For Jackie Vingan and Jamie Spock, the third time was the charm.

"We've seen each other on a couple of dating apps, had conversations that went nowhere," Spock said. "She saw me and I saw her on a queer Instagram dating profile.”

What You Need To Know

  • Jackie Vingan and Jamie Spock met last summer during the pandemic

  • The couple matched on a few dating apps and finally planned a date

  • Both of them had to consult with one another on where they felt most comfortable going on dates since officials advised people to stay at home

  • They are thankful to have found each other

"I slid into her DMs,” Vingan said.

“We started talking and we haven't stopped talking since,” said Spock.

They started dating at the end of the summer. One of their first dates was outside at Cubbyhole in the West Village.

"The summer was a little more relaxed than during the winter time but we both had to sort of quickly get on the same page,” Vingan said. “Are you dining outside or not? Are you seeing other people?”

The couple says the limitations of the pandemic accelerated their dating process to become exclusive.

"Obviously, I wish COVID had never happened, but I think for us it kind of made us get on the same page quicker," Spock said.

Spock recalls breaking her own COVID protocols to meet Vingan.

"My COVID rules were no eating out in public, no meeting people without a mask that I didn't know, or in general,” Spock said. “Jackie suggested we go out to dinner, and I was like yeah of course, but on the inside I was a little freaking out."

Spock's family was concerned that she was dating when officials said to stay at home.

"I actually didn't tell my Mom we were dating until November 7th,” Spock said. “She of course asked, ‘Did you got out to eat? Did you go out to eat at restaurants?’ I said, well, we kind of did, at the beginning. We kept getting tested before we saw each other.”

Dating expert Amanda Shane says communication was more important than ever in the pandemic for dating.

"It is so important that everyone is transparent to let each other know what they are comfortable with what their boundaries are, so that no one oversteps a boundary and makes the other partner feel uncomfortable, which can then linger onto their family and so on," Shane said.

Vingan and Spock plan on moving in together since they are so used to spending so much time together staying at home.

"It just gets more serious very quickly," Vingan said. "We really had to calculate what we were going to do.”

And it worked for them.

"So many people lost so much - that is the understatement of the entire year, but if I got one good thing out of it, we got each other," Vingan said.