Rick Rowell/ABC via Getty Images
Category Archives: Relationships
Experts Tips to Find Love on Dating Sunday, Busiest Day for Online Dating – Krishi Jagran
Looking for Love in the New Year? Then Sunday might be the best day to find your true love. Do you know that Sunday is the busiest online dating day of the year?
Well yes, it is! According to several dating apps and websites, “Dating Sunday” or “Singles Sunday” is the busiest online dating day of the year. Ever wondered why is it so?
According to Julie Spira, a Cyber-Dating Expert, “Sunday is the perfect trifecta. You have people recovering from a breakup or who were down during the holidays. You have all those New Year’s resolutions as well as the Valentine’s Day is around the corner.”
Interestingly, Sundays also tend to be the busiest day of the week for web dating in general.
Spira further said, “The informal single’s celebration has gained traction over the past five years as society embraces online dating culture.”
“It’s around cuffing season, the few weeks leading up to Valentine’s Day, so people are really looking to find a partner,” said Skyler Wang, a Ph.D. student of sociology who studies online dating and the sharing economy.
Wang said, “These kinds of moments or holidays are also created by the online dating industry to get more people to use more apps. It generates this looping effect where more people join in after they read about how others are doing it.”
Now coming to the popularity of “Dating Sunday”, Experts say that online dating activity swells up to 75% on that day.
The dating app, Match predicts there will be a 69% spike in new singles coming to the app on Dating Sunday, as per Market Watch.
Tinder told Bustle that one Dating Sunday led to 44 million Tinder matches being made. According to the information from dating app Bumble to Global News, Dating Sunday is one of Bumble’s busiest days of the year.
Now you too can be a part of “Dating Sunday”. Just keep in mind the following Dating Tips by Spira and Wang:
-
Update your Bio: Mention any new hobbies that you have picked up. Don’t forget to mention your dream travel destinations. Talking about travel locations, like an African safari or a hike up a mountain, tend to get a lot of responses because it’s a good icebreaker.
-
Use Dating Apps: There are various dating apps out there to choose from and the experts say having at least three accounts will help maximize your chances of romantic success. However, it’s important to use each of the apps proactively.
-
Start Meeting: According to Spira, communicate with people, exchange phone numbers and start setting a date to meet.
Ben Higgins Has Finally Moved On: Here's How He Was Able To – E! NEWS
Bachelor Nation, the most eligible Bachelor is off the market. Go ahead, take a moment.
In May 2017, fans were left devastated when Ben Higgins and Lauren Bushnell announced they were ending their engagement after falling in love on The Bachelor in 2016.
They had quickly moved in together. They had their own spinoff, Ben & Lauren: Happily Ever After?, that aired for a single season on Freeform. They seemed so happy. What went wrong? Maybe it was the shock of it all that made Ben and Lauren’s split the most Googled celebrity break-up of 2017.
While Lauren moved on after a few months, dating Devin Antin for a year before going public with country singer Chris Lane, Ben, arguably the most beloved Bachelor ever, had yet to move on.
Until now.
“I’ve started dating again,” Ben revealed on the Jan. 15 episode of The Ben and Ashley I. Almost Famous podcast. “This is big news, right?”
Why yes, Ben. Yes, it is.
“I am dating,” he continued. “I’m actually dating one person that we’ll talk about in a couple of weeks.”
While Ben has yet to publicly reveal who his new girlfriend is, he did say it’s currently a long-distance relationship involving lots of FaceTime and called her “the best, purest person I know.”
This is the first time Ben has seriously dated someone since his devastating split with Lauren, and the 29-year-old has been open about his struggle to move on.
In September 2017, Ben opened up to E! News about wading back into the dating pool after two stints in the franchise.
“I’m not trying to hide anything. I’ve gone on a couple dates,” he told us. “It’s been nothing but dates. I think it’s been blown out of proportion. I’m not exclusively with anybody. But I am starting to put my foot back in the water.”
And he fully admitted he was not ready for serious relationship.
“Life’s been a little crazy for me, and it took me a while to get my mind and heart back in the place to start dating again,” he explained. “But I’m starting to, and I think that’s the best step. I didn’t know how to start, and I’m starting. But that’s about as far as it goes. There’s some great people in my life. Hopefully soon I will be able to show somebody off.”
And yet, that didn’t happen. And many fans were surprised when the cast for The Bachelor Winter Games, a competition-driven spinoff featuring former contestants from the international versions of the franchise, was announced, and Ben was named as one of the cast members.
But it quickly became clear that Ben did not head to Vermont ready to find true love…or even entertain the idea. Sure, he made a lot of friends, but no real romantic connection seemed likely, leading to an emotional exit as he opened up about still struggling with the end of his engagement to Lauren.
