We get it, you’re in love and you want all your friends to fall in love too. You want your best friend to date your man’s best friend, you want your sister to hook up with your super hot coworker, and you want your gorgeous gay bestie to marry the adorable dude from the local coffee shop. We get it!
Before you start calling yourself a bona fide matchmaking goddess, consider this¦there are rules, very important rules, that go along with meddling in the romantic lives of others. And those rules, my dear, need to be followed.
1. Stick with good friends
If you don’t know them well enough to text them and ask them to hang out for a casual drink with YOU, don’t ask them to do the same (and potentially more) with one of your friends. Matchmaking should always be done within the close ranks of your friends — never with your co-workers, second cousin, twice removed. He could be an axe murderer. Just sayin’.
2. ALWAYS ask first
There is nothing worse than being single and constantly being ambushed into awkward blind dates¦especially by someone you are close with and feel guilty saying “no” to (that’s you, darling). Don’t be that friend! Make sure you ask both parties WAY ahead of time¦like looong before make reservations and picking out the perfect post-dinner bar behind their backs. Most people will appreciate a good matchmaker, but no one likes a sneaky one.
3. Be honest
We know that you really, really, really want to hook your bestie up with the hottie from the accounting (mostly just so you can indulge and find out if he really does kiss as good as he looks like he does) but if the guy comes across as a bit of a player, or if your bestie has a bit of a commitment issue, you need to be upfront and honest with the other person. Be honest with yourself (i.e., don’t set people up unless you genuinely believe they will hit it off) and be honest with them. It will only benefit everyone (including Mr Kissy Lips) in the end.
4. Walk away
Maybe things will go great, maybe they don’t. Regardless of the outcome of your good intentioned meddling, once you have set up the initial contact between your two friends, you should check back in once or twice and then back-off. Why? Well because first of all, no one likes a Snoopy Sally, and second, if things go sour (sorry, we’re realists!) the last person you want stuck smack in the middle of all the issues, is you.
