After Waterstones fairytale, we chat to five couples who found love on Twitter

ONCE there were sonnets or poetry to declare your love – but nowadays a romance can be kindled in 140 characters.

This week, the story of newly-married tweethearts Victoria Carlin and Jonathan O’Brien delighted the nation as it was revealed they had first met after she tweeted that she had fallen for whoever wrote the Twitter account for a London bookshop.

Her tweet read: “I’m in love with whoever is manning the @WstonesOxfordSt account.

“Be still my actual beating heart.”
Five years later the pair married, main picture.

But the novel romance is not a one-off – there are romantics all over the UK who can thank Twitter for finding them love.

Here, NIKKI WATKINS hears from five couples who preferred to use a bit of Twitt to woo.

'Dating disaster posts led me to future hubby'

IN 2011 after a chance tweet, marketing and PR worker Laura Casewell, 31, from Birmingham, began a long-distance fling with office worker Ian McEwan, 37, of Grimsby.

She says: “After a series of terrible dates I decided to document my experiences online in a tongue-in-cheek blog.

“In response I received a flirty tweet from Ian, saying, ‘You’ve been going out with some right idiots by the sound of it.

“If I’m ever in Birmingham I’d like to take you out’.

“Clicking on his profile picture I was flattered that such a good-looking bloke had offered me a date, but as he lived so far away I didn’t take it seriously.

“After a few days of tweeting we swapped numbers.

“Then I found out he was working in Birmingham for a few weeks.

“Our first date was brilliant, and as we parted I had a feeling he was going to be something special.

“I was right — in 18 months we had moved in together and got engaged.

“Now we’re planning our wedding and are about to celebrate our five-year anniversary — and it’s all thanks to his plucky tweet.”

Ian, 37, says: “For me, Twitter was the answer to finding my ideal woman.”

'I had to meet Alia after our Burger King banter'

TWITTER romance bloomed between public relations worker James Stride, 23, and art student and part-time shop worker Alia Haven, also 23, both from Birmingham, when he made a jokey comment in response to her tweet about fast food.

The banter began three years ago after would-be fitness fan Alia, left, with James, tweeted: “Just left yoga . . .  headed straight to Burger King.

“I don’t care how contradicting that sounds.”

Joker James responded: “That’s my girl #youknowitmakessense.”

The couple have since shifted their online flirting into the real world, and after a three-year relationship they have now moved in together.

James recalls: “I was instantly attracted when Alia’s picture popped up in my feed and we had university friends in common.

“I wasted no time in messaging her directly.

“After three weeks of Twitter banter we met up face to face.

“It was just like continuing a conversation.

“We already felt like we knew each other.

“Romance blossomed and 18 months ago we moved in together.

“I work within social media so can’t thank Twitter enough.

“I owe my love life and work to it.

“It’s a great tool for meeting someone.”

'We followed the same team, and each other'

DIVORCED full-time mum-of-two Michelle Bradbury, 37, of Northampton, met her future husband Christopher, 32, a motor parts advisor from Southampton, when he tweeted her a message out of the blue.

As they are both Southampton FC fans, he followed her on Twitter, so then she followed him back, tweeting: “Thanks for the follow.

“Come on you reds.”