“To be honest, I’m still emotionally dealing with the loss of that relationship,” he said. “At some point, I have to ask the question what exactly am I doing here? So I’m confused.”
So then Ben did what so many of us do when we are conflicted; he talked to a friend, host Chris Harrison, leading to one of the franchise’s rawest moments in recent history.
Acknowledging that being back in the Bachelor environment was bringing up “a lot of weird memories” for him, “Ben said, “It just doesn’t feel right,” he said. “My fear is that if I were to be broken again, I’m not full enough right now to recover from that.”
He went on to say that the public’s interest in and sometimes careless inquiries into the break-up was making it hard for him to move on, even months after it happened.
“When something so real to you then seems so small to everybody else—and not just friends and family, millions of people—it breaks you every day, and that’s what sucks, because as much as I’ve moved on—and I have—it still hurts, even though we’re months past it.”
Cue all the tears…and yet another outcry from fans for Ben to one day be the Bachelor again. While open to the idea when asked about it, Ben told us in August 2018 that “it’s just not the right timing.”
And now, months later, he’s finally in a relationship. But since his split with Lauren, the Denver-based former software salesman has focused on his career, making major changes since viewers first met him on Kaitlyn Bristowe‘s season of The Bachelorette.
Ben left his desk job, which he kept even after becoming a bonafide reality TV star, for good in order to focus on Generous Coffee, his charity-focused coffee company, full-time. He also co-hosts a hit podcast with fellow franchise alum Ashley Iaconetti for iHeart Radio, hosts NBC’s 1st Look TV show, he opened a restaurant in Denver, and maintains his own blog, The Mahogany Workplace, all while sort of serving as the franchise’s unofficial guidance counselor. (When Ben talks, contestants listen.)
Basically, he kept busy. Really busy.
As Generous Coffee became a major part of his professional life, Ben admitted to Entertainment Tonight that his new job could be filling a void in his personal life.
“I wonder if one of the reasons why [my job with Generous] has picked up speed, picked pace up for me in my life and I am so busy, is because it is replacing maybe a [relationship] void that I have. Which isn’t exactly a bad thing,” he said. “Luckily, this is a really good thing in my life. So, instead of replacing it with some vice that is bad, I replace it with something good and that pumps me up a lot. But, yeah, I still feel lonely at times. You know, it’s weird to sit around a group of friends and have a big friends’ dinner, or to go out somewhere, and you’re literally the only single person. You know, that’s an odd feeling! There are moments in time where I do feel lonely. Where I do look around and wonder, ‘Why not me? What’s going on here?’ But I know that I am in this season of life for a reason and I’m here for a purpose.”
Another major factor for Ben as he began dating was the fact that he was in the public eye and had first-hand knowledge of the impact that could have on a couple.
“I had a hard time accepting the idea that the public would view and judge a relationship I could pursue,” he wrote in a blog post reflecting on his time on The Bachelor Winter Games. “Being scrutinized takes a huge toll on a couple.”
While the spinoff ultimately didn’t lead Ben to love (or even a fun fling), it did help him determine he was ready to get back out there.
“It was good to confront the idea I could be ready to date again. After serious reflection, I decided I was ready. I’m excited about the possibility of committing again,” he wrote. “And I don’t think I would have confronted this issue head-on if it wasn’t for the show.”
But before he could commit to a serious relationship, Ben committed to himself, not just when it came to work.
“Many people enter relationships to fill a void. But I believe the healthiest relationships are mutually beneficial, with each participant working to remain whole on his or her own,” he wrote in a blog post offering dating advice. “Cracks in a relationship may not be noticeable on the outside. Many people hide their cracks until they burst, and the whole relationship runs a muck. Personally, I seek to be in a healthy space in life before entering someone else’s, because filling a personal void with another person’s heart won’t lead to a healthy life in the end.”
And part of that process was accepting that he was at a different place in his life than many of his friends and fellow Bachelor alumni.
“I am one of very few friends that aren’t in a serious relationship or are not married with kids. I think it’s an Indiana thing. It’s a Midwest thing,” he told Entertainment Tonight in May 2018. “Now I’m 29 years old. I’m four years later than I expected to be [married].”
He went on to admit he felt “pressure” to The One prior, but “now I’m more confident in where I am to say, ‘OK, I don’t need to feel that pressure, that’s not exactly valid.’ But still, I’m a little late to the game. Single life is something I’ve had to accept and it’s not something that I desire forever.”
While some fans were surprised to see Lauren enter a new relationship so soon after her break-up, Ben wasn’t interested in assigning blame or being angry with his former fiancée.
“We can all blame others for relationship failures. Push the blame on someone else, and we’ll hold no responsibility — it’s an easy escape. But I’d like to think none of us want misguided behaviors to mark our lives,” he wrote on his blog. “Until you accept responsibility for your actions, you’ll struggle to develop self-respect as well as the respect of others.”
