BEFORE WE GET STARTED…
Last week we ran our first real Featured Single, so we followed up with Caden. He said got actual texts out of it. When I first started doing this, I didn’t know if that was something that would ever happen. You guys, this is so exciting!!
Please go and tell all your friends about this!!!
Don’t forget to reply with your favorite date idea this week.
THREE DATES, ONE THAT COSTS NOTHING
A Free Movie in Her Mission Language
Movie · Free
BYU International Cinema screens foreign-language films in room 250 of the Kimball Tower, free of charge and open to anyone, with no ticket and nothing to reserve. This week, Wednesday through Saturday, the program is Little Amélie or the Character of Rain in French (its about a little Belgian girl living in Japan), Eternal You in Korean and English (its about companies building AI versions of dead people), and Chang’an (a 168-minute Mandarin epic about two Tang dynasty poets). Everything runs in its original language with subtitles, and the showtimes go up weekly on the homepage, so check online to figure out what time works best.
This week’s three are gone by Sunday, so the deadline is real and you do not have to invent one, and if she served somewhere they speak one of these languages, lead with that instead of with the movie.
Text them and say: “This is random, but there’s a free French movie in the Kimball Tower Thursday. I’m going. Want to come as a date?”
Roll With It
Bus · Free with two student IDs, $5 without
The rules: meet at a UVX station, roll a die, ride that many stops, get off, and spend an hour wherever you land. Route 830X runs the length of University Avenue and University Parkway between Provo and Orem, so the die can only ever hand you somewhere within about eight miles of campus. BYU and UVU students, staff and faculty ride free with a school ID, everyone else pays $2.50.
Decide the backup before you roll, because on this date the backup is the plan. Agree in advance what you do when you land somewhere with nothing: walk one block in the most promising direction, or get back on and roll again.
When you see them in person, say: “I’m taking the UVX to a random stop Saturday, just to see where it dumps me. Wanna come?”
Money Is the Most Common Reason
Money · Wheatley Institute
BYU’s Wheatley Institute surveyed 5,275 unmarried young adults across the country for its 2026 State of Our Unions report, where the biggest barrier to dating was not having enough money to do so. The report’s own explanation is that dating has become ”focused on commercial activities” and people who cannot afford that version of it quietly conclude they cannot afford to date at all. A Free Movie in Her Mission Language costs zero dollars and Roll With It costs maybe five. If money is the thing stopping you, the fix is not earning more, it is picking a plan small enough that the number stops being part of the decision.
“The biggest barrier to dating they expressed was not having enough money.”
Track Record
Train · $60 for two
The Heber Valley Railroad runs restored 1920s and 30s coaches out of a depot at 450 South 600 West in Heber City, about fifty minutes from Provo. The one to take is the Deer Creek Express, which is a 90-minute round trip along the shore of Deer Creek Reservoir out to Decker Bay and back with Mount Timpanogos across the water the whole way, and not the Provo Canyon Limited, which is suspended for construction. It departs at 1:00pm and 3:30pm, and in September it runs most days except Tuesday and Sunday. Get there thirty minutes early because the train leaves on time whether or not you are. If you want two seats together, book them on one order or call the ticket office.
Tell her it is fifty minutes up through Heber, ninety minutes on the train, home mid-afternoon. Sometimes big time commitments just don’t work because people are busy. If she can’t try pivoting to one of the other dates this week.
Call and say: “There’s an old train that runs along Deer Creek on Saturday afternoons and I’m going. Want to go up with me?”
Try this one on somebody this week. It beats “what’s your major” for the 10th time. You will learn more in ninety seconds than in twenty minutes of the usual questions.
What’s something you were really into as a kid that you’d still defend?
Featured Single: Get Your Own Card
We’ll feature you as a single in an upcoming issue, using your photo and a few lines about you, so other readers can reach out and ask you out, all for $5. Think a one-person profile card that goes to the whole list instead of doom scrolling on Mutual.
How it works:
(1) Venmo $5 to me, @hamiltonpr,
(2) reply to this email with a photo, your first name, age, year and major, what you are looking for, and how you want people to reach you.
Guest Star in our Next Edition
Send us a selfie and you could be a person in next week’s date pictures. We drop you right into the scene using AI, so you and a friend can go looking for yourselves in the photos.
Advertise With Us
Want to put your business in front of hundreds of students in Utah Valley who are looking for somewhere to go or something to do? Reply to this email and let’s talk.
UPCOMING DATE OPPORTUNITIES
BONUS EVENTS
Hosting something in Utah Valley?
Thursday, Sept 10: Timpanogos Storytelling Festival Sneak Peek
Ashton Gardens Waterfall, Thanksgiving Point, Lehi · music 6pm, stories 7:30pm · $10 each for Thursday only
Text them and say: “There’s an outdoor storytelling night at Thanksgiving Point Thursday. I’m heading up after class. Interested?”
Thursday, Sept 10 through Sunday, Sept 20: Utah State Fair
Utah State Fairpark, 155 N 1000 W, Salt Lake City · $15 each at the gate, parking extra · butter cow, rodeo, demolition derby
Call them and say: “The state fair is on and I want to see the butter cow before it melts. Going Saturday. Come with me?”
Friday, Sept 11: BYU women’s volleyball vs UCLA
Smith Fieldhouse, BYU campus · 6:30pm · from $8
When you see them in person, say: “Volleyball Friday at the Fieldhouse. I’ve got two tickets. Want the seat next to me?”
Saturday, Sept 12: BYU football vs Arizona
LaVell Edwards Stadium, Provo · 1:30pm · tickets start at $126, so this one is only cheap if you already have a student pass
Call and say: “Arizona’s in town Saturday at 1:30. I have one extra seat and nobody to put in it. Want it?”
Tuesday, Sept 15: BYU women’s volleyball vs Utah Valley
Smith Fieldhouse, BYU campus · 6:30pm · from $7 · the closest thing to a rivalry match on the schedule
When you see them in person, say: “BYU and UVU play Tuesday and I’ve got 2 tickets. Come?”
Through Saturday, Oct 31: Cornbelly’s Sunflower Festival
Cornbelly’s, 3687 W 5600 S, Spanish Fork · ticketed, picking is an add-on · fifteen acres and about a million sunflowers
Text them and say: “A million sunflowers are open in Spanish Fork right now and I want to see them before the frost does. I’m heading down Friday afternoon. You free?”
Just reply to this email!
From the Editor
Thanks for reading to the end!!!
Two of the three dates this week cost basically nothing, and that is not to be cheap, it is the whole point of the helping card in the middle. You got this :)
Until next time,
— Two Tacos & a Hike