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How Patton Oswalt and Meredith Salenger fell in love

Story highlights
  • Actor shares with Jimmy Kimmel how he and his new bride talked online early on
  • "It was a very Victorian-like exchanging letters kind of romance," he says

(CNN) Patton Oswalt and Meredith Salenger's courtship was a throwback to an earlier era and yet modern at the same time.

Oswalt shared how the couple's love story unfolded Wednesday night on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!"

He said he and the comedic actress met online -- but not via Tinder.

"We met because we have a mutual friend, the actress Martha Plimpton, and she threw a dinner party," Oswalt said. "At the last minute I couldn't go because of some travel stuff and so the next day ... Meredith sent me a message saying, 'You missed some amazing lasagna last night dude.' "

The pair communicated via messages from February 28 until their first face-to-face meeting May 20, Oswalt said.

"It was a very Victorian-like exchanging letters kind of romance," he said.

Oswalt said they talked life, politics, "all this deep stuff you do after the date" during their correspondence so by the time they met the actor said he was "head over heels" for Salenger.

The two married earlier this month with Oswalt's daughter, Alice, serving as the flower girl.

Patton Oswalt marries Meredith Salenger

Oswalt touted the joys of being a groom with Kimmel.

"You are a prop that eats appetizers," he said. "That's all you are. You're just there, and they tell you where to go."

Oswalt's first wife, crime writer Michelle McNamara, died unexpectedly in her sleep last year, and the actor has written of his and his daughter's grief.

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