For Valentine’s Day 2024, we made a map of local places where our readers have made memories. We asked for your help compiling everything from proposals to making friends. You did not disappoint.
You can explore these local love stories by clicking on the hearts in the map — and here are just a few that we had to share.
Sweeten Creek Brewing
Hobbit Affair 2023. Turns out, we’re a match made in The Shire.
- Anonymous
Shiloh & Gaines
I met my partner for the first time in person here. We originally met on a dating app and had been chatting for a bit at that point. We had some cocktails, and I impressed her with my mad skills in playing pool (I kicked her ass at it, lol). We forged a quick bond and have been almost inseparable ever since. Our love first grew out of a genuine friendship and appreciation for who the other person is at their core. She’s my ride-or-die and I can’t imagine my life without her at this point — I feel incredibly lucky to have found her.
- Lexie B.
Burial Beer Co.
My partner and I met online and had our very first date at Burial. We got engaged in October and will celebrate five years together in March. He is my goth prince + I’m so excited to be his WIFE!!
- Anonymous
French Broad Food Co-Op
We were on a date to AVL’s first TedX and walking down the sidewalk in front of the French Broad Food Co-Op. I spotted a wooly worm in danger of being run over in the street and dashed out to save it. It was then that my now husband decided he might have a keeper.
- Amanda H.
Buncombe County Detention Center
My husband and I eloped and the court was closed on the weekend, so we got married at the jail since they had a notary on duty. It’s such a funny story to tell everyone that we got married at the jail. We’ve been married five years this October.
- Anonymous
Mama Gertie’s Hideaway Campground
My life partner, Terry A., and I, David T., were “first loves” back in 7th grade and dated on and off until after college. For the majority of our adult life, however, we were on different paths, until life’s circumstances brought us back together. Since our first kiss, some 50+ years ago, we reconnected with a rendezvous at Mama Gertie’s Campground in 2021. We’ve been together as a couple, ever since.
- David T.
French Broad River Dog Park
We met at the dog park. He randomly commented on my dog’s “doggles” (she has two brindle patches around each eye) and I couldn’t stop laughing at his 75 pound pit bull wiggling his way into the only mud puddle at the park. He asked me on a date, and almost two years later, the fur of us are loving life.
- Anonymous
Luella’s Bar-B-Que
I met my husband at Luella’s BBQ in 2010. My friends brought him to brunch, and I wanted to go skinny dipping afterwards but not everyone wanted to go (my husband did not). I thought, how boring. We’ve now been married almost 10 years and have a 7-year-old (who was born to skinny dip and did not want to wear clothes for the first five years of his life).
- Anonymous
Lake Tomahawk, Black Mountain
This is where I had my first kiss with my high school sweetheart. Funny enough, we actually met each other in kindergarten at WD Williams in Swannanaoa, NC when we were five and our friendship started there. We are both true Asheville natives, born and raised. We have been together for 14 years and got married in August 2022. We love these mountains and continue to call them home.
- Anonymous
Now we’re really feeling the love.
