I have had trouble with this in my game. I used to take them to parks and dance clubs and well..... it was to much like real life. Never finding anyone you are really interested in for your sim. I was loosing my patience with it. So I came up with a new plan. Now I have them apply to all the college graduates for a potential spouse. I pretend they contact a local dating service. Then exchanged info on the web and made their decision. This system is almost medieval in that the spouse-to-be college graduate is looking at land as part of the marriage contract. If there are no college graduates available I send for a mail-order-bride (male or fem) from the "old country." That is considered an extreme. Most my sims wait a few seasonal turns for a graduate until their patience runs out or there just isn't any.

So how do you pick your future romantic partner?

Most of the matches in my game come from 'I knew him back when..." (childhood crushes) or perhaps "She's just so hot! I gotta meet her!", which will sometimes blossom into something serious if the target in question stops by the house to say hello. I have a mod that keeps all visitors at the lot so they can become better acquainted with each other. Of course by the end of the day the place is usually packed, but definitely some relationships start out as 'hello, how are you?" and then work their way up into woohoo and marriage-not necessarily in that order, though!

However, TwoJeffs made a crystal ball that helps out in the mating process, which sometimes is the only way singles can meet one another-not being in the same job or whatever.

But of course there's always the bar, library and grocery store to find your matches, too. Heck, they even meet each other at the swimming pool. Some of the more naughty ones like to meet their extramarital loves on community lots so as not to be detected by their spouses. (and sometimes it even works..)

Only if the need Is great for I normally have them marry playable Sims, if no playable Sims are handy then I send them to all town/downtown community lots and use scope room and then wait till I find a 3 bolter and that is the one my Sims marry.

Even when my sims marry playable sims, as they usually do, I try and make them meet in game. Constantly checking the computer to see if they are online (which i've used while a sim is in Uni so that way they do have a lot of time, I just keep checking), passer bys, going to community lots. If I get fed up i'll just move them in I suppose but they always seem to meet soon enough. If I don't have a playable sim or otherwise picked out i'll just send them to community lots until I find one they have 2-3 bolts with and that's the one I go with.

Sometimes (not often), I go through the whole "find the perfect mate" deal in which I send a Sim to community lots, have them scope and then go from there. They'll usually date a few of them before they'll roll an engagement want with one (...or more, since some of mine get more than one spouse) of them. More often, if I want an inter-playable marriage, they'll end up with a childhood friend, sometimes literally the boy/girl next door. Most often, I practice random marriage. I keep numbered lists of all the Sims in the neighborhood. When the time comes for a Sim to get a spouse, I'll "roll" a random number generator and the number that's rolled is the Sim they marry. They usually don't know each other, so they meet under the (hacked) wedding arch. This creates some interesting scenarios, and I really like watching negative chemistry couples adapt to each other, sometimes successfully, sometimes...not. If nothing else, it prevents "All Perfect Families Syndrome," which to me is boring.

A lot of times, I play a rotation of families for a generation and then match up their children. Like, when one family has a boy and another family down the street has a girl I think, "They'd be cute together." So, by the time they reach college, they're the best of friends. Sometimes I let them do their own thing through college, like dating other people...sometimes they even get engaged/married, only to find that their heart really belongs to the person I had picked out (adds a little drama). But, I do have a rule. I don't marry townies into original families. I like seeing how the original families eventually morph into one throughout the generations.

If I remember I'll have teens check each other out and see if any have bolts. I do the same at Uni and with cas sims do that on walkbys and community lots. I usually grab the first sim they like who doesn't have a horrific face template. I do like it when playables match up. I have a 3 bolt couple at uni, although right now they are having a bit of trouble due to the cow mascot. They met at uni as she went to prep school and he was homeschooled and hadn't met before. One is the teachers daughter and the other is a farmers son. They both have a want to be engaged to each other but she is still furious at him so it will have to wait. I've put on a apology mod, so apologizing has more effect as sim anger seems to last a lifetime. Its been 3 days which is like 18 months real time to me.

In my Gilbert & Sullivan themed story, the current crop has had their spouse picked out (at least somewhat) since birth for reasons of Plot. F'r instance, I know for an absolute fact that one of them is going to get engaged to Mr. Big, but nobody in the family has met him yet. Some of my Sims choose their own spouses, like Sarah Jane Littledragon, who spontaneously and repeatedly flirted with Timothy Miller when they both hit Teen, and who gave him a spontaneous and quite possessive smooch the minute they hit Uni. Some I let check out one sim of each gender and then see who they like best. I've only had one Sim who didn't pick anyone on his own, but since I needed him married for a challenge I'm doing, I made him a wife in CAS.

In Drama Acres, I have so many sims, the few who have trouble finding somebody are simply an interesting change of pace from the ones who do all the work for me. Trent Traveller may well be a burden on his daughter his whole life. But he's got serious mental/emotional problems, in place long before his wife left him - and in fact a large contribution to her doing so.

Not everyone has to get married, you know. Since I send almost everyone to University, they have plenty of time to sort themselves out.

