13 Romantics (and Skeptics) on How Long it Took Them to Fall in Love

There's no timeline for when you should fall in love with someone. You may hear stories from some couples about how they fell in love at first sight (#jealous), and others who hated each other when they first met. (With my luck, I'm guessing my love story will probably be the latter.)

The truth is, there's no "right" amount of time it takes to fall in love with someone—just look at how divided these 13 people are! For some, falling in love happened immediately, and for others, it took much longer. Allow them to explain:

1. "It took my wife and I almost a year to fall in love. We worked for the same company, and because of that, it took us a little longer than normal for our relationship to progress—but that was a great thing! Especially considering my relationships in the past tended to move very quickly from dating to a serious relationship. We've now been married for eight years, together for 11, and we’re truly in love." —Nick G., 34
    
2. "After only one month of dating, I knew I was in love. He proposed two months later, and we’ve been married for almost seven years now. For me, it was the perfect amount of time because I knew he was the right one since we shared each other's goals, morals, and ideas of family and our future." —Dale J., 35
    
3. "We said 'I love you' after dating for three months. We got engaged after nine. The time span from our first date to our wedding was about one year, and for some, that seemed fast, but honestly, it couldn’t have been more natural.” —Madison S., 22
    
4. "My husband told me he loved me after we had been dating for one week. One week! It totally freaked me out because I would never say it that quickly, but I did say it back after we had been dating for a month. Now eight and a half years later, it all worked out!” —Rebecca A., 30
    
5. "I fell in love with my partner from day one. I searched for ‘Worldwide’ on a dating website and his profile is the only other account that had the word. It was a word that I felt I really needed in my life and in my partner. And no, I definitely don't think we fell in love too quickly—especially since I've been with him for nine years." —Cammy F., 34
    
6. “Four months after meeting my boyfriend, I knew he was the one. I met him in Vegas (I know, I know) and we hung out for approximately 24 hours. Fast forward a couple of months, and he came and visited me one weekend, then again, and again, and I fell in love with everything about him." —Robin L., 26
    
7. "After our first date, I called my friend, told her that this was it, I was in love, and that I was going to marry this guy. I'm sure she was rolling her eyes on the other end of the line, but now we're looking at engagement rings!" —Lauren M., 41
    
8. "When I first laid eyes on my now-husband, I legit said, 'I'm going to marry him.' We said 'I love you' after dating for two months, and we've been married for over two years now. I believe in love at first sight, and if you don't feel an 'I can love you' within the first few times of being around each other, it might not be headed in the right direction." —Ryan Z., 30
    
9. "My wife and I met when I was 20 and she was 23. It was at a community college where we had two classes together. I fell in love with her the first month of dating, probably three weeks into dating her. We have never broken up or separated, and I feel like it was the perfect amount of time for us to fall in love." —Drew R., 33
    
10. "I met my future husband on a dating app and we had our first coffee date on a cold January evening. For me, it was love at first sight. I could tell that I was going to get serious really quickly with him. I tend to be cautious and a closet romantic, but things moved quickly with us and now, almost four years later, we are happily married and continue to grow in our relationship." —Kaylin S., 31 
     
11. "I'm a sensitive person and tend to fall in love quickly if the person is caring and gives me proper attention. I tried to resist and not fall in love with my current partner too quickly, but with him, it took only three weeks. When it comes to the perfect amount of time to fall in love, I think it really should take a month or two. Three weeks was probably too quick to fall in love." —Nadia K., 26
     
12. "I fell in love with my fiancé over the course of one month because we each put in the effort to care for one another. Seven months later, I asked her to marry me and she said yes. I truly think it was the perfect amount of time to fall in love because we were both two people coming out of relationships that were one-sided. We needed each other then, and now we have each other for life." —Andy P., 25
     
13. "It only took me six short months to be sure I was in love with my now-husband. Looking back, we didn't know each other well enough to be engaged when we got engaged, but we stuck to that promise we had made and kept choosing each other. That's all love is. Six months was long enough for me." —Hannah M., 25