Bournemouth’s Best Love Story – The Shortlist!

Thank you to everyone who entered our Valentine's Day competition and told us your love stories; we're feeling more romantic than ever! We have shortlisted 5 of the stories rather than just 3 as we had initially planned because it was just too difficult to pick. In an ideal world we would crown everyone the winner as let's face it, no love story is better than another and they all deserve the winning title! Anyway, here are the 5 shortlisted entries, please comment on our pinned Facebook post using the Story number to show which story you would like to win the 3 restaurant visits at Bh2!

Love Story. 1

From Emma Baines

"Our first date was watching the sunset at the top of the hill at Kimmeridge with a packed of chocolate digestives. On the drive home we stopped at Bournemouth beach to watch the fireworks and which was followerd by a meteor shower - it was 12th August so the Perisod (I think) meteor shower is always on the same day. Now we've been married 10 years"

Love Story 2

From Bessie Thurgood

"My toy boy, all of 6 weeks, have been together for 10 years since October last. We live together apart. We are now in our 82nd year, we have most of our holidays together. We were introduced by a mutual friend who knew we were widowed within 10 days of each other, he only lives 5 minutes away from me. We had so much in common, plus teh deciding factor was he supports the same football team as my late husband. Neither of us were looking to replace our respective partners, it just happened!"

Love Story 3

From Jacqueline Barratt:

"In 1970 My sister and I were on holiday with our parents and grandparents at a caravan/camping site in Ringwood, I think it was called Oakdene ( it was the one nextdoor to the St Leonards Hospital ) I was 17 and my sister 15. We'd seen our then future husbands about the site but didn't get to speak with them until the last day of our holiday. We exchanged addresses and wrote to and from Hertfordshire and the West Midlands. They were both avid football fans and when arranging to visit us would generally coinside them with a match in London. We would meet up every two weeks or so alternating between hometowns, my sister and her husband married 31st December 73 and live in the Midlands. We married February 74 and moved to Poole in 77 with our 1year old daughter, our son was born in 88 and at 8/9 yrs played for Poole town youth football team. His dad took on the under 9's the following season to under 12's with great success in the youth league. Sadly Mike died in February 1992 age 38yrs, my sister and her husband celebrated 45yrs of marriage on 31st December 2017, it would have been our 44th anniversary 2nd February 2018".

Love Story 4

From Laura Hankinson:

"I would like to nominate my parents, David and Dinah Rogers. My Mum, Dinah, is 70 and my Dad, David, is 69. They have been very happily married for 43 years and are a fantastic example of love at first sight! Picture the scene....A petite 26 year old brunette called Dinah is a traffic warden at Heathrow Airport. She is so petite in fact that she had to stand on a box to direct the traffic! David on the other hand is a 24 year old strapping young policeman with dashing black year. Two colleagues decided that they were made for one another and thought that they should be set up on a blind date. David and Dinah saw one another across a crowded airport car park but they only saw one another from behind and not their faces! The date was set! They would meet for dinner at 8pm at a local restaurant. The date arrived and they first laid eyes on one another. Sparks flew and conversation flowed. It flowed so well in face that at 10pm David proposed! Without hesitation she said yes! The went back to Dinah's parents to reveal their crazy news. The next day they booked the registry office an were married just 6 weeks later. They simply adore one another to this day. I am so proud of their love story and think they deserve to win!"

Love Story 5

From Nic Bean

"Hello, I wanted to share with you our love story, we are a mid 20’s engaged lesbian couple who have been living in Bournemouth for the past 7 months (originally from Southampton) I first saw Steph, when I was browsing the dating app, Plenty of Fish. I saw Steph’s profile, I didn’t recognise her, I’d never heard her name before and she was beautiful and only lived 6 miles away! I messaged her, expecting not to get a response, but to my surprise she replied pretty much instantly, we then started talking to each other all day every day, learning things about each other, turns out we knew a lot of the same people, but somehow we’d never met, there was actually one night I went clubbing with a friend, he pulled me outside to speak to a girl he knew, I remember feeling very drunk and standing there with some girls I didn’t know, like an awkward lemon, I remember there was another girl there but I didn’t speak to her and don’t remember what she looked like through my blurred eyes - turns out it was steph! But we don’t remember each other, we think it was fate! After 2 weeks of speaking we decided to arrange a first date, we met at costa coffee in Hythe, Southampton and we ended up spending the whole day together, it was magical, over the next month we continued dating, going on trips to Bournemouth beach, taking a romantic sunset stroll across the sand, getting to know each other. She was the most incredible, beautiful, sweet person I’d ever met. She wasn’t out as gay to everybody and after 6 weeks of speaking she asked me to be her girlfriend, from there she decided to come out properly she didn’t want to hide our relationship from family or friends, some people took the news amazingly, some other not as great. But she didn’t care and I supported her through this. Fast forward almost 4 and a half years, we are 23 & 24 years old. Steph got a job back in 2016 in Bournemouth, we’d moved in with my Mum to save for a mortgage deposit and in June 2017 we moved to sunny Bournemouth to our very first home. I got a new job in Christchurch this year, we’ve made some amazing friends here and are loving every minute of it. In 2016 on a holiday to Disney World Florida Steph got on one knee and asked me to marry her, of course I said yes. We’ve booked our wedding in Poole for 2020 and plan to head back to Florida for our honeymoon. A lot has changed for us over the years, when we first got together in October 2013, we couldn't have legally married if we wanted to, we moved county to a place we love and shared some incredible experiences along the way. Steph is the best thing that ever happened to me, together we have the best life, we make each other strong and support each other to be our best. Thank you for listening to our story."

Thanks again to everyone who entered! We feel privileged that you chose to share your beautiful stories with us. Happy Valentine's Day from all of us here at Bh2!