When we watch the series Matchmakers, we say to ourselves that the life of a wedding planner is really incredible! The bride wants to change her dress a month before the ceremony? The place where the wedding was to be held has closed its doors? The priest reserved the same date at the same time in the same church for two couples at the same time? Welcome to the daily life of Marilyn Mahotières, Valérie Bigras and Andrée-Anne Tessier.
In the documentary series Matchmakers, offered on the Vrai platform, we follow, for ten episodes, these three wedding planners in their daily life, which sometimes involves an obstacle course. 100 chairs missing for the next day? No problem ! The bride and groom want to arrive by helicopter? We will manage.
Throughout the episodes, we notice that there are women who have always dreamed of their marriage and who have an extremely precise idea of how the day will unfold. Some brides and grooms have astronomical budgets and don’t mind spending a fortune on a 13-tier cake that’s 6 feet tall, or have over $15,000 budget just in bloom! We are not in an American series, but in Quebec, in the heart of the wedding season of summer 2022.
We are here to make the dreams of the newlyweds come true, it’s once in your life. It’s your wedding and we want it to go the way you imagined.
Marilyn Mahotières, wedding planner
“A 6 foot cake, why not, if that’s your dream?” I’m not here to judge! There are couples who have the means, who go all out, who have worked hard all their lives to make this day look like a fairy tale, ”explains in an interview Marilyn Mahotières, who has organized more than 500 weddings in 17 years. career, including his own, where there were 500 guests.
The full range of emotions
“Each wedding is unique, we want this day to be wonderful, we listen to the bride and groom. The couple goes through all sorts of emotions while preparing for their wedding. There can be tensions in the face of compromises to be made, we are there to support him and we experience shivers when the ceremony begins. At each wedding, I always have tears in my eye, and even more so when I was pregnant! “says Andrée-Anne Tessier, who has been organizing weddings for a few years and who gave birth to a little girl a little over five weeks ago.
“I see family bickering, in-laws not getting along with the bride, the groom arguing with the mother-in-law, or the rivalry between the two families. I see that quite often, ”admits Marilyn Mahotières. His worst memory? A groom who does not show up at his wedding. It happened to him in his early days. “The bride waited, she was in the limo since she is always the last to enter the ceremony, but the groom never showed up. The marriage was annulled. It doesn’t happen often, fortunately, but it’s terrible. The bride was in tears and the groom had literally disappeared, he was not answering the phone, he had evaporated! »
She also experienced a deluge, in the middle of July, when, all of a sudden, a power failure occurred. “We were all plunged into darkness, there was a generator for the kitchen, but that was not enough. There was no more music, there was panic. We had to stop everything and the guests left the place, around 8:30 p.m., it was terrible, ”she explains.
What qualities do you need to be a good wedding planner?
[Il faut] be very organized, passionate, rigorous, resourceful, because so many things can happen. Being able to adapt to any eventuality, such as wedding rings that disappear just before the ceremony or a wedding dress that can no longer be found.
Andrée-Anne Tessier, wedding planner
“Attention to detail, to be creative, to find solutions to the many unforeseen events, and to have empathy, because we work a lot in emotions,” replies Marilyn Mahotières.
After two years of pandemic, the year 2022 was particularly busy and marked the return of weddings in Quebec. “It was almost impossible to manage, the newlyweds were extremely demanding, because they had been waiting for two years to get married. They were all feverish. The suppliers were short of manpower and materials, we had to reorganize a lot of things, really, it was a very big challenge. I had 52 weddings between May and September and I have a last wedding on December 30, because some couples wanted to get married this year, but everything was sold out, so had to get married in the winter! », says Marilyn Mahotières.
“We did almost three years in one! I have planned around twenty weddings, and 2023 promises to be busy too, ”concludes Andrée-Anne Tessier.
Series Matchmakers is offered on the Vrai platform.