Hear from a couple who got engaged live on Twitter yesterday!
- Carrie Seim, BettyConfidential.com
So... @kellybax Will you Marry me?
To which @kellybax, known in the real world as Kelly Reiber, responded:
@bennygreenberg Yes, I would be honored to marry you baby!
That’s right, Benny proposed marriage over Twitter. Kelly tweeted yes. And the rest, as they say, is twistory.
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The Maryland couple first became friends about a year ago, meeting on the blogging site BlogCatalog.com. They began dating officially in May and quickly fell into what they call “soul love” with each other.
While they both have traditional jobs – Kelly, age 35, has worked in real estate settlements for 13 years and Benny, 46, is a sales director for The Memory Company – they also do social media marketing for various blogs and Web sites.
So, they tell BettyConfidential, tweeting the question just made sense.
“Due to both of our social media backgrounds, we have and share a tremendous amount of friends on Twitter,” explains Benny. “I thought, what better way to let everyone know, and surprise Kelly at the same time?”
At the time of yesterday’s twitter-posal, both Benny and Kelly were working from home, but in separate rooms. Kelly says she was expecting the proposal, “but not on Twitter! It made for a great day!”
But isn’t it um sorta weird to get proposed to over Twitter? I mean, isn’t it kind of like getting broken up with via Post-it?
What about your family and friends? Aren’t they judging? Just a little bit?
“They will be happy with whatever makes me happy,” she says, adding, “Our Twitter friends seemed genuinely happy for us.”
Kelly and Benny aren’t the first couple to become engaged over Twitter. That honor goes to Greg Rewis, who proposed to Stephanie Sullivan via Twitter on March 2, 2008, according to Wired.com.
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Their long-distance relationship (she was in North Carolina, he was in Phoenix) was cemented with the following Twitter exchange:
Greg: @stefsull - ok. for the rest of the twitter-universe (and this is a first, folks) - WILL YOU MARRY ME?
Stephanie: @garazi - OMG - Ummmmm… I guess in front of the whole twitter-verse I’ll say — I’d be happy to spend the rest of my geek life with you.
And that’s exactly what Kelly and Benny aspire to, saying a Twitter proposal brought their social-media-fueled lives “full circle.” They were instantly inundated with congratulations and “is this for real?” tweets from friends and strangers.
So, is Twitter a good tactic for other guys unsure of how to pop the question?
“I recommend this approach, but only if you know that she will be on Twitter shortly after you propose,” says Benny.
Wait a minute, young man, did you even get down on one knee?
“I have heard of one-handed Tweeting, but never Tweeting on one knee,” he answers.
Give the guy points for an original proposal AND a sense of humor.
Okay, just one last question for the betrothed – come on guys, is this for real? You’re not pulling a social media stunt on us, are you?
The answer to that, they say, is in this photo of their matching ring finger tattoos. Okay, then. Looks like @bennygreenberg and @kellybax aren’t kidding around. (Props to them for keeping those tattoos under 140 characters.)
“We really became best friends and enjoy the heck out of each others' company,” says Kelly. “That makes the romantic part so much easier because there is a very solid foundation underneath it all.”
And Benny sent me this post-tweet about his fiancée after our interview:
“What really has to be known is that Kelly is the most amazing person I have ever met.”
Awww, what a tweetheart!
The couple says their nuptials are tentatively planned for mid-December. Hope they send us a tweet-the-date!
Carrie Seim, Betty’s L.A. Correspondent, is a writer and comedian keeping it real in L.A., New York and @ www.carrieseim.com.
To read more from BettyConfidential | Mail Order Marriages & I Took My Date to a Show About Marriage
