A certain Internet Dating site is making a lot of the stated fact that 2% of newly married Americans met using their services. They claim the success to be down to matching people on their personalities and desires in life, rather than having people choose a prospective mate purely on their looks. Most people who have tried Internet dating will say when pushed that they don’t spend hours and hours reading through personality profiles to find their ideal, but that they look at the photographs and if there is a spark of attraction they will then read the profile.

So what works? 2% of newlyweds obviously didn’t think that looks were an important factor at the beginning; we all agree that they shouldn’t, that it’s the person on the inside that matters, personality should always win over attractiveness. In fact many people will tell you that as they got to know someone they became more and more attractive as the friendship grew stronger until they suddenly realized they have fallen in love.

One newlywed Couple, Brett and Louise was happy to discuss their background. Brett, a Licensed Professional Counselor in LA was finding it difficult to meet the perfect woman, with a heavy work schedule and a large close family, there just didn’t seem to be time to fit in finding the love of his life. Despite being sociable and with a large group of friends, social occasions always seemed a little lonely and as if something was missing. When asked about it Brett said “A good friend of mine suggested the idea and I thought I'd give it a go, but didn't really think I was the sort of person that uses this kind of service, I don't know why though, because when I've spoken to friends about it since I've met Louise, it turns out a lot of them met their partners in a similar way”.

Louisiana Licensed Social Worker Louise was more open to the idea of Internet dating herself. A personality matching site was a new idea for her, as choosing men purely on their looks had led to a few disastrous dates and to meeting men with who she had nothing in common. So, she had joined the site a couple of months prior to Brett. She had been “matched” with a couple of guys who she had chatted with, but then she got the notification of a new match, Brett. “I read his personality profile and immediately thought he was the man for me”, said Louise, “There was just something about the way he had written it all, I really wanted to get to know him”.

The couple agreed to email for a while, then the phone calls and texts began. It was 4 months before they actually met, but look where they are now!