Montana News

Montana couple's 21st century love story sends them to Hollywood

Posted: Feb 14, 2013 9:07 PM by Dustin Klemann - MTN News

BILLINGS - Mark Holm had butterflies in his stomach and was praying out loud as he left the house.

Mark, an engineer, was on his way to meet a woman he'd talked to online just a few days earlier. When Teresa opened the door, Mark said, "You're even more beautiful in person."

Fast forward a year later and the two shake their heads at how much they're alike. "And we just clicked right away because we have all of these values in common," Mark said.

"Even our love of bacon," Teresa chuckles.

For Teresa, E-Harmony was the answer to a nine year search. Mark was exactly the tall, Christian golfer she requested and hoped to find. And she didn't have to travel far to meet him.

The kindergarten teacher in Great Falls reached out to Mark in Billings only minutes after he finished setting up his E-Harmony account; a process that involves matching "29 dimensions of compatibility" from food and movie favorites, to values and morals.

"I like your profile. I hope you're cute."

Last January, Teresa accidentally sent a smile to Mark on the E-Harmony profiles as technology became her enemy for a moment, only to realize it was "the best mistake [she] made."

The two e-mailed a few times, realized they had a laundry list of things in common, and the next day, exchanged phone numbers. But Teresa knows the online world provides a cover people who choose to be someone else, "I was just a little uncomfortable [with meeting people online]." But Mark reassured her to embrace 21st century dating with a romantic gesture of sending flowers to Teresa's school.

Both didn't want to waste time and met a few days later in Billings. After Mark prayed out loud, the two went for a round of simulated golf at Mitchell Golf. Mark, always the engineer, had scheduled the evening out. Something that Teresa found endearing and complemented Teresa's free spirit view.

A few months later, Mark and Teresa were engaged and married.

Online dating hopefuls now happily married testimonial

E-Harmony boasts matching more than 550,000 couples across the country and it's all based on Dr. Warren's "Companionability."

When Mark and Teresa quit the site, it asked why they were leaving. E-Harmony company executives wanted wedding pictures and to hear the couple's story.

"They interviewed us over Skype and loved our story. They wanted to fly us to L.A. to shoot a commercial," Mark said.

Executives flew them down to Los Angeles the weekend after this past Thanksgiving. And they didn't script what they wanted Mark and Teresa to say, but asked them to repeat what they'd said in the Skype interview.

That included Mark's affectionate words for Teresa, "I say she is my absolute treasure."

The E-Harmony commercial of Mark and Teresa's story began airing Christmas Eve.

"We joke that it took me nine years to find him and it only took him three minutes," she said, and they laughed.