As others here have said, it definitely made me much more anxious about meeting people and perhaps more closed off than I would be otherwise. I in fact have never started a relationship from a casual meeting, only from set-ups. I don't think it makes first dates any more awkward than they usually are though. I am engaged right now to a wonderful guy who says he thinks my stutter is "cute" and he's patient enough to always wait for me to finish speaking. But honestly I don't tend to stutter much around him. TL;DR: Having a stutter has lowered my drive to meet/talk to strangers in bars but it hasn't really had an effect on the later stages of relationships.