Woman had one of the most disastrous first dates ever. 12 years later, she walked down the aisle with him.

First dates are often expected to be magical, but reality rarely meets those expectations. For Carla Soriano and Aaron Wijesinghe, their first date was anything but perfect—in fact, it was what she called a "first date disaster." Soriano, who shares relationship content on TikTok as @carlas30s, recently recounted how Wijesinghe arrived nearly an hour and a half late and had no plan for their date. While it wasn’t an ideal start, it ultimately laid the foundation for a lasting love story.

"On the day of the date, I get to the agreed meeting spot at the agreed time. 5 minutes go by – no signs of him. 10 minutes – still nothing. No texts, no calls," said the text on Soriano's photo carousel video with the "Pepe the King Prawn" meme. "I call my best friend, trying not to cry because I feel like I've been stood up. She tells me to call him cause 'He's not that kind of guy,'" her friend reassured her. Eventually, Soriano called Wijesinghe, who explained that he had missed the train, which Soriano couldn't make sense of, as the trains came every 10 minutes. "But [he] promises he's on his way and will be there shortly," she said. Still, the frustration didn't end there.

"Another 40 MINUTES passes... still nothing. I’ve had enough. I head to the station to go home," Soriano said. But just as she was about to give up and leave, Wijesinghe finally showed up. "He asks if we can still go on the date. I didn’t want to waste a good outfit, so I stayed," Soriano recounted. As the date continued, Wijesinghe asked her, "So, what are we doing today?" He came without any plan. They wandered around for about 30 minutes to think of something to do. Then, Soriano suggested to "take a ferry at the beach." When they arrived at the location, he suggested they should eat something and so they ordered food. Things got awkward as he did not pay and Soriano ended up paying for both of them.

Then, Wijesinghe suggested they go for ice cream and he said, "He'll pay." Soriano thought this would be a chance for things to get better, but instead, she learned that Wijesinghe’s idea of paying for the ice cream meant paying only for his scoop. By this point, Soriano was officially done with the date. "I call my sister, desperate for an escape. She suggests I lie about a family emergency and leave to meet her in the city." She escaped her disastrous date. However, she mentioned in the end that 12 years later, she got married to him and had a house, a dog and a kid together.

The couple had been part of the same friend group for months before their first date, and Soriano recalled how their friends were shocked by how badly the date went. Despite the rocky start, with some encouragement, they decided to give a second date a chance. "It took a long time for me to be like, fine, I'll give him another go," Soriano told PEOPLE. To her surprise, he took her to her favorite restaurant. "I didn't know that he was going to remember it because it wasn't even in his area or anything," Soriano said.

He also requested a nice table that took Soriano by surprise. Wijesinghe admitted that his first date was a total disaster and, in hindsight, "was a reflection" of his inexperience. "This was like my first proper date not really knowing how to play things," Wijesinghe told the outlet. The pair went on to date for eight more years. Wijesinghe knew she was the one right from the start. “I remember for me it was just one day it sort of clicked and I was like, oh yeah, look, this is my person,” he said. Fast forward 12 years, and despite everything, Soriano ended up marrying Wijesinghe.

You can follow Carla Soriano (@carlas30s) on TikTok for more relationship and lifestyle content.