How did they MEET?

I'm constantly amazed while researching 19th century families and finding couples who lived a state or two apart with their families getting married! The question I keep wondering is: how did they meet?

For example, my paternal grandparents lived in central Minnesota and southern Illinois. (I know the answer to that one after asking my Grandmother- newspaper ads in a regional German newspaper, an extended correspondence, the family meeting the intended groom after he drove down in his Model T, and love bloomed.) The Jones family that I'm researching lived in central Illinois and central Wisconsin. I can't see how they met- no crossing of siblings' paths that I have discovered yet. But it is all pretty amazing.

If you have one of those mysteries, be sure to ask the oldest living relatives still around- it could be quite the story but you won't know if you don't ask!