Happily Ever After? Or Happily Never After? Part One

India.  Pakistan.  Japan.  China. Israel.

What do these countries have in common? Arranged marriages.

And it looks like we might be able to add America to that list soon.

Today I saw the first episode of Married at First Sight, which documents a social experiment testing the hypothesis that it is possible to scientifically find someone's perfect spouse. Basically, super desperate people let four "experts"- a sexologist, psychologist, sociologist, and spiritual adviser- find their soul mates through a series of interviews and questionnaires about sex, family, careers, and religion.

And the couples don't meet until they get married. Legally married.

The first time we hung out- what if we had gotten married that night!?!?

They then have to live together for four weeks, at which point they are given the options to stay married or get a divorce.

Basically, it's a real life eHarmony, except they don't ever date, they skip right to the "I Do!"

At first, I was kind of offended.  The 59.2 million married couples in 2013 and B and I definitely didn't just coast through and have experts just pick someone for us. We did it ourselves. We met, had the awkward phase of "what are we" (actually, no we didn't, we both just jumped in.. And I can honestly say we have never had an awkward time in our relationship!)  We went through ups and downs and even had to be apart for a little bit before we realized that we wanted to be forever.

That's the face of sheer, unadulterated bliss! And extreme emotionalness!

And then I realized, these couples are missing out.  They walk the aisle thinking about what they hope they're getting, not knowing that they're about to get everything they've ever wanted and more.  They have pre-wedding nerves about finding the other person attractive and vice versa instead of pre-wedding euphoria and intense happiness that makes you cry so much your fake lashes come off.  Multiple times.

Then there's the stress.  What do you say in your vows to someone you have never met? It was stressful enough planning a wedding with B there to give his insights, but trying to plan for a stranger must make it almost impossible.  What if your favorite flower is Peony but he's deathly allergic?  That would be a show. They don't know what kind of families they are marrying into, what the other person's secrets are, what annoying habits they have...

I'm curious to follow this series and see if/how things work out with these people. And I hope they do work out- I hope they all find the happiness that comes from being madly in love and knowing that they get to spend the rest of forever with their best friend.

If you want to watch the show, it's on Hulu.  And apparently it comes on Tuesday nights (either at 7:00 or 8:00 central, I'm not entirely sure) on Fyi.

So I might have just wanted to put another wedding picture up.. It's whatevs :)