Our Favorite Love Stories are Your BFF Stories

Last month we asked you to submit your own friendship story for a chance to be featured right here — now join us in regaling the tales of 5 Best Friends Forever…

The responses to our request for your BFF stories were many and one more heart warming than the next, making the selection nearly impossible. Thank you for every single beautiful story you sent us. They helped to remind us of what Valentine’s Day is truly about. Yes, there’s the romantic love we may share with a significant other, and yes, there are the strong bonds we share with family members, but there’s truly nothing like the strong, deep and long-lasting friendships we create with our BFFs.

I hope you enjoy these stories as much as we did. Happy Love Day to you and your bestie!

CLAIRE & SARAH

“I met Sarah 10 years ago this August, on the first day of our freshman year of high school in 2009. We were both really shy, but were placed in a few classes together over the first year and soon became friends.
Our friendship developed strong roots during the next three years of high school. We lived 15 minutes away from each other and often stopped by unannounced just to give the other a hug or say goodnight at the end of the day.
Ever since high school graduation, we have been living in different cities and towns, often being multiple plane rides away from each other. We started writing letters to each other and scheduled for FaceTime dates often. Yet, that has not stopped us from each visiting the other at least once a year, and meeting up in our hometown on the occasional holiday.
We have been through the roughest parts of thick and thin — not talking for months, and then coming back together, bursting our hearts open to the other, and rekindling our sweet friendship.
We can and do spend hours together, just sitting and reading books in a cafe, hiking in beautiful mountain ranges, dancing in the streets, creating art together, and experiencing life hand-in-hand.
Sarah will always be such a strong part of my life. Her perspective, mindfulness, and gentle heart are some of the things I love most about her. Always bringing new ideas to the table and seeking fresh ways to see and explore life. I am so lucky to have a best friend like Sarah. Ours is one of my favorite love stories, for sure.

For Valentine’s Day, I would love to gift both of us the At First Glance Mini Dress because I think every pair of BFF’s need a matching outfit, and I am really surprised Sarah and I don’t have one yet! This flowy, dreamy, whimsical fairy dress would be perfect for us to frolic in the wildflowers, wade through a creek, or kick up a storm on the dance floor.”

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LAUREN & ERIN

“Erin and I met in sixth grade, just as we were accepting the hard truth that we’d never be as cool as Lizzie McGuire. Together we survived the embarrassments of middle school (bangs), the confusion of high school (bangs again), the wilderness of college (boys and beers), and semi-adulthood (WTF is happening 24/7).

Over the years, we’ve traveled to Canada, France, Scotland, England, and most recently, Jackson, Mississippi! Whether climbing Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh or roaming Monet’s garden in Giverny, we always mention “how well we travel together” as if we’ve never said it before. Although we live in different states — Tennessee and Texas — we always have a date to see each other next on the calendar. (See you soon in Nashville, E!)

When Erin got engaged, I had just ended a long relationship and was searching for a job in NYC. I’ll never forget Erin in her wedding dress asking me how my interview prep was going. At her rehearsal dinner, I made her husband take the same pledge from “Anne of Green Gables” Erin and I took when we first became 11-year-old besties. Because that’s totally normal, right?

It’s hard to accurately describe our friendship, so here are our top 5 moments:

1. Getting free wine for singing “La Vie en Rose” at Hemingway’s favorite bar in Paris.
2. Seeing the Northern Lights while skinny-dipping in Canada.
3. A bagpipe player giving us a free ride back from a castle in Scotland. #SSDGM
4. Getting McDonald’s after visiting Versailles.
5. Being there for each other’s tattoos in New York and Paris!”

For Valentine’s Day, Lauren would love to gift her Serena-level tall goddess-ness, Erin, the Love Is Top for when she’s shooting weddings! Erin would gift her lil fairy bff the Posies Mini Dress for the Greece trip they’re FOR SURE taking.

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DANIELLE & CRISTINA

“My best friend Cristina and I have been friends since preschool. My older brother was in the same class as her sister so our families became close friends. It wasn’t a forced friendship — we genuinely enjoyed spending time with each other because we are so similar in every way; we even look similar, so people always think we’re twins. My favorite thing about Cristina is her strength and perseverance. Despite everything Cristina and her family have gone through, she inspires me every day. She, along with her sisters, are the most kindhearted people I’ve ever met, and I’ve never been more proud to call someone my friend, and on occasion, sister.

We frequently stay at each other’s houses, and I think it would be really fun to match in the Sleep To Dream Shorty PJ. Plus, these are really cute and will help Cristina feel beautiful in her skin.”

