Today we’re talking love stories, Cola love stories that is. Y’all were kind enough to share your first date stories, engagement tales, and other scenes that could’ve been plucked straight out of a Columbia movie with us, and we’d like to share them with you while love is still in the air.
Without further ado, here are 14 times that cupid visited Columbia.
“I moved to Columbia for a job in 2016, 👔 and she moved here to finish her degree at @uofsc ...We met at @ViveChurch and hit it off right away. 💒 Our first date was at @pawleysfrontporch5pts then Sesquicentennial State Park, 🦆and then over to Harbison because we didn’t want the date to end. It was late but we made one final stop at @kaminskysvista 🍰 We were married in 2018 and we are now expecting our first child in the Summer. 👶🏻 Now days, you can catch us at the Riverwalk, at @sodacitysc market, at @lizardsthicket 🦎 or riding @bluebikesc around town 🚲” – @palmermsmith
“I was 15 years old out riding around in a car full of girls and we were in a wreck at the corner of Trenholm Rd and Pinebrook. This cute guy who lived on Pinebrook ran out to check on us because he heard the wreck.
He then asked someone at the scene what my name was and began calling me.........
4 years dated, 31 years married, 3 children and 1 grandchild later!!!!!
That’s my love story❌⭕️❌⭕️” – Angie M.
“On our first date at Uncle Louie’s in the Vista my (now) fiancé noted that my voice was really familiar to him...turns out he’d been listening to my radio show on @wuscfm for years! 📻 Third date was Jim Clyburn’s Fish Fry 🐟 at @scstatemuseum - a year later we got engaged at the State House 💍 We live in the @mainstcolasc and we’re getting married in May at @historiccolumbia Seibels House 🌸 rehearsal dinner at @huntergathererbrewery Curtiss Curtiss-Wright Hangar ✈️ So much Columbia love ❤️” – @megnolia12
“I met my partner the day after he moved back to Columbia from Colorado. I was working for his mom and we were both doing renovations to the store she owned. It took about six months, well after the work was completed, but we finally figured it out the following winter. 😄💜 It’s been just over nine years and I can’t imagine him not being the person I share a home and multiple cats with.” – @skeindeepyarn
“My wife and I were set up on a blind date. We met at @dripcoffeecolumbia for coffee. I was late but thankfully she stayed. We ended up walking around 5 points just talking. We may have made a stop at insomnia cookies for a treat.” – @thisisjosh890
“In November of 2017 I was bored with dating and mostly scrolling through Tinder and Bumble just to screenshot ridiculous profiles and send them to my best friends so we could laugh at them. Then I was on the phone with one of them when I said, “I just want a nice, cute, nerdy guy” and bam! Anthony was the next profile that appeared. A few seconds later we had matched, a few minutes later we started talking, and a few days later he asked to meet me at Tazza Kitchen for our first date. (Now known as our anniversary, November 17th.) We had tacos and cocktails and talked about growing up outside of Boston and Raleigh until they shut the place down. We couldn’t believe we had lived in Columbia 3-4 years and liked so many of the same things, but had never met. (He even taught a pottery class at the end of my street!) We politely said goodbye in the parking lot and both drove home with smiles on our faces. I texted him as soon as I woke up the next morning and by that afternoon we were strolling with his dog Stella at the Riverwalk. That night we went to Bourbon and Flying Saucer and the next morning he made us pancakes. We’ve hardly spent a day or night apart since then and by April of 2018 we were moving in together at Canalside Lofts where we still reside and where we can easily visit the Riverwalk with our dog Stella.
While the first two years of our relationship were full of date nights and hanging out with friends at the Whig, Soda City Market, Steel Hands Brewery, and even some dance classes at Blue Moon Ballroom, the last year has been full of turning our one bedroom apartment into a coworking space that also doubles as a Netflix lounge and whiskey bar (haha...but really.) We know not everyone has had such wonderful company during the pandemic so we feel really lucky to have had this extra time to hang out with our favorite person.” – Rebecca D.
“First date at @britishbulldogpub, second date two days later because we couldn’t wait to see each other again at @twisted_spur_brewing. We both live on opposite sides of Columbia but met in the middle and so happy we did!” – @pndabearadventures
“My wife and I met having lunch with mutual friends at Moe’s in Irmo. I asked her on our first date 3 months later at a show at @newbrooklandtavern . Our first date ended with drinks at Liberty. Our dating was full of Taco Tuesdays at @thewhig and Saturdays at the Soda City Market...the night I proposed, we had dinner at California Dreaming and I popped the question at the West Columbia she had just closed on the night before. We took our engagement pictures in The Vista and on State Street (even went back in NBT for a few shots). And got married at Main Street Methodist Church. We were a true Soda City love story!” – @gamecokben
“Post other break-ups for both of us, my husband and I met on a random non-set-up date with Tracie Broom and her then boyfriend. She needed another female to join for dinner at Motor Supply b/c her dude at the time was bringing his childhood friend who shared his birthday. He lived in Charlotte and didn’t know much about Columbia. I agreed to join but had zero intentions of getting involved with some random guy in any way.
