New to a LDR and need advice

[MochaLatte]

So I'm just starting a relationship with this guy that lives a few hours from me and I was looking for some advice and I had some questions for people who've been in LDRs. 1) When you'll first meet in person, what do you'll do? Is it like a normal date or do you do something extravagant since you live far apart and don't get to see each other that much? 2) Since we never met in person and the relationship is starting from meeting online, is it difficult to maintain the relationship? How do you do it? And lastly 3) How do you know when you are ready to make the relationship official/serious? I feel like it would be something that's difficult to do since it's hard to spend time with each other.

Thank you in advance!

[Moon]

There are no hard and fast rules for any of those questions, usually couples talk and figure out what works best for them as they go along. As far as maintaining the relationship, go take a look at my little profile bit over to your left. It's absolutely possible

Your first meeting can be whatever you want it to be, it depends on how long your visit is, the circumstances of the visit, and how much cash you have to spend on it. Extravagant is usually a bad idea, in my opinion, because it sets to much expectations and pressure into the meeting, I think. A casual movie, dinner, walk in the park or whatever may put you both more at ease, but again, it can be whatever you want it to be. For me, I had to go 4200 miles, so our first meeting was almost two weeks long.

Just try keeping in mind that regardless of a relationship being LD, or CD, it's still just a relationship. The challenges might be different, but you treat each other the same. You tend to communicate more in LD, so that's a nice advantage.

You get serious when things get serious There's no better answer. If your relationship progresses to that point, you'll know it. Good luck

[TwoThree]

I think it depends on the stage of your relationship. By the time my SO and I met, we had been officially together for 10 months, had already said I love you to each other (in fact the first time we said I love is basically when the relationship started, so we definitely skipped a few steps), were making plans and future commitments etc. It's a bit naive to assume that things would have worked just as well "in real life" but thankfully for us, it did work. So since I was traveling from a whole different continent to see him, I naturally stayed with him, we spent every minute together and it was like a holiday.

If you're not quite there in your relationship, and since he lives in the same country and just a few hours away, you'll just have to decide (with him) how to proceed. Will you stay with him (or him with you) the whole time, or will you get a hotel room and go on dates a bit like CD couples do?

Maintaining a relationship and getting serious depends on how you are as people, and as a couple. As Moon said, there are no rules.