And in his interview with ET, he reflected on his role in the demise of his relationship, admitting he eventually came to accept some responsibility.
“It’s so easy to be the victim… and so when you start looking inward and saying, ‘OK, what exactly did I do that affected this breakup or this relationship negatively?’ [and] for me, it’s my reactions towards things,” he said. “I have routines and consistencies in my life that for anybody else to come in and change that, for me, I was holding on to them way too close. So I have to become less reactionary.”
He continued, “The other part of this [is] I’m too sensitive. I just get so sensitive sometimes and that affects just my normal relationships because I doubt all the time in the back of my head, you know, is this relationship for real? Do they really like me? Do they really care? Or let’s throw another one out there, do they really love me? That’s something I have to give up, because when I start to get in my own head about that, I start to push the person away.”
And now, over a year and a half after his split with Lauren, Ben is back…in a relationship.
Don’t miss E! News every weeknight at 7, only on E!
After the ‘yes’: Advice for the newly engaged – WTOP
WASHINGTON — “To everything there is a season,” the Bible tells us, and that includes engagements.
While some of you have been stressing about baking pies, shopping for gifts and then exercising off all that pie, others have been dropping to a knee, Putting a Ring on It and making big plans.
Yes, we are in the midst of proposal season, which unofficially runs from November to February. It’s all due to the recent holidays, said Ivy Jacobson, senior digital editor for the wedding-planning website The Knot.
“With Thanksgiving and Hanukkah and Christmas and New Year’s and Valentine’s Day, there’s a lot of great opportunities to propose, because your family’s around,” she said. “It’s a festive time.”
For those blissful couples, getting engaged marks the beginning of a lifelong commitment. It also starts a loudly ticking countdown toward The Big Day — for which the happy couple generally has to help plan.
And while planning a party is one thing, planning a wedding is a next-level project. But with a little honest preparation, a happy couple can mitigate any stress, stay out of debt and make the big day one to remember.
Begin with a celebration
First of all, savor the moment and celebrate, Jacobson told WTOP.
“Take the time to share the happy news to have a party or two. Tell everyone,” Jacobson suggested. “Just because when you do start planning, it is buckle-down time. So make sure you really soak in that newly engaged feeling as much as you want to.”
Go out for a nice dinner, for instance. Or do a spa day. Or get out of town for the weekend. Or just Netflix-binge in your pajamas for a solid week. You do you, boos.
Early, honest conversations
Like a relationship, a successful wedding plan is built on good communication. Begin with an honest setting of expectations, not only for the big day but also for the marriage itself, said dating and relationship expert Andrea Syrtash, author of “Cheat On Your Husband (With Your Husband).”
“Put uncomfortable topics on the table like finances and how much you want to be involved with your families,” Syrtash wrote in an email. “These are things that should be discussed and negotiated early on.”
To that point: When reconciling a budget with a potential guest count for the wedding, an honest conversation is especially essential. Begin with the money matters “because those are usually the hardest talks to have,” Jacobson said. This includes how much, if any, both families may be able to contribute to a wedding budget.
After that, move on to refining the guest list. Realizing what your partner and their family wants, she said, is good to know early on so everyone is on the same page.
Just be ready to make cuts.
“Usually, both sides of the family will have guests that they want to invite, you’ll have your friends and family you want to invite — and before you know it, you could have over 200 people and you want to keep it to 100,” she said.
Once the list is narrowed down, it’s time to dive into the nuts and bolts of wedding planning: announcements, the registry, a venue, a caterer, an officiant, a hotel, a rainy-day plan B, etc.
Fortunately, there are tools out there to help strategize, such as The Knot’s all-in-one Wedding Planner app. Available both for iOS and Android devices, it provides an exhaustive to-do list and can help couples start a registry and even put them in touch with potential vendors.
Trimming the wedding budget
Expenses can add up fast while plans are made. Here are a few easy ways to keep them reasonable.
Schedule the big day on an off-peak date. In other words, avoid summer and fall. The weather may not be optimal, Jacobson said, but it could mean affording that dream venue.
Don’t schedule on a Saturday. As they’re the most convenient day to have a wedding, they’re also the most expensive and harder to book. A Friday and Sunday date affords some convenience to guests while trimming costs a bit.
Consider alternatives to floral arrangements. Local, in-season greenery is cheaper but still gorgeous. “A lot of people just skip florals entirely and decorate with candles or books or stones or things of that nature,” Jacobson said.
Don’t hesitate to shorten the guest list. “If everyone is a hundred dollars a head and you cut 10 people, you’ve just saved $1,000,” Jacobson said. “So sometimes you have to be a little cutthroat with your guest list just to make more room in your budget.”
A few other things
To avoid any friction later on, both spouses-to-be should identify the three top things that he/she really wants in a wedding early on.
