Love is Blind: How long do the couples know each other before getting married?

In the Netflix dating series Love is Blind, contestants only have a few weeks before they say ‘I do’

The season two finale of Love is Blind dropped on Netflix on Friday, 25 February. Of the six couples that got engaged on the show, five of them made their way to the altar. But not all of them lived happily ever after.

The popular reality dating series debuted on the streaming platform in 2020, and returned for its second season on 11 February this year. The social experiment involves 30 single men and women going on several blind dates in the hopes of finding a lasting love connection, all without seeing each other in person. The couples are tasked with getting engaged not based on appearances, but based on emotional and intellectual connection.

In order to make this experiment successful, the contestants must get to know each other from behind a wall, in what the show calls “pods”. Once engaged in the pods, the couples meet face-to-face for the first time. From there, the engaged couples go on a retreat in Mexico, where they get to know each other further. As they return home, the couples share an apartment together before saying “I do”. It’s a lot, and it only happens in a matter of weeks.

The entire season takes about 38 days to film. According to the show’s creator, Chris Coelen, contestants have only ten days to find their future partner in the pods. In the beginning, time spent during dates in the pods is strict, and only lasts about 15 minutes. As the week goes on, contestants can stretch dates longer, especially if they’re really serious about a person. That’s around 20 dates in total, but for them, it’s more like ten days of “24/7 intensive therapy”.

“They talk about the deepest things in every possible way about every conceivable subject. They’re trying to identify every single thing that might be important to talk about before they choose to marry someone,” Coelen told Netflix Tudum. “After the fact, people have said they know — not just the person they’re engaged to, but multiple people — better than they’ve ever known anyone else. Better than they know their parents. Their siblings. It’s insane. They really do fall in love.”

Once engaged, the couples have 28 days after they meet to decide if they want to get married. The pre-honeymoon vacation in Cancún, Mexico allows contestants to deepen their connection, and even reveals some red flags about their partner. Love is Blind spends two to three episodes in Mexico before the couples return home to their cities, this time in Chicago.

In the shared apartment, the engaged couples can see what living together will be like once they’re married. It also provides a common ground for the cast members to meet up with each other for bonfires, beach dates, and bachelor and bachelorette parties. Throughout their time in the pods and on vacation, phones were confiscated so contestants were unable to contact anyone outside of the experiment. As they return home, they can finally share their surprise engagement with friends and family.

As their wedding day approaches, many of the couples feel anxiety or uncertainty about getting married. All of the couples go on a final date before the wedding as a last opportunity to voice their doubts and fears about the relationship.

The tenth and final episode of the season culminates with a wedding ceremony for the remaining engaged couples — yes, some barely made it outside of Mexico before breaking up. As the brides walk down the aisle to meet their grooms, many decide right at the altar if this person is their soulmate.

In the season two finale of Love is Blind, only two couples were married while the rest were rejected by their partner at the altar. The social experiment proved that love is truly blind for some couples, even if they only knew each other for 38 days.