A UK woman used the mighty force of social media to make her feelings known about the man behind her local bookstore’s Twitter account. A bit of flattery never hurts and in this case, complements and forwardness resulted in a whirlwind romance with a happy ending.
Bride marries man behind Waterstones Twitter account #IslingtonTownHall #VictoriaCarlin … https://t.co/c3yuyZ9EF1 pic.twitter.com/ArMrAA9phX
— Trending Funny Stuff (@Funnylizer) July 19, 2016
Believe it or not, Victoria Carlin, who is a former circus performer, was first wooed by a simple tweet about Pokémon, back in 2012.
#bookfacts While there are now millions of books, the first 150 were obviously the best. No, wait..that’s Pokemon. #pokemonfacts
— WaterstonesTCR (@WaterstonesTCR) November 20, 2012
The man behind the Twitter account of the bookstore replied to Carlin’s flattering comments following the initial tweet and this sparked an adorable back-and-forth flirtatious Twitter conversation that drew attention of many other followers of the clever book-lover.
However, a long silence between the initial social media interaction and the next point of contact followed, as the Daily Dot shares. Reason, possibly, being that others seemed just as infatuated with the mystery man behind the bookstore feed and tweets.
I want to meet the person who makes the @WstonesOxfordSt twitter account and then make them fall in love with me…
— Kitty Devine (@kittydevine123) December 2, 2012
@kittydevine123 @wstonesoxfordst I’ve already tried. He didn’t fall for my charm and BANTER. DEVO’d. We have taken gin tea in bloomsbury…
— Victoria (@VictoriaOB_) December 2, 2012
However, Carlin was in for a surprise. Just when the quirky and forward tweeter was ready to move on, the bookstore tweeter finally revealed himself.
The young man, who stole the hearts of many simply by way of clever micro-blogging on Twitter, was revealed to be Jonathan O’Brien. Jonathan recently spoke with Mashable about how the tweeting led to a real encounter and a relationship that brought about a trip to the altar, 4 years later.
“‘One day, Victoria came into the shop with donuts, I ate them (giving away a very cavalier attitude to food from strangers).’ [The two went for a walk on Jonathan’s lunch break.] ‘It was easily the best first date I’ve ever been on (and hopefully the last first date I’ll ever go on). I brought a book of The Wizard of Oz as a present because Victoria had mentioned to me how much she loves the film.’”
It seems as though O’Brien’s wish for no more first dates has come true. This past Sunday, the couple were married at Islington Town Hall in London. Both Victoria and Jonathan are still each very active on Twitter and social media. The couple clearly has a wonderful sense of humor that adds to their obviously fun and loving bond.
i don’t know what’s going on https://t.co/Du5NIq0N5j
— Jonathan (@JonathanOB_) July 18, 2016
Caught a Jynx while waiting for my wedding to start. pic.twitter.com/jjLz35ZvoL
— Jonathan (@JonathanOB_) July 15, 2016
Good to see the husband using this publicity wisely #annulment https://t.co/nc0ElrYClu
— Victoria (@VictoriaOB_) July 17, 2016
Neither one of the pair can believe how popular their quirky story of love, found over social media, has become, yet are appreciative to all the well-wishers.
*Grin* Story of woman who married her Twitter bookstore crush from a Tweet is super cute! https://t.co/IAXXz7VIfb
— Jasmin Kirkbride (@JasminKirkbride) July 19, 2016
The Telegraph relays how Victoria took to Twitter to make her announcement that she and Jonathan had tied the knot. Alongside her original tweet, Carlin added a famous quote from Jane Eyre by author Charlotte Bronte, which has been shared and liked more than 30,000 times by Twitter users.
Jonathan commented to the Telegraph about how strange it is to “be on the other side of the story.”
“‘It’s been very odd being on the other side of the story,’ admitted Mr O’Brien, who now works in social media for Innocent, the smoothie business. ‘It’s weird being the one who’s going viral. A lot of people have got in touch, saying they’re dead happy for us and that it’s nice to see a lovely story. It seems to have snowballed a bit.’”
[Photo via VictoriaOB_ /Twitter]
