I always find it silly when someone on Tinder writes in their bio that they'd be "willing to lie about where we met." There's nothing to be ashamed of about meeting someone special on Tinder. And if you swipe right and then end up clicking IRL, you definitely shouldn't hide that fact. By confidently sharing your tale of online dating success with the world, you can inspire others to embrace their Tinder love stories, too. That's exactly what these five happy couples chose to do. Tinder-themed weddings are becoming more and more popular, and these couples are living proof.
Each of these men and women first met on Tinder, went on to get engaged, and decided to incorporate the dating app into their wedding festivities. It makes sense to honor the way you first met at your wedding, and it's Tinder that these couples have to thank for introducing them in the first place.
Whether it was through a subtle nod in their invitation photos, or with a party favor inspired by Tinder, each of these couples drew wedding inspiration from the modern-day matchmaking app that helped ignite their forever flame. Here are five adorable Tinder-themed wedding photos that will restore your faith in finding love online.
Jenny and Ben had these unique, Tinder-themed cookies at their wedding to commemorate the way they met. The couple matched on Tinder soon after the app first launched. "I'll never forget — it was New Year's Eve 2012 and my friend Rebecca (who ended up becoming my maid-of-honor) was visiting from out of town. We downloaded the app strictly for fun, and it became more of a game than anything else," Jenny tells Elite Daily.
Like many people, Jenny used Tinder only when — and if — she could find time in her busy work schedule. "We both were completely swamped with the pressures and expectations of life in general," Jenny says of her and now-husband Ben. "Tinder made it easy."
On their first date in June 2013, Jenny and Ben discussed their one mutual friend from Tinder, found via Facebook. He was a cousin of Jenny's who had actually grown up with Ben and his brother. "We quickly learned that Ben's parents had close friends who knew my father years and years before he passed away. Hearing Ben's parents tell me stories about my father was one of the most out of body experiences I've ever had. It was then when I realized that it didn't matter whether we met in the basement of a bar, riding bikes in Central Park, or through an app called Tinder. It was the app that caused us meet, but fate that brought us together in the first place," says Jenny.
The two were engaged in May 2014, married in November 2014, and had their daughter, Colby, on April 23, 2018. "It is difficult to try and change the perception of Tinder, but I will continue to defend it as if I created it on my own," says Jenny. "If anything, I'm living proof that if you swipe through a lot of frogs, you may just meet one you like."
Leigh Ann and Taylor included a Francesca's trinket dish with the phrase, "I'd swipe right" in some of their wedding photos, as a way of recognizing the app that first brought them together.
The two wanted their friends and family to come away from their wedding celebration feeling like they knew more about them as a couple. The pair's main inspiration for the big day was sharing their personal love story.
"Taylor and I met through Tinder and had our first date at a divey commuter bar in Penn Station," Leigh Ann told wedding blog Style Me Pretty. "It may not have been the most glamorous start (and it was only 20 minutes long because I had to catch a train), but I knew right away that he was special."
Freya and Sean, who met via Tinder, planned a gorgeous, vintage-inspired wedding. Freya found the idea of a matchbox wedding favor online, and decided to make her own "matchboxes of happiness" as keepsakes for her guests. This very fitting favor was a sweet way to remind guests about the couple's online meet-cute.
"I filled them with: a plaster to heal all hurts; a stone to keep you grounded; a rubber to erase your mistakes; a paperclip to keep you organized; an elastic band to stretch you to your full potential; a lucky bean for luck; a star for all your wishes; a coin so you are never broke; a marble in case you lose yours; a heart so you know someone loves you; a seed to help you grow; string to hold you together in tough times," Freya told Want That Wedding.
"I liked it because it was like sharing our happiness on the day," she wrote. "Everything in the boxes came from craft shops. On the back we wrote, 'Thank you Tinder' as a nod to how we met."
Caitlin and Eric met on Tinder in 2013. On their first date they "just talked for hours," Caitlin told The New York Times. Eric explained that he always opened with the same line when messaging matches, a simple "Hey, how are you?"
"If I saw my wife in a bar, I would have been too intimidated to approach her," Eric told The New York Times. But armed with the knowledge that she had already swiped right (and therefore found him attractive), Eric was able to feel more confident on their first date.
Eric and Caitlin were married on July 10, 2015. Eric posted this Instagram photo from their wedding, with a "Straight Outta Tinder" filter and the caption: "We #SwipedRight!"
"People are always surprised when I tell them how we met," he told The New York Times. "I thought this was a fun way of sharing it."
Annette and Anthony matched on Tinder in 2014, and met up in person soon after. The two bonded over their shared love of "'80s movies, retro video games, popcorn, trampolines, and prank videos," Annette told wedding website Easy Weddings.
The fun-loving couple posed with this life-sized Tinder cutout on their big day, to commemorate how they first met and how far they've come since.
"When looking around on the day, we were surrounded by loved ones who joined us in our crazy adventure and weren't afraid to let their hair down to have fun, which was our dream," Annette told Easy Weddings.
It's true that the way people match, meet, and date has changed significantly over the past few years. But the specific path that leads you to the one doesn't really matter, especially once you've embarked on your shared journey toward happily ever after.
Check out the entire Gen Why series and other videos on Facebook and the Bustle app across Apple TV, Roku, and Amazon Fire TV.
Check out the “Best of Elite Daily” stream in the Bustle App for more stories just like this!