Free families get to choose who they marry naturally. I'll let them form friendships with whoever they want, do a couple dates and see how it goes from there. Some sims really like each other but never really aspire for more. Recently, for example, Gavin Holloway kept rolling wants related to the woman he married, even though I had had him actively pursuing another woman. In the end he won and he and Kelly are a lovely couple.

Detained families are bred with my sole intention in mind and they get who they get. I do this either for genetics or because I'm feeling cruel and they are often "just ok" with their spouses, though some REALLY hate the people they get. Bummer for them though. ):

Some sims just live lonely/single lives. Sidney Lariviere, one of my BACC founding fathers, would produce some beautiful kin, but he's just too mean to justify the way he'd probably treat his wife... unless his wife got the same treatment his alien daughter does. He's an amazing dad. o.o

Eric Smyth brought Lisa home from school as a child; I created them, as part of two different families, for each other and some how I didn't even have to go out of my way to get them to meet.

They will mostly find their soul-mate in their teens, they will start dating and will (hopefully) go steady. I still haven't played Romance sims the way I should (let them have multiple lovers, fool around, etc...), so all that is sorta new to me.

In my test 'hood Denis Fraser met townie General Gretchen Sims at the Riverview Restaurant one Saturday. They had a whirlwind romance and got married on the Monday afternoon. (Remember I play with aging off, so a day in my game is ... a day!) That they met in a restaurant was pretty inevitable, as I created the test 'hood to test restaurants!

In my main 'hood things move a lot slower. Tom Cornton brought Audrey Tsang home from work one evening. It was in the middle of his (gay) lothario phase, and she was about the only visitor to the house, of either sex, that didn't end up in his bed! Something about her must have impressed him, because a few days later, he decided to reform, asked her out for a meal, and then asked her to move in. He built a new double bedroom above the garage conversion, and eventually they had woohoo there, but there was no hurry. That's as far as it's gone so far; I think they'd like to marry, but, being a romance Sim, Tom is reluctant to actually commit to an engagement.

At the beginning of my game Garry Mackay was so desperate to meet Gloria that he spent 50 Simoleons on a phone book to look her number up. His social bar was in the red and he didn't know anyone at all! Garry and Gloria were quite literally made for each other and very quickly fell in love. And that's as far as it's gone! I had made both of them Romance so they'd fall in love quickly, but didn't yet know how reluctant to commit Romance Sims can be. They have both had flings with other Sims, but Gloria has never gone all the way with anyone except Garry (and that Mystery Sim long ago -- Andrew didn't come from nowhere!). Now they only date each other. I hope they'll marry one day. Andrew would like them to, because he wouldn't feel happy moving out if it meant his mum was left alone.

That's all my adults who have got anywhere near marrying. As for my teens -- Well!! Andrew and Julian got to know each other talking on the phone. I reckon they'd know each other at school anyway. They are now in a very solid gay relationship, which I expect to last. I had better draw a veil over what my other teens get up to! Meeting other teens never seems to be a problem!

At the moment everything in my main 'hood is on hold, as I try to find a way forward, but I like the Sims in it too much to give up on them. I'll find a way somehow!

^^ Warning. Romance sims will act all excited when proposed to and leap into the asker's arms (when they're in love, obviously), but will still get a bad memory of getting engaged. It's rather annoying.

It's not like they spend time crying over it, or anything (unless they had a fear of it when it happened and were low on aspiration at the time). Romance sims aren't nearly as difficult to keep faithful as most people say, though with ACR installed it's probably a bit different. And the times they do slip up just make them more human.

In my hoods, everyone goes to college. Some have met their future spouses as children or teens and continue existing relationships. Most of the others meet someone new on campus. Since everyone lives in dorms and I tend to have lots of (playable) students on campus at any given time (last two weeks was at 42, now it's down to 27), it's easy to invite over a whole dorm and have big meet-and-greets to find those 3-bolt matches. I never use the matchmaker, rarely go to community lots, and don't interact much with townies/dormies, for the most part.

Most everyone in my hood ends up in a relationship, be it marriage, triad, or polyamory. This is my own bias talking, but nothing's sadder to me than a childless elderly sim, or one living and dying alone, which is a fate I try to avoid for them.

Usually, I have an idea on who I want each Sim with and stick to that. But sometimes, and I love when this happens, they'll gravitate toward a different Sim and throw a wrench in my plan. The first time I saw this, my CAS Trevor was destined (in my mind) to be with Nina Caliente, BUT he had this thing for another CAS Amy. You know when you click 'chat' and they talk for a long time, or they always seem to call the night your Sim wants to go out... I tend to cherish these couples way more.

How they meet? I always have my Sims meet on community lots or if they walk by the house. This is very tedious, especially when waiting for a particular Sim, but when they spawn on the lot, I literally cheer at the screen!

