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(Salt Lake City, KSL News) -- It's the day to celebrate love, but a lot of people are still looking for that perfect match. And today's singles are using modern tactics and a whole new set of rules to find it.
Scenes like this bring to mind simpler times: a young man comes to the door to pick up his date, but not before first meeting the parents.
"I'm going to ring a bell and ask that everyone proceed to their first date."
Now welcome to eight minute dating. Each date lasts exactly eight minutes, then a bell rings and it's on to the next date.
"It's really easy. You're in, you're out and you know if this is somewhere you'd like to head. No pressure," says event organizer Krista Harrison for the company, 8 Minute Dating.
Krista Harrison recently hosted an eight minute date night in Salt Lake City. Several LDS singles wards have also tried it. This speed dating is all a part of a modern trend to make dating faster, more efficient and relatively painless.
"It's nice to meet at a restaurant in a group. It's not as scary as meeting one-on-one. I think that blind date stigma is a little scary," says Holly Janney with Dining to Meet You.
"This I thought was just a fun way to meet people -- fun, safe and you don't just meet one person at the dinner, you meet seven new friends," says dater Jennifer Simmons.
Director Holly Janney puts the groups together based on age and interests. And she's pretty good at it, having so far produced 51 marriages.
For those who want a really big selection of potential mates, there's cyber dating.
In the last few years, online dating services have gone from kind of questionable to very trendy.
"Kind of different avenue to meet some new people. I'm kind of anxious to see where it goes," says one dater who is registered with an online dating service, Hotsaints.com.
As for the good old-fashioned dance...
"Ah, yeah, we've got some techno action going now."
At this recent LDS combined stake dance in Sandy, everyone showed up stag, and there were even prizes to discourage any wall flowers.
With all these changes in modern dating, some say it's hard to figure out the rules.
"To be honest, I've been surprised a couple of times (when) women offered to pay for the meal and that really caught me off guard," says dater Jerry Medina.
"When you go in a movie line, who's paying for the ticket for the evening can be a gray area," says dater Krista Harrison.
"Usually whoever asks is who pays," says dater Brad Ellis.
The only rules now seem to be that there are no rules. And the scenario of a man picking up a woman at the door -- well, it's almost become a thing of the past.
"I just don't see as much one-on-one dating anymore," says dater Angie Burton.
"Actually I like going on group dates. I don't think I've been on a single date," says dater Josh Kasteler.
But while the rules and the tactics may have changed, it seems that "happily ever after" still remains the ultimate goal of dating.
