I went on a FaceTime first date and I’m here to tell you how to have a decent one

Step no. 4 – wear sweatpants and a nice top

4 years ago

The latest update about dating during coronavirus is no, you can’t date, kiss or shag random strangers whilst a pandemic is occurring. And with social distancing and no non-essential travel, a date is going to be pretty hard to come by in the next few months.

However dates are still happening. People are getting pretty horny during self-isolation, some people will do literally anything to kill the time and everyone is soon going to be searching for someone to shag post pandemic. So get dating.

Obviously you can’t meet up with the person you want to go on a date with, so the invention of FaceTime is the only way you can genuinely do this if you don’t want to wait 12 weeks to meet them in person.

The idea of having a first date over FaceTime is pretty weird and awkward, so I took one for the team to find out how horrible it would be and turns out they’re actually alright.

Thanks mum for the pic x

Here’s how to prep for your first date over FaceTime:

Setting up the date

My date for the evening was a lovely guy called George who I met at a house party and who I’d been speaking to ever since. He’d asked me out on a date and we were planning on going for drinks, but then coronavirus happened and put an abrupt end to our plans.

However we were still talking and we mentioned FaceTime dates. He sent me a meme about FaceTime dates and I bit the bullet and asked if he wanted to have a FaceTime call on Friday night.

He thankfully said yes and we agreed a time just like a real date.

Drinks

The drinks aspect of a FaceTime first dates is definitely one of the benefits. In the current state of pandemic, either brave going down to your local shop and getting a bottle of booze, complete with blue latex gloves of course, like I did.

The entire date cost me £6 for a bottle of prosecco, that’s less than a single in most London bars.

Or raid your parents alcohol cupboard and have your mum make you a nice gin cocktail like George did. Completely free of charge.

Makeup

Doing your makeup for the date is always the bit that gets you in the mood and can sometimes be the only good part of the evening, depending on how bad your dating history is. Putting on your bad bitch playlist and sipping a glass of wine is essential to getting you into the right mind set for a date.

I really wouldn’t recommend skipping this part as it’s the only part of your night that’s actually going to feel like you’re going on a proper date.

For a normal date I’d wear quite laid back makeup and maybe pop on a bit of extra eyeshadow if I was feeling particularly into their Tinder profile. But with FaceTime makeup doesn’t always show up as well, so I upped the levels of eye shadow, did my eyebrows and even branched out and put on a bright lipstick.

Obviously George completely ignored this and said nothing about my face, but you know, I tried.

Outfit

The great thing about FaceTime dates is they’re only going to see your top half, unless of course the night ends up going very well and you progress to Skype sex.

So I took complete advantage of this and obviously wore my sweatpants. For the top half I picked a normal going out top and honestly, I’m really going to miss these days when I’m having to put jeans on for a date.

Location

Ok so location is pretty important, obviously you want to do it as far away from your family or flatmates as possible to avoid anyone over hearing or walking in. Ideally this would be your own room.

Try and make it look semi decent, well the part of the room the camera will see. Your room can be totally messy as long as what the camera portrays is you having your shit together and giving off effortlessly cool and casual vibes.

The other half of this pic is a complete mess

Camera

Lighting can make or break how you look on FaceTime. You don’t want to spend the first five minutes of the call playing around with the lamp so you look half decent in front of your date.

To make sure you’re looking your best spend a few minutes before the call is due to start and just play around with lighting and angles. If you’ve got a dimmer switch, utilise that bad boy for all it’s worth and try out lots of lighting options. Fairy lights are also great for creating mood lighting.

Opt for a laptop rather than your phone if you can, because your arm is just going to get tired having to hold it up the whole time. I also propped my laptop up on a pillow because I really wasn’t feeling having the double chin as the first thing he saw.

The actual date

All first dates and FaceTimes are a bit awkward, just accept that you will feel nervous, sweaty and a tiny bit of regret, but that like a real date, once you’ve had a drink you’ll feel fine.

We actually had a lot to talk about – our mutual friends, our current quarantine routines and the last dates we went on pre pandemic. Bar an interruption of a phone call from his mate, the date went well.

Ending the date

After speaking for nearly three hours, the ending was still a bit awkward as this is where FaceTime dates kind of fail. At the end of the date you usually know where you stand. You’re either on your way back to their house or you’ve got a takeaway and you’re crying in bed that you’ll never find anyone. There really is only two options.

With a FaceTime date however, you don’t even get a kiss at the end of the night, it’s very anticlimactic and you just have to awkwardly both agree to hang up the call at the same time. Which after agreeing we’d do another FaceTime date, is exactly what we did.

Overall review

Apart from not being able to open my prosecco bottle and my mum walking in to tell me she was going to bed, there were no real disaster moments to the date and I might actually start doing these in future.

Not having to leave your bed? Date costing less than a tenner? Wearing sweatpants? Getting to end the date by claiming the signal died just like your potential romance? Absolute no brainer – this is the future of dating and I am so here for it.