A pair of complete strangers met, fell in love, and got married after they were brought together by a mysterious Facebook glitch.
Schuler and Celeste Benson were married this past June after two years of dating. But when they tell people how they met, they usually have to explain it slowly and multiple times, Schuler Benson told BuzzFeed News.
Back in 2009, Schuler Benson was living and working in Arkansas. One day, he tried to log onto Facebook on his flip phone and noticed he was already signed in. The only problem was, he wasn't logged into his account.
Schuler was logged into the account of a woman he'd never met and had no mutual friends with. Her name was Celeste and she lived in Boulder, Colorado. To make matters worse, every time he logged in on mobile he was back on her account.
He started posting statuses to try and fix the problem as Celeste, and eventually got in contact with her.
Celeste told BuzzFeed News she thought the whole thing was weird, but Schuler seemed nice so she wasn't too worried.
"He seemed like he was genuinely trying to fix it and not interested in my account at all," she said.
The two strangers communicated via private message a few times to try to figure out what was up. Finally, Celeste decided to friend-request Schuler to see what would happen. To their surprise, that fixed the problem.
Celeste said that she had planned to delete Schuler after a few weeks, but then noticed that he had a similar sense of humor to hers.
She said she started commenting on his Facebook statuses, and over the next few years they started talking more and more.
"By 2012 we were talking almost every day, via Facebook, but always platonically," she said.
Celeste had been in a serious relationship, but it ended in 2012. Shortly after, Schuler confessed he had feelings for Celeste, and she realized she liked him too.
"I didn't know what to do yet, especially having just ended a relationship," she said.
But in 2013, the two decided to take the plunge. Celeste decided to go to Arkansas to meet Schuler and see if it was the real deal.
Celeste moved to Arkansas just three months later, and two years later they were married. They now live in South Carolina, where Schuler is a writer and is finishing his master's degree, and Celeste works in an ER and is a student.
The new wife said she "totally" thinks their meeting was fate — and said that's one of the reasons she took so many leaps of faith in their relationship.
Her husband said he sees it more as an "opportunity that changed both of our lives forever, for the best."
"Without Celeste, I have no idea who or where I'd be, and we came into each other's lives at something of a turning point for me," he said. "Our time together has taught me that, in a huge world full of awful shit, real love is capable of bringing strangers together in truly unimaginable ways."
Oh, and in case you're wondering, they still have no idea what caused the Facebook glitch.
H/T: Mashable
CORRECTION
Celeste works in an ER. An previous version of this story misstated what her job was.