Victoria and Albert, Buckingham Palace is celebrating one of the greatest love stories ever to have blossomed on Britain’s shores, that of our past monarch.  This exhibition is meant to be inspiring because their passion is almost palpable in the displays: This couple really had a fire in their belly for one another:  Art & Love

Memorable dates?, several of you won a free trip to Paris through a competition we mentioned, so try your luck again.  You can win a free dinner for two at the Firehouse, a fancy foody favourite in South Kensington.  Just tell them about your most memorable date, it doesn’t have to be one through SIAT…!  
Memorable Magic

Help Chile, yet another natural disaster so soon.  Also one close to our hearts, as I spent some months living with a family and working at a charity here.  Chileans are kind, warm and generous.  My local “relatives” say the community is destroyed.  You could help one of our favourite charities out there..?: Doctors Without Borders

Good things that have happened to us:

We launched!  Our new online site is filling up finely.  We still need all the help we can get, so thank you for your continued support.  It’s free for you brilliant bespoke members, just sign up.  If you get stuck then tell us and we’ll sort out your payment problems.  As a result, we were in The Metro (again!) and talked about on Absolute Radio.  Woo hoo!  In case any of you are alarmed that our matchmaking will diminish, it won’t.  In fact, we’re on it more than ever. That, we promise you.  If you’ve somehow missed it: Sitting in a NEW tree

Our scavenger hunt through London on Valentine’s Day was SUCH fun.  Thank you so much to the participants who made our day (and evening) fabulous.  How we laughed!  Competition was tight and we were pretty amazed by the spirited response to the challenges.  The posh prize (a bundle of my home-made cookies (poor things) and a fancy bottle of wine) went to the winners by a hair: Pete, Madeleine, Rob, Charlie and Mark.  Well done!

Dating anecdotes:

Last week we said goodbye to one of our favourite lovebirds, Simon.  He joined us last year.  He had everything going for him: funny, engaging, clever, good-looking, kind.  But he didn’t know it.  Trish came back from her interview all-a-fluster!  Nicky and I met him at an event soon after and adored him too.  We introduced him to a couple of ladies he dated for a good while and a few who turned into chums.  He’s jumped down from the Tree, as he’s met someone special of his own accord.  He left us with some lovely words: “If anything, you guys have had a massive impact on my last eight months or more. I had never dated before really, and you would probably only have to ask Rachel (date 1) just how nervous I was. Over these months, I’ve got my confidence back, and it’s given me some ‘cojones’ to get out and speak to girls again.  There’s a good chance I wouldn’t have been on Friday’s date if it wasn’t for how you guys had changed my life. I may never have even asked if she wanted to meet up…”  We couldn’t be happier.  People do say membership acts as a catalyst to love.  Go on, Si!

Romantic rendezvous:

We’re planning an evening of chilly willies!  Yes.  We’d like to teach you how to make cannoli (Sicilian pastries, which are traditionally thought of as symbols of fertility!), while you sup refreshing wine or cocktails.  We’ll send you the full details soon, but it’s likely to be very central, starting at 6.30/7pm, costing £20 for the lesson, a drink and entry to a gorgeous bar.  The spaces will be limited, so we recommend speedy responses.

Top dating tip:

Make sure that you’re putting yourself in the right situation to meet someone.  Often members say to us that they struggle to meet new people, as much of their time is spent around old, faithful friends.  We would highly recommend joining clubs which cultivate conversation.  You could take a buddy, but we tend to think it’s better to brave it alone, that way you’re encouraged to chat.  Try out book clubs/art classes/drama workshops. Just do it*!

*We do not endorse wearing the wearing of Nike.  At all.  Thanks.

The recent article in the Metro, coupled with the kind praise and endless forwarding from our friends, has resulted in a hive of Tree populating activity.  We ruddy well love it we do!  Thank you, thank you all for spreading the word.

This gorgeous wave of applications has got me pondering very specifically about people’s profiles.  Needless to say, a key part of anyone’s calling card these days is their photo.   Thinking about my own choices for photos has sparked some guidelines, which I hope you find useful.

On an obvious note, it’s important that you can actually see your face, the whole of it and not just bits!  Sideways piccys particularly wind up our resident I.T. genius, Dan – he refers to them as ’siders’ – brilliant.  Even if you’re not a fan of your face, it’s yours and in any case, I’m sure it’s lovely really and you’re just being a bit silly!

I cannot stress this next point enough.  Please, please, please smile in your main photo.  When creating this site, we did a tonne of research into what makes a good profile.  Time and time again the golden rule for successful daters was that they displayed their pearly whites /cheeky grins in a friendly, approachable and fun invitation.

Also, and this is a goody too, make sure that in your lead pic you are looking directly at the camera.  It’s well known that good eye contact is a vital element of any flirtation, believe me when I say that this goes for online flirting too.  Being able to see your eyes will make it easy for people to form a connection with you, pretty important don’t you think?

Without becoming obsessive (and we totally understand that it’s easy to) think about what you are doing in the photo, what you are wearing and what this says about you.  We all want to appear attractive, sexy, fun loving and interesting, but that doesn’t mean that a half naked photo of you drunk at a fire-eating jamboree (fun as that is), will sell you in your best light.  Try to imagine what your ideal partner might look for in you and how you can use your photos to show these qualities.

Knowing that online daters value visuals, we have created a fancy image collage (basically click ‘enlarge all images’ on someone’s profile and you’ll see) to allow you to view people’s photos easily and clearly.  A good variety of full shots, head shots, daytime shots, night time shots, silly shots, serious shots etc, will only serve to enhance your profile and in so doing, make you more appealing to fellow Tree-members.  Not only that, but photo’s are excellent ice-breakers and might trigger a cosy conversation between you and someone else.

Go on, embrace your face and let the world know who you are through our delightful photo function!

Lots of love

Trish x