The Longest Shortest Time

Speed Dating in Pictures

On October 22, we hosted Speed Dating for Mom Friends at the Bell House in Brooklyn. If you missed it, live vicariously through these pictures. They’re taken by Natalie Chitwood, the first true mom friend I made when I moved to Montclair!

This is me running through my script for the evening while Natalie tested out the positioning of our sequin-y “photo booth.”

The mamas came in from a windy, spittly night for some free drinks and schmoozing before the official “dating” started. All night long, we played songs with “mama,” “mother,” “baby,” and “child” in the title.

My brother Josh and his wife Nana (also there to mom-date) provided awesome rice balls, crudite, and brownies from their catering business Tampopo. It was all a big hit, especially the brownies. Oh, those brownies.

As they mingled, the moms entered our “Hey mama…” contest by writing their favorite mom friend pickup line. The winners:

1st place: “Nice tits!”
2nd place: “Let’s put our heads on the table and sleep together right now.”
3rd place: “How many times a day do you think about throwing your toddler out the window? I think about you more than that.”

Another of our favorites was a sample written by one of our non-mama volunteers: “Your crib or mine?” (Thanks, Rachel!)

We worked with a real speed dating company for the actual dating part. There was a woman in stiletto heels who would ring a gong with a butter knife every four minutes, to signal that it was time to switch partners. I’ve gotta say, the mama sparks were flying! The speed dating company told us the next morning that of the nearly 1300 speed dating events they’ve done, ours had the highest rate of matches, and each participant was selected by at least one other person—another first for them!

(Yes, the mama on the right is Nisi Sturgis, aka June Thompson from Boardwalk Empire!)

Halfway through the dating, we gave the moms a breather by getting them to draw the Thing Their Baby Does Best.

After dating, moms lined up for couples and group portraits in our glamorous homemade photo booth. We hope that one day they can look back at these pictures with fond memories of the day they met their mama BFFs!

Thanks to everyone who came to Speed Dating, and to the behind-the-sceners who made it the fabulous time that it was, including the ladies below: Natalie Chitwood (photographer), Joanna Solotaroff (my associate producer who organized this whole darn thing and came up with the amazing pickup line contest), and Juliana Cordosa (my friend who said she was mainly coming to support me but I think wound up hitting it off with some mamas!) Thanks also to WNYC, especially Chris Bannon, for making this event possible and supporting us every step of the way. I may be the voice of this show, but all y’all prop me up. As evidenced below.

To all of you who have asked for Speed Dating in your cities, please know that we are working on figuring out how to do more of this. If you want Speed Dating to come to you, tell us so in the comments.

UPDATE: We are working on a plan to take SDFMF national. If you are interested in getting updates, or helping us host in your city, sign up here.

All photos: Natalie Chitwood