Earlier this month, Netflix released a brand-new reality TV offering, Love is Blind.
A mix between Married at First Sight and Netflix’ The Circle, the premise of the experiment is simple.
Men and women talk to each other in individual pods while building an emotional connection without the distractions of the outside world.
Then, after a week (yes, just a week), couples who have the strongest connections decide if they want to get married (yes, married) — after just four weeks.
But we’re not talking showmance married. We’re talking actual “I love you” (and there are so many “I love you’s”) drop down on one knee, crying, real married.
While we have no definitive answer on whether it is actually a day of legally binding wedded bliss (and with some of the couples, I really hope not) according to the contestants, the feelings are 100% real.
The show in itself is a little, well, insane, and the couples seem to have fallen in love in record time, which begs the question: is it possible to fall in love and get married in just a few weeks?
Over the weekend, I took to the perfect place to find a case study, Facebook — asking my friends and extended family if anyone knew a couple that had met and married within a few weeks and were still together.
And the result? Surprising.
Here I was thinking that I probably wouldn’t get one single response, but I was inundated. I got fourteen responses in the space of one hour.
One friend told me this incredible story — and let’s just say, I’m packing my bags to go on holidays to meet my significant other as we speak.
“My parents met and fell in love during a week-long holiday even though my mum was engaged to someone else at the time. After they got home, dad lived in Malta and mum in Sydney, they wrote letters back-and-forth for a month.
“Then, one day, he just proposed over the phone. Dad came to be with mum in Australia and legally for him to stay, they had to get married within a month of him arriving… so they did! 41 years later and two daughters, they’re still together. Crazy!!”
Another friend’s parents dated for a week got engaged and then were married after eight weeks.
And then there was the couple who got engaged after three weeks and have been married for 39 years, with four kids, one grandson, and a dog.
While these stories are extraordinary, they had one thing in common. The couples are all boomers and above.
So, what about Millenials and Gen Xers?
Well, it’s more common than you think!
One friend met his wife in March, dated until June, got engaged in September and married in December — all within the same year.
Another has friends who were married after six weeks (they met while travelling) and have been together for 15 years; while another couple met, got engaged and were married within six months.
Apart from being great entertainment, maybe Love is Blind is on to something.
In any case, my mum always told me that people need to know each other longer than a year before putting a ring on it, but being single at 33, I really hope it happens sooner than that for me.
And now, thanks to this new show, and the powers of social media — it looks a whirlwind relationship isn’t that out of the norm after all.