If you—or your bestie guy pal—are on the fence about whether or not to attend Urban Girl Squad’s Famous Friend-of-a-Friend Singles Party on Thursday, March 21 at Pranna, then the fairy tale of Squad Member Lisa and her main squeeze Michael—who’ve been going strong since June 2012—should convince you to come on out.

Last summer Lisa was living in Connecticut when a group of friends invited her to attend the Friend-of-Friend party. It was a very hot day, and Lisa thought that maybe she should just head home but her friends—who were short one girl and needed her to get in—ultimately prevailed.

On Michael’s side, he was actually a last-minute sub when the original guy his gal pal had invited had to renege.

When all the guests arrived that evening, they were given a piece of paper with a name on it and were told to find their match. Lisa had “Fiona” and figured out that she was supposed to seek “Shrek.”

About an hour into the party, Lisa was still working on that ice breaker game. A group of three guys had approached her—none of them her Shrek—and they were having a great conversation when she noticed that a guy who had been looking at her while passing by walked in reverse and interrupted their conversation. “Excuse me,” he said, “but are you looking for Shrek?” The guy said that he was Shrek, but Lisa wasn’t so sure—she thought he was maybe just looking for a way into the chat. “Let me see your paper,” she said.

Michael thought for a minute about where he had stashed it. He realized it was in his wallet and had Lisa hold his empty glass while he hunted. Sure enough, “Shrek” was emblazoned on that piece of paper.

Following the party “Fiona” and “Shrek” were hungry, so they went to get pizza, and Michael revealed that he wanted to see Lisa again. She explained that she was going to Florida on business but would be open to a date when she returned. She gave him her business card, and he called the next day. Rather than being scared by his forwardness, Lisa was impressed that he had followed up by phone. She hadn’t been in the New York City area for long, but she had heard lots of stories of flaky guys who would text girls to ask if they wanted to hang out. Lisa and Michael did go out when she returned from Florida, and they’ve been happily dating ever since.

Now that Lisa isn’t interested in attending Urban Girl Squad’s Friend-of-a-Friend parties, she actively encourages her friends to attend. In addition to Michael, Lisa met a lot of other cool and nice people that night—she found the guys to be particularly gentlemanly. As so many Squad members have noted in our five years running, Urban Girl Squad events—whether ladies-only or co-ed—are a great place to meet good people in the city—something that can be particularly difficult when you’re new here.

Lisa’s advice to party attendees: Put yourself out there. Be open to mingling and talking to everybody. Use the ice breaker activity to start a conversation. These guys are vetted by your peers, which should make you more comfortable. And if you happen to have somewhat stringent criteria for what you want in a future boyfriend, think about loosening it up a bit—you never know who you’re going to meet—he just may surprise you if you let him!