After seeing countless replays of Prince William grinning sheepishly and Harry smirking mischievously, you can’t blame American women for giving in to their natural infatuation with British men. Fully aware of the attraction coming from both sides of the pond, Ben and Becca Elman founded DateBritishGuys.com a little less than a year ago. Its mission? To help those American women find their very own Mr. Darcy! On Saturday, the site threw a royal-wedding viewing party for members and potential members at Central Bar.
The highlights of the new Duke and Duchess’s ceremony were playing on a loop on a big screen, Super Bowl–style. There was inevitably a bit of awkwardness — lessened, of course, by the free beer — but there was a decent-size crowd and nobody looked creepy or desperate. Just jolly. One man, probably in his mid-thirties, moved from England to New York in the fall. How did he hear about this site? “It was in the welcome packet.”
A 27-year-old girl who joined the site last spring explained: “I haven’t really had any luck. A lot of the guys are in England. I mean, I’m not going to start into a relationship super long distance. But I like the accent, and I’ve had some luck with other online dating sites. So I thought, why not?”
One man, probably in his mid-forties, thought rather highly of himself. “To American girls, I’m Hugh Grant,” he explained. “They love the accent, and I capitalize on that. I’ve been on the site almost a year. I haven’t met many women with it, but that’s probably because I’m still in London.”
Although this man wasn’t entirely unfortunate-looking, he certainly felt short of the Daniel Cleaver magic. “I flew in for the party,” he said, adding that he was only in town a few more days but had “a great hotel room in midtown.”
One Brit on holiday actually found a date for Monday night at Saturday’s fete. Co-founder Ben Elman said: “If that [date] goes anywhere, the night would have been a huge success in our book.”
“I am proud that if you look at the activity of members on the site, nearly all of the Brits who joined in the U.S. have been regularly using the site … So it must be working for them,” Elman said. “The women always want more men, and that is our focus when we put on events.”
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