We sat at that middle-of-the-restaurant table at Motor, you know the one I mean, and the connection was pretty instant. We then went to Conundrum Music Hall to see Josh Roberts and the Hinges. The dude, Chaston, on the dance floor, leaned over and kissed my NECK. I said “slow down mister” and then proceeded to kiss the other side of my neck.
We then went to the Rooster’s Den, one of West Columbia’s finest establishments, sang karaoke, drank Fireball shots and danced. Needless to say, either Columbia hooked Chaston in such a way that he needed to make it part of his life or it was all me. Either way, now 7 years later, 5 of them married, with a 3-year-old son, we always celebrate how Columbia’s charm was part of bringing us together.” – Merritt M.
“Met my fiancé at a tailgate for the Clemson game and got engaged on the Horseshoe♥️" – @jill.lbaker
“My husband and I have an unusual first meeting story. In 1973, I was a student at USC working on a degree in elementary education and worked part time at a printing business at the corner of Sumter and Hampton Streets. I had to park on a parking meter to go to work after my classes. One day I was pulling into a parking spot and a handsome, young Police Cadet with the City of Columbia was writing parking tickets. He stood and watched me park. When I got out of my car he just stared at me and said, “I wondered who owned that car that I kept giving parking tickets to.” It turned out he lived near me and we had even gone to the same schools, but he was a year ahead of me and I didn’t know him.
He walked me to my job and stood and talked a while and kept stopping by to say hello occasionally. He finally worked up his courage to ask me to go to lunch with him to Sammy’s Deli on Taylor Street. Our first real date was to Pizza Hut with a bunch of friends from church. After that date I told my best friend I was going to marry him one day. One year later we became man and wife and have enjoyed 47 sweet years together. I still have such fond memories every time I pass the former location of these businesses. They are long gone but our love lives on stronger than ever. A few years ago my daughter found two “Precious Moments” Christmas ornaments: one of a little girl in a VW convertible and one of a boy in a police uniform writing a parking ticket. They hang together on our Christmas tree every year and they epitomize our happenstance meeting!” – Kathy S.
“Husband and I had our first date at Il Giorgione and got engaged there! Our wedding was meant to celebrate where we fell in love, Columbia! Reception at Boyd Plaza, F2t catered, rehearsal at Villa Tronco, left reception on blue bikes down to Hotel Trundle! ♥️" – @kmichele17
“My fiancée and I met on February 10, 2020 at Publico for our first date. We spent the lockdown months of the pandemic doing fun things together around Columbia! We explored the riverwalk, had some fun date nights at Dukes, Kaminskys, jazz nights at Front Coffee and Tap and have even been to a really fun dueling pianos show at The Senate. We got engaged in my backyard in Lexington on September 4. We will be getting married at Southern Oaks in Gilbert on April 30.
I grew up in Columbia but had moved away after college. I moved back here in September 2019 after living in Charleston for several years. I never thought I would meet someone and fall in love in the city I grew up in. But here we are!” – Ashley S.
“In 1989, I was working on the 13th floor of the Palmetto Center on Main St. for SCE&G. I kept seeing a “cute guy” around our building and the downtown area. All I knew was that he worked on the 16th floor...and was very cute! On Friday, April 14th, I got on the elevator and he was the only person in it! I was so nervous!! We started talking, continued the conversation for about 15 minutes, went on our first date shortly thereafter and were married 15 months later in St. Mary’s Episcopal Church on Tram Road! #LoveInAnElevator” – Allen A.
“My boyfriend, Mike, and I met in 2016 working at Village Idiot. We both graduated from USC a few years apart. He played football for the Gamecocks while I watched from the student section, unknowing who he was. Our paths crossed slinging pizza and drinks down in 5 points. He was a bartender and I was a server. We started dating after being friends for about a year.
2 years later, we both moved away from Columbia for a couple years. He moved to Houston, TX and I moved to Chicago, IL - I know we’re crazy! Did the whole long distance thing and decided there’s no place like home so we both moved back to the Midlands and couldn’t be happier. Thank Village Idiot and Columbia for bringing us together!” – Carilee C.