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JAMIE & KATIE

JAMIE‘S ANSWERS
How long ago did you meet?
We met almost THIRTY years ago, when we were in 5th grade! (Actual years — 29.) We weren’t in the same class, but we were on the same team (our school split each grade into three teams), and had some classes together, in addition to being in choir.

What brought you together?
We were seated next to each other in Select Chorus (the fancy chorus for good singers). Our voices were so loud and powerful that we actually had to be separated by one person — so then we basically just talked to each other across her all year! In hindsight, maybe the talking was what made our teacher separate us in the first place. 😂

What do you love most about your BFF?
EV-ERY-THING. Seriously, I can’t imagine life without her! We’ve been friends for so long that we finish each other’s thoughts and sentences, even though we now live 3000 miles apart (I’m in LA and she’s in Boston). But a few standouts:
1) We both love Friends and Sex and the City. We watch every Friends’ Thanksgiving episode together, in order every year, and we loved SATC so much that we each watched the finale alone on our couches in our respective cities and called each other crying after it was over.
2) Our freshman year of college, we used to wake up early and IM from our dorm rooms for 3-4 hours every Saturday and Sunday (she was in Pittsburgh, I was in Indiana).
3) We celebrate all of our big birthdays together — the 0’s and the 5’s. For 30, we went to Disney World. For 35, we went to NYC. We’re in the midst of planning 40 — any suggestions?
4) She’s so understanding and caring, no matter what the situation may be. Big or small, inconsequential or major, Katie is there to listen, support me and give advice. And she makes me laugh more than anyone else I know.

KATIE’S ANSWERS
How long ago did you meet?
Jamie and I met in fifth grade which was (yikes) 29 years ago in 1990. The year before, the district had suddenly decided to open an upper elementary, and this was the year they put all of the elementary schools together into one school in our district — and it was a hard year for all of us. Jamie and I bonded over our love of music and it turned out, so much more!

What brought you together?
Music and and all-consuming outgoingness! We were in Select Chorus together, which was a group of the best singers in 5th and 6th grade. We stood next to each other and had to be separated because we were both belting altos whose voices blended and drowned out everyone else. We are both super chatty and upbeat as well, and I think even if we hadn’t been next to each other in Select Chorus, we would have eventually found one another!

What do you love most about your BFF?
Jamie is the most devoted friend in the world. She would lay down in traffic for her friends, and her dedication inspires me to be a better friend/partner/mother. Right after Jamie moved to LA, she flew back to the East Coast for a surprise birthday party my husband threw me. You know how people ugly cry on TV when they’re surprised? That was me! And that’s only one time when she went above and beyond. I could write a book!

I also love that we’ve known each other for so long that we’re basically family. We can complain to each other about our moms but still know that no matter what we say, we love our moms SO MUCH and that if anyone outside of our inner circle were to say anything bad about our moms we would CUT THEM. We never have to go into backstory. We’ve LIVED each other’s backstory.

Lastly, we both love Friends and Sex and the City, which tells you all you need to know about our aesthetics and senses of humor. Life is a beautiful, funny, messy journey and there is no one with whom I would rather travel it.

Jamie would love to gift Katie the Embroidered Fable Midi Dress and Katie would love to gift Jamie the Mix It Up Tunic in Black.”

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MCKENNA & HANNAH

“We had our first real conversation in an Uber on the way to LAX, our lives packed up in the duffel bags under our shoes. McKenna and I met through a mutual best friend but became each other’s when we touched down in Buenos Aires to spend the year studying, camping, and fumbling our way towards Spanish fluency. A chimichurri-flavored friendship built upon sipping mate in a sun-drenched park and avoiding men whose cologne introduced itself first. We explored the city through its coffee shops —  petting the dogs curled beneath the table and leaning on each other for stability and perspective in a year of our lives that looked very different from anything we had lived through before.
Now McKenna lives one door down the hall in our little condo in Malibu. We’ve explored a whole lot of South America together, but now we seem to spend more time chatting on the kitchen floor. She is the one who showed my vegetarian self how to cook a chicken and that scream-singing Bonnie Tyler at an empty freeway in the middle of the night is the best way to get over a boy. She shared a bed with me for a week in my aunt’s guest room while we waited to see if our home would survive the Woolsey Fire, and she is my only roommate who understands why good Indian food is worth the hour drive. Reason to my emotion, breath to my anxiety.
Can’t imagine my life without ya, Mck! Absolutely nothing better than bein’ your friend.

Mckenna: Levis Ex-Boyfriend Sherpa Trucker Jacket, because her thrifted one has holes.

Hannah: Set on You Sleep Set, to make chats on the kitchen floor a little (lot) cuter.”

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