Married at First Sight is a reality show like no other, taking finding love on TV to a whole different level.
Imagine actually getting wed to someone you have never met before? With a concept so life-changing, serious yet bonkers, surely the whole thing is entirely scripted, right?
Not so! And there’s more. When a reality show is as compelling as MAFS, viewers are always agog to know what goes on behind the scenes. Is it all fake? Is that booze real? When did the brides find the time to buy their actual dresses?
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So without further “I do” here’s all the juice from behind the scenes.
Long, long hours
(Image: Marilyse Corrigan/Instagram)
Though viewers see the dinner parties in gritty, bite-sized chunks, the contestants’ days can begin as early as 7am, with filming commencing at 8.30am. Last year’s star Marilyse Corrigan said: “And then the day would be so long we wouldn’t finish until about one o’clock in the morning.”
The filming of the show also takes place over eight weeks.
Amy Christopher agrees and said on Secure the Insecure podcast: “When you arrive you are interviewed about the dinner party ahead and the drama that you are facing that evening.
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“Then when you head into the mixer for drinks beforehand you can feel the tension and know it’s going to kick off later.
“After having a couple of drinks I get a taste for it and want to go dancing on the tables and paint the town red or whatever, but you just have to sit there.
“So you get in a slump while you wait two hours in the mixer for them to finish filming and set up the dinner party.”
Booze is monitored – to a degree
While contestants are often seen throwing back the drinks, especially during the wedding scenes – is it all for the camera?
While producers set out a certain amount for certain scenes, once it’s gone, its gone, according to Alexis Economou.
She told OK! magazine: “You either pace yourself or drown yourself… It’s moderated to a certain extent but there’s no major limit as in you can only have one or two.”
But the crafty contestants found a way around that particular rule – sneaking their own alcohol in.
Bob Voysey revealed that initially, producers would just replace empty bottles of wine, but once people started getting “smashed” and having “massive arguments”, they stopped.
However.
He added: “We all thought ‘Sod it, we’re all going to bring our own drink’, sneaking in bottles in handbags.”
Marriages are not legally binding
Unlike the Aussie version of the show, in the UK the weddings aren’t actually legally binding.
So if the couples break up – some would say it’s almost inevitable – they don’t have to go through the drama of a divorce.
Also, rather than get a hefty lump sum or prize money, according to The Tab, contestants got paid what they would in their normal jobs and had to hand over their payslips before they began the show to prove their salary.
Separate cars on wedding night
Despite being newlyweds, each couple has to be transported to their hotel separately.
But Amy explained that it was because producers don’t want the couples getting to know each other off camera and they want “ everything to be organic, but obviously, it’s just awkward”.
Indeed.
No phones
(Image: E4)
Like on most reality shows, contestants’ phones are taken off them while filming so they can’t communicate with the outside world or read what the public is saying about them.
However, on MAFS, since there is up to three months of pre-footage needed, devices are only confiscated just before the show starts.
Alexis revealed: “So prior to going actually into the show, you do a lot of filming about you, your life, and everything else. But from the minute you get in my room, or maybe a couple of days before that, our phones are actually taken away from us.
“Then we’re given a production phone.” What a nightmare!
The dresses
While we see the brides looking stunning in their dresses on the big day, viewers are not privy to how they get them.
Wedding dress shopping is one of the biggest parts of the process, after all. Rather than a leisurely browse over the course of months as is normal, producers send the brides money and give them a week to get something suitable.
Marilyse said she had to ring dress shops in a panic in her area and most of them were closed because of the pandemic. Happily, she found a dress in the end and it happened to be the very first dress she tried on. Hurrah!
Chaperoned walks
Like naughty children, the contestants are supervised – a lot. Bob Voysey recalled that they had to book time slots with producers to go for a stroll.
“It was like you were being taken for a walk like a dog”, he added.
Covid also meant that show bosses were extra cautious about contact and the contestants were tested every few days, as well as being forced into isolation following their honeymoons.
Bob told Grazia: “We managed to find each other’s details and we were talking, but we weren’t allowed to be. And I know most of the couples did that, obviously.”
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
