In this interview, entrepreneur Mike Michalowicz recounts the unconventional way he met his wife Krista. After a brief encounter at a TGI Friday bar two years earlier, a mutual friend reconnects them when Mike, newly single, reaches out. Their first date leads to a rapid series of outings, culminating in Krista’s offhand comment to a friend that she’s going to marry Mike. Within six weeks, Mike proposes, and they become engaged. When Mike tells his parents, they are horrified, recalling that his own parents had a similarly swift engagement of eight weeks that lasted over six decades. Mike reflects on the impulsiveness of their decisions, the advice they now give their children about not rushing engagements, and acknowledges that despite the haste, the marriage has endured for 28 years.
I heard that you knew you wanted to marry Krista after a very short time dating. Tell us about that. How did you know?
Yeah, so I met Krista through mutual friends. She walked in at a bar. It was TGI Friday and she was walking by. I was like, damn. So we went on our first date 2 years later. So I saw her.
Wait, why? Why 2 years later?
Because I had a girlfriend and I was in a relationship and she was a single mom. Okay, so she got pregnant. So then our mutual friend, I broke up with this other person I was dating and I said, you know what, I'm gonna make a phone call. And so I called my mutual friend and I said, that girl, you know, like, I don't know, Mike, but we'll give you her phone number. And I called her.
Out of the blue?
Out of the blue. I said, I'm this guy that you met at a bar 2 years ago. And we actually ran into each other like 2 or 3 more times.
Okay. Okay.
I'm like, so you know my name? But I was wondering if you want to go out, have a cup of coffee or for dinner. And she's like, yeah, I know who you are. She's like, let's do it. So we go out. Krista dresses in a dress that's up to her chin. It's like Victorian era. Yeah. She's like, you ain't seeing nothing, pal. We went out for dinner and it was great. We went on a few more dates and we were 6 weeks A month and a half. We go out for a date and I overhear— she talks— her friend shows up who we both know now, but her friend shows up and I was just about to walk to the bathroom or something. And the friend's like, oh, how's it going? And Krista says— I overhear— says, this is the guy I'm going to marry.
Get out of here.
To Liz.
That's so funny.
Yeah. And I hear it. And then I'm like, this is the woman I want to marry. So I proposed to her. I got back to the table. I said, I like this. I want to get married. My God. This was a month and a half. Engaged after 6 weeks. Oh, we're married.
Were your parents horrified? Were they like, what? What are you doing, Mike?
So, yeah. So when I told my parents, They were horrified. Are you crazy? And I said yes. And then my mom says, we got engaged after 8 weeks. So my father and mother got engaged after 8 weeks and were married for 65, 60 years or more before my father passed. My wife and I are married 28 years now.
There you go. There you go. When you know, you know. Christopher said the same thing.
He said, you know, you know. Yeah, but it's funny. We tell our kids, if you plan to get engaged, Don't rush it, because we both say we're idiots. We had no idea what we're doing.
What were we doing?
And there was a lot to figure— there's still more to figure out, but there's a lot to figure out.
That's true.
I think we wish in retrospect that we lived together for a period of time.