“So say you value the venue, the caterer and music, but your partner values the flowers, the dress and the invitations,” Jacobson said. “You’re on different pages and you need to come together and mutually decide what are your top things that you want to focus on or spend money on.”
As the couple proceeds with reconciling these priorities and doing the planning, Syrtash said, be prepared for outside pressure.
“Milestones can be exhausting,” she said. “In addition to your own high stakes around the event, friends and family may also put on extra pressure, and/or it may trigger lots of judgments and reactions from people who think they have a say in your special occasion.
“It’s important to set boundaries early, so that you and your partner can focus on serving each other’s needs first,” Syrtash said.
And while you take care of that to-do list, she said, don’t forget self care. Give yourself regular breaks during the final homestretch to get a massage, hit the gym — or just spend quality time with your spouse-to-be. “Find time to take breaks from planning where you intentionally put planning off the table so you can talk about and stay connected about other things going on in your lives,” she said.
Finally, don’t let the wedding itself get in the way of what it’s celebrating.
“Don’t get too caught up in the superficial details of the event,” Syrtash said. ” … It’s important not to lose sight of why this is all happening!”
Like WTOP on Facebook and follow @WTOP on Twitter to engage in conversation about this article and others.
© 2019 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.
Dating 101: How to make a great first impression – QWEERIST
The Internet has transformed the way people communicate and fall in love. Over the last few years, online dating has increasingly become a more popular and comfortable way of meeting a future partner.
However, in spite of the fact that online dating allows meeting new friends and even a mate easier than ever, it doesn’t always lead to love.
Here are four of the main signs that your online dating might be leading to more serious relationships.
1. Frequent communication
When you try online dating, you should realize that you will encounter a lot of people. But if you find someone who is consistent with the frequency of communication, you’re a lucky person.
It means that perhaps you’re the only person who your new online friend is talking to. Keep up with the conversation, find out what interest you have in common and such frequent communication may soon result in a further romantic relationship.
2. Small things and little events
If you feel a need to write about some funny things that have happened recently and, in turn, you hear similar from who you’re talking to, this means that you like talking with the person and sharing the tiniest things and smallest events happen in your life.
This comfortable correspondence is also a true sign this online relationship can transform into love over time.
3. Shutting down your online dating profiles at the same time
It is a crucial sign upon which your future relationship depends. If you both get offline at the same time, that really means something.
This could mean that you’re both taking things seriously, but it is worth talking to one another about it first. Just so that nobody gets the wrong idea.
4. Readiness to take a call or meet face to face
When you start thinking that you want to hear their voice or even have a face to face meeting, then sparks could be about to fly.
Getting to know each other in a more personal setting will be able to help you figure out whether something could be about to happen.
Online love and date face to face
Trying to find true love through dating sites can be tough at times. You need to understand that things run a little differently, and that may take a while for you to get used to.
One of the big issues when it comes to dating apps is the ability to pick out the truth from the exaggerated. It often happens that people stretch the truth when it comes to their age, weight, height, income as well as even marital status. Often so, this can lead to great frustration.
Compared with meeting someone face to face, you’ll be able to get a better impression of the person and separate the truth from the lies.
How to date someone online?
For some people, online dating is the only way to find their soul mate because of their busy schedule. If you’re among them, here are some useful tips on how to date someone online.
Be unique: This is the most important rule, try not to be too boring and typical – set yourself apart from the crowd. For example, add your favourite song to share an insight into your tastes or mention a proud moment in your life.
Don’t use clichés and emoticons: Keep your smiley faces to a minimum, as overuse can make you look childish. Sticking to a small handful will show personality, but you don’t want to be seen as someone who can’t be taken seriously.
Keep it fresh: Having a few photos on your profile, ideally recent and clear ones, will let your possible suitors see what you’re about and will increase the likelihood of success. Incorporating your hobbies in your photos will also show off any possible interests in common and help make that first impression really count.
Signs they just aren’t interested
It can be difficult to spot the interested from the not-so-interested, but if you’re going to want to get the most out of your online dating experience then it’s important to not take things to heart – especially when it involves someone who might just not be so into you.
In order not to get frustrated, being able to spot a few tell-tale signs will help filter out who is worth your time and who isn’t.
When they don’t ask you questions: Questions help to know each other better. If they don’t ask you anything, then they’re not worth your time. If they can’t be bothered getting to know you at the beginning of a potential match, imagine what they’ll be like later on down the line…
When they message you but never want to meet: If they’re just looking for someone to help them waste their time, then it’s time to move on if you’re looking for something more serious. Otherwise, you’ll just be fed excuses to avoid meeting you.
According to official statistics, one in five romantic relationships will now begin online.
Moreover, it is estimated that by 2040, 70 % of us will have started the relationships with our significant others online. If only we all possessed enough knowledge to make it successfully.
