A Twitter love story: He sent her a DM, she responded, they fell in love and former DA leader Mmusi Maimane officiated at their wedding

Meet Graham Charters who shot his shot on the Twitter DMs (Direct Messages) and landed a beautiful Xhosa wife, Siyasanga Charters, a strategy consultant.

Siya and Graham were both law students at UCT. However, Siya is three years younger than Graham, and although they studied at the same campus, they had never met in person. 

The Chief of Staff to the DA Leader and his new wife had been following each other on Twitter as they share similar interests, such as politics and soccer.

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Siyasanga had just finished her studies, and Graham had started working when they began dating. In Januar 2016, he slid into Siya's DMs with a detailed message that read: "Hey, I know we haven't met in person, but I know we share the same interests and are both into soccer and politics, so I was wondering if you would like to go out for coffee someday?" 

According the newlyweds, Siya responded later on the same day, saying: "Hey, I've been meaning to reach out to you so we can have a chat about Politics, I know the election is coming up soon, and I want to make an informed decision when I vote, so I would definitely would love to meet up, chat about politics and have some coffee."

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Graham had been single for three years before dating Siyasanga, and although the DM was spontaneous, he had spent some time getting to know Siya through her social media accounts. 

Before messaging Siya, Graham thought she had high standards, and he wasn't sure how things would go.

On a scale of 1-10, he rated his confidence before sending the message a solid 8, as he had done thorough research and even went to a different social media platforms to gather more information about the woman he was interested in.

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Siya says she had been receiving DMs from other people in the past, and apart from the reason that she was already interested in Graham, the manner in which he had written the message is what made her agree to the date. Although the date agreement officially happened on Twitter in January, the pair only went on their first date on 25 February as Graham got cold feet and went MIA.

A month after the first date, the couple made the relationship official.

The reactions to how the pair met were different. Both told their parents they met in Law school as they are from traditional families, however they told their friends the truth.

Siya's friends were concerned for her safety while Graham's friends were relaxed about the news. 

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The date, the engagement and the wedding

The couple were based in Cape Town when they had their first date. The date took place at Truth Coffee Roasting, a coffee shop, and their engagement took place at the same spot two years later.

Graham had the coffee shop do a poll which the waitress took to Siya to vote on. The Poll was: 'Will you marry me? Yes or No'. The waitress brought the voting device to Siya and she was taken aback.

However, she voted 'Yes' and so the couple began planning their big day which took place two days ago at Cavalli Estates in Cape Town, and was officiated by former DA leader Mmusi Maimane. 

Siya never imagined that she would marry someone who slid in her DM's considering that she is not highly active on social media.

In the three years the newly weds have been together, they have learnt things about each other that they would have never guessed by looking at each other's Twitter accounts.

For Siya, she learnt that Graham is wise and has a calm nature while he learnt that Siya is extremely intelligent as she came first in high school with her matriculant results and graduated with a cum laude.

The newly weds are now on a mini-moon across the Eastern Cape and are planning on going on a honeymoon in June 2020 to London, then Liverpool as Graham is a Liverpool fan. They will then visit Greece and Italy. 

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