The wedding season is in full swing on M6. Since March 20, the sixth season of Married at first sight has been broadcast, attracting an average of more than two million witnesses. The opportunity for them to follow the stories of these couples brought together thanks to science and experts Estelle Dossin and Gilbert Bou Jouadé.
Since the first season in 2016, the ceremonies have been celebrated by Yves Vidal, the mayor of Grans, a Provençal village in the south of France. “When the two bride and groom are in front of me, the production films what it sees. But it does not make me redo the scenes”, explained the city councilor to Planet in 2020. “When I celebrate the wedding, I am in an act of civil status, I am not in representation”.
After 5 seasons (including one marked by the pandemic) and a dozen weddings celebrated, the former retired mayor wished to no longer participate in the M6 program. “I did it for five years. It’s good. It put the town forward, but we weren’t going to become the capital either!”, He told our colleagues from Télé-Loisirs, adding. “We had already talked about it in 2020 with the production, but a little late, everything was already planned. There, we talked about it from the end of last season. The production agreed to stop and look elsewhere”.
Since the sixth edition of Married at first sight in 2021, new couples have been uniting abroad. An idea motivated by experts whose mission is to unite singles who have a strong love compatibility. “We tried to renew ourselves so as not to tire people and go even further in the experience. The choice of marriages abroad has a real interest from a psychological point of view”, estimates Virginie Dhers, producer of the show for Studio 89, with Télé-Loisirs.
According to clinical psychologist Estelle Dossin, this change plays an important role with volunteer brides and grooms. “We needed to get our participants out of their comfort zone. It was absolutely necessary to change in order to be able to solicit them in terms of motivation and involvement”. And, for 2 years, the chosen destination has been Gibraltar, a British territory located to the south of the Iberian Peninsula.
However, are these marriages celebrated abroad recognized in our country? “Marriages in Gibraltar are recognized in France. When you get married there, you have a marriage certificate. It’s very easy to transcribe them in France”, assures the production. “The specificity of Gibraltar is that the