, as told by Steven:

All it took was one date with one match on eHarmony for me to realize that the rest of my life would be blissfully complete. Within weeks after Nicole first contacted me and asked me out on a date, I found it difficult to be apart from her. The question of marriage was never “Will it happen,” but rather, “When will it happen?” And just as Nicole had been the one to initiate communication, she would also (to my surprise) be the one to propose 17 months later:

Everywhere we went people had always thought we were a newly married couple and were very surprised to hear that we were not. When they asked why, I would jokingly reply that I was waiting on Nicole to propose to me. I had no idea that might actually happen!

On August 15, Nicole took me out on a hot air balloon ride. We took part in a hot air balloon festival and flew amongst a dozen or so other balloons which helped to enhance the already surreal experience. Toward the end of the flight, Nicole took my camcorder and handed it to another passenger. I thought we were going to take one last set of photos but I could tell that wouldn’t be the case as she took my hands into hers – they were trembling!

That’s when I knew she had beaten me to the proposal. It took a little while and a lot of kisses for her to actually work up the strength to ask me to marry her, but when she did I ended up breaking one of the only three rules our pilot gave us – do not yell out of the balloon. He didn’t seem to mind though, and neither did the spectators below that shared in our celebration of engagement.