So you made a success of it, you found a match online and now you’re meeting up? Congratulations! The hardest part of the journey is over and now the fun begins. But remember that first impressions do count and if you’re not careful, you could still mess things up at this stage. With this in mind, here are my top tips for your first face-to-face:
Firstly, make sure you choose the right venue; this may seem obvious but the choice of location can really make or break a date. Ideally you should choose somewhere that’s public, with people around but where you can still hold a conversation.
Meeting at your house or your date’s house is a definite no-no, this not only sends the wrong signals for a first date, but could potentially be unsafe – however well you think you know someone online, they could still turn out to be a real world psychopath. Even worse, they could be really boring and fail to take the hint when it’s time to leave!
Cinemas are often regarded as good venues for dates, but think about it – you’re stuck for up to three hours with your date in a place where you can’t talk or even look at each other properly; is that really the best environment to make an impression? Likewise the main dancefloor at Ministry of Sound is not ideal for an involved conversation.
Of course, this is not a definitive rule, you might have got chatting in the first place through a shared love of films or dance music, but for the majority of meetings a small intimate caf