Grantham couple find dating as easy as A B C
A Grantham couple have come up with an innovative way to spice things up by going through the alphabet to decide on places for dates.
Marc and Michelle Lee-Smith, both 33, have been together for 15 years after meeting during their first week at university.
They got married last October, but with their busy jobs – Marc is an IT project manager for Thomas Cook and Michelle an occupational therapist at Melton Mowbray Hospital – and their three-year-old son William, setting aside time for romance hasn’t always been easy.
So in February, the pair, who live in Hudson Way, decided to start ‘Alphabet Dating’, each taking alternate responsibility for arranging a secret, themed date once a month.
Marc explains: “I took the first month ‘A’, and it was in February so the theme was ‘Amore’. We had a traditional dinner date on Valentine’s. The next month was Michelle’s turn – ‘B’ for bingo and bowling. I took ‘C’ – circus and chinese. Michelle ‘D’ – a double date with friends, to Peterborough dog racing.”
Continuing to think outside the box, when it came to ‘E’ Marc came up with an interesting ‘education’ for Michelle.
“I’ve been a martial artist for nearly a decade but Michelle had never stepped foot inside a dojo,” he said. “I asked two local instructors from the Belvoir Karate Group to provide us with a private karate lesson in Marston.”
Asked what made them decide to begin alphabet dating, Marc replied: “To be totally honest I’m not really sure how we came about with the idea… as we have both focused all of our time and effort investing in William’s happiness for three years I guess we discovered that we’d lost focus on maintaining our own relationship and wanted to do something to keep the spark alive.
“Being very competitive people (to a fault some might say!) a general chat about organising a date night soon turned into a competition and we’ve found ourselves trying to surprise each other every month. It’s working really well and has helped to keep us focused on each other as well as William.”
Most recently they had a fabulous time at Burghley House Film Festival, and no doubt their competitiveness will also come into gear on their go-karting date in September.
We are intrigued to see where they go for their future dates, and whether or not they end up at the zoo, or we suspect somewhere slightly more imaginative - Zambia perhaps?
