Every love story has a series of little milestones. The first date, the first kiss, the first fight, the first time uttering those three special words. These stages create a deeper bond between you and your significant other and signal the start of a new chapter in your lives together — a solid relationship. It is an exciting and nerve-racking adventure in itself, and it takes even more hard work, courage, and faith to see if you can make it to the soulmate territory.
But there’s one more moment every romantic looks forward to, and it’s the clarity that your partner is really The One. When you know, you know, right? Well, we stumbled upon an old viral Reddit thread in which user omg1223 reached out to the married men of 'Ask Reddit'. The Redditor invited husbands to share the exact moment with their (now) wives that made them go, "Yup, I'm asking this girl to marry me."
The post is filled with adorable, heartfelt, and hilarious stories of how couples went from "head over heels" to "I do". Our love-loving team at Bored Panda has scoured the thread and gathered some of the most wholesome responses to prove that finding your perfect match is worth all the hassle. Continue scrolling to read the replies for yourself, and be sure to share your own stories about the times you knew the person you wanted to marry was standing right in front of you.
Psst! More sweet relationship moments can be found in our earlier piece where people share how they realized their partner was The One.
#41

On our 4th date we got a cheap pizza and went to a park in October up north. We felk asleep and woke up freezing at 2 in the morning. Instead of getting up and leaving we just held eachother and went back asleep for another 2 hours.
I knew from that moment I was gonna marry this girl!
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59points
#42
Not married yet but the wedding is this August.
We met on Match.com and talked for three weeks before we met in person. I was too shy to ask her out so she asked me and we met up. The first restaurant was fully booked so we went down the street to a small cafe. Again, I was super shy so during dinner I didn't talk a lot. I was so worried she didn't like me but we both knew, from talking through messaging, that there was more to the other person. So we decided to take a walk around town after dinner. That's where I really started feeling more comfortable and we talked and walked for hours. At the end of the date we didn't hug or kiss but she said "I had fun, we should do this again." That was the best first date I'd ever had. I new from there that she was special because I just felt so comfortable and relaxed when I was with her.
That weekend after the first date she went to Florida, where her younger brother lives, to go to Disney with him so I had to wait two weeks but it was worth it. We went out again and eventually started going out weekly. Then we started seeing each other twice per week. After dating for about 8 months we started to talk about where this was going long-term. We were both 29 and felt we're both mature so we talked about marriage and life together, how we would raise our families and work together to pay off our student loans, we talked about kids and what type of parents we'd want to be. I remember after each date when I was driving home, I told myself that I knew she was the one, that I loved her and that I wanted to spend my life with her. It wasn't just one thing that made me feel that way, it was getting to know her as a person. I saw how caring, loving and patient she could be. I learned about the charity work and giving that she did, how she put others before herself.
So one day in January I bought an engagement ring. It wasn't a huge ring but I knew it was the right one when I first saw it. I went to her house, sat her down on the couch and in my introverted, dorkiness said (probably not these exact words), "I think you knew this was coming for a while. I'm super nervous and hope you like this ring, so will you marry me?" She said yes. After that we went down the street and got takeout gyros and went back to her place. She called a few family members and sent pictures of the ring to a few people. Then we ate our dinner and watched Spice World, because that's totally us. We're getting married this August.
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59points
#43

My husband tells me he knew when he casually asked me this question on our second date:
"What time is it?"
Correct answer and the answer I gave? "It's Howdy Doody time."
Married 24 years in August.
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58points
#44

When she said "You know, if you asked me to marry you, I'd say yes."
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53points
#45

For the most part, it was the fact that the very day we started dating she was staying at my house, not quite living there, just hanging out forever til that turned into living with me. Never thought to much about it til a year later and realize that we have never spent a day away from each other. Married Sept. 2006, and still going strong.
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49points
#46

We were young. I was moving across the country to be with her at the time. And she got our apartment all ready before I got there.
Our bathroom was really, really small. She had purchased this blue bathroom rug for the floor. And because the rug was too large she carefully cut out these notches for the sink stand and the front of the toilet bowl so the carpet would fit perfectly flat.
She cut the bathroom rug perfectly. I knew she had to be mine.
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48points
#47

It actually happened without much fanfare. We were in bed one night before going to sleep, talking about our relationship and our future. We had already bought a house together and had a dog, and we had talked about marriage in the past, but it wasn't a huge priority for either of us.
Talking about how cool it would be to have our wedding be like a reunion with a lot of old friends made it seem really appealing, and we knew that we both would be staying together for pretty much the rest of our lives. She ended up just saying it in the end "So, do you want to?" and I said "Yeah, I guess I do! It makes sense!" and everything happened from there.
Completely and wholly unromantic! Yay for us! We're now coming up on 8 years of marriage with 2 kids.
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43points
#48
While making rice crispy treats, my future wife snuck a spoonful of the melted marshmallow and made me a fresh peanut butter and marshmallow fluff sandwich without me noticing. When I took the first bite, I knew I'd never find anyone better.
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43points
#49

Like our 4th date, at her house the episode of the Simpsons is on where they're hiding the town's trash everywhere. Without any prompting or ever talking about the show Doug, we both simultaneously said "STASH OUR TRASH! BEAUTIFY BLUFFINGTON!". an absolutely inconsequential line in a mediocre show neither of us had seen in over a decade. We boned.
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42points
#50

We had gone on two or three dates before I asked her to "be my girlfriend" and I knew the instant she said yes that we would be married one day. Her eyes just lit up like nothing else when I told her I wanted to make things official. It has felt like I can read her mind since the day I met her. I know when she's happy, sad, upset, tired, annoyed, etc. I knew a few days before she asked me to move in with her that she was going to ask. We have been in sync pretty constantly, and I'm incredibly lucky to be married to someone with whom I'm so in tune. We dated for three years, but I knew from day one that we were going to be married.
I don't really believe in 'soulmates' or anything too mystical. However, if there was anyone who could change my mind about that, it's my wife.
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39points


