Five stages, one matchmaker, no public profile at any point

Forty-five minutes with a matchmaker, by telephone, video or in person. You describe the person you are looking for and the life you want alongside them; we ask what has not worked and why you think that is. At the end we tell you plainly whether the practice can help. Some consultations end with us saying no, and we would rather that than take a fee we cannot earn. Nothing is charged, no payment details are taken and no file is opened unless you ask for one.

• Format Call or in person
• Cost No charge
• Payment details Never requested

A short written application confirming that you are eighteen years or older and legally free to marry or partner — single, divorced with a final decree, widowed, or legally separated with the filing complete. Both confirmations are made by tick, in your own hand, and they are not buried in a terms document. The practice does not accept every applicant. Those we cannot help are told directly, usually within five days, and where we know a firm better suited to the search we name it.

• Confirms Age 18+
• Status Legally free to marry
• Decided by A matchmaker

The long conversation. Ninety minutes, in person wherever geography allows, with the matchmaker who will carry your file for the whole term. There is no questionnaire and no compatibility score, because neither has ever told us anything that ninety minutes of proper questions did not tell us better. In parallel, a licensed consumer reporting agency verifies your identity, your employment or business ownership and your marital status, and runs county, state and federal criminal conviction searches. Nothing is arranged until verification is complete.

• Checks Photo ID and employment
• Records County, state and federal
• Repeated At renewal

One introduction at a time. Before each one your matchmaker calls to explain who the person is, why the practice believes it is worth your evening and what the two of you are likely to disagree about. You always have at least seventy-two hours to decline, and declining costs you nothing and changes nothing. Neither party receives the other file, and no photograph is exchanged unless both people ask for it. Venues are chosen for privacy rather than for show.

• Cadence One at a time
• Notice 72 hours
• Files Never exchanged

A twenty-minute call after every meeting, usually the following day. It is the most useful conversation in the whole process and it is also the most private: what you say is used to sharpen the search and is never repeated to the other party, in any form, at any point, including as a general impression. Every third debrief your matchmaker rewrites the brief with you, because what people say they want in month one and what they respond to in month five are rarely identical.

• Format 20-minute call
• Notes Never shared
• Brief Rewritten quarterly