Couples in my game were usually childhood friends,or their parents were friends,lol xD
And if they go to the community lot,and if they see a sim who is their 'type',i decide to marry them.That's how their romance starts xd

all i do to find my sims soul mate is call up the match maker give her 5000 cash and wait to see who she sees in her crystal ball and make them my partner (only if their cute though)

I find it fun to look for little clues to tell me which partner my sim wants. Like certain wants they roll or if they keep bringing home the same classmate. Chemistry doesn´t play such a big role in my decisionmaking, though, since after the first (or second?) sucessful date it gets improved to one bolt anyway. If I stumble upon a three-bolt-match I´m happy, but anything below is irrelevant.
Some sims are very definite about their partners, others take their time. I´m afraid poor David Ottomas will never find the right man or woman and might settle for just any partner to escape lonelieness. But my Neta knew from her sixth birthday that Tom was to be her husband. Her parents kept inviting other kids and she even dated some of those "oh, darling, he´s sooo much better for you"-boys, but to no avail. (One of those dumped candidates ended up with her younger sister).
Sims I consider nobility in my 'hood are not so fortunate. They often end up in arranged hetero-marriages (but if they cannot find happyness in it they may have mistresses/lovers).

For some strange reason, about half of my Sims seem to end up marrying people who walked past their house one day. It seems strange, but judging by the generally happy Sim couples which result, it appears to work. Otherwise, Sims find their loves in many ways - childhood friends that blossom into something more, university room-mates who fall in love over sophomore coursework tutoring or in Greek houses, colleagues at work, Sims in service to the same noble family, blind dates... ...even one occasion of two elders falling in love and marrying after repeatedly playing ten-pin bowling at the fake beach shopping centre.

A few of the highest-born Sims don't get to pick a spouse, but must accept the High Prince/Princess's arranged marriages. It seems in my neighbourhood that the arranged-marriage Sims have responded by avoiding their arranged spouses as much as possible, frustrating all attempts to get them to an altar. The current High Princess wonders why these Sims don't at least talk to their spouses-to-be first - who knows, maybe they might like each other? - but nobody seems in a hurry to obey her on this matter!

I play quite a large number of families in the same hood (by rotation), so I usually marry the sims within this 'community' of playable families. I resort to townies or create sims when a certain gender dominates the pool of active families. I pick a spouse for a certain sim during the teen stage and I make sure they meet and interact with their intended - one way or another. I have a mutual acquaintance introduce them to each other, networking etc.

However, I sometimes forget this rule when my sim seems to be really attracted to some sim I had not considered beforehand. For example, I married two of my sims after college and I really liked the two of them together, but he soon developed a crush - major one, three lightning bolts - on her best friend. So he had an affair with the best friend, the wife caught them and dumped the guy, only for him to go on marrying the new crush and have twin girls with her.

I have a phone book hack (and a gnome one) that will let them know anyone. I especially like this for young kids; in some of my big hoods, they don't even know all their RELITIVES. I almost never play uni, but try to play sims "in character"; an old-fashioned shy girl is just going to have to wait for that first kiss. And it might no be till the wedding night with the old guy her parents WANT her to marry! Seems really like it doesn't make much difference how many bolts a couple have. Once 20 years have gone by, their are as happy (or Unhappy) as those wild 3-bolt romances.

And then there is the Hicks family: the guy seemed to want a woman, but didn't like ANYONE, so I had him flirt with the MAN maid. He finally had a date with him, fooled around, 100% liked him; proposed - and rejected. He was more disappointed than I was. I think I'll make him a totally obnoxious woman and just have her crash his pad. I bet somebody winds up preggers.

Well, playing Medieval&Renaissance has its own rules, so I can't exactly have high school sweethearts in my neighbourhood XD Not that the scenarios that I have to come with aren't interesting.
So, most of the people have to marry people of the same rank as them, but there are ocasional morganatic marriages, of course (where would the fun be without things like forbidden love?).
Examples ... let's see ^^
There was this noble widow (45 years old or so) who, after her husband's death, had a charming young lover, also a widower. Well, they didn't consider marriage, so things could have been ok, but the young lover also 'charmed' the woman's young daughter, so ... it became complicated. Especially when said daughter gave birth to her mother's lover's child XD And that's how this 'love story' came to an end. Of course, now that the daughter was ... disgraced (because she gave birth to a love-child), no noble man wanted to wed himself to her, so ... she was forced to marry a commoner (a farmer). She's not rich anymore ... but she's happy, because her husband loves and respects her.
And then ... there are lots of arranged marriages in my game, where families wed their children to gain influence. There is also 'true love', but it's quite uncommon. Many brides meet their grooms for the first time on their wedding day.
Among the commoners ... there are girls who fall for their brother's best friend/the boy they met at the Church/the widowman who hired them to look for his children.

It becomes complicated when I want to marry people that live very far from each other, because ... I can't exactly say that 'they exchanged emails and decided to get to know each other'. Usually, fishermen marry other fishermen's daughters (from the same village, most of the time), farmers marry other farmer's daughters and so on.

With so many people getting married young and arranged marriages ... love affairs are unavoidable Maybe I should enforce a law about those things XD Or give those people a 'Get a divorce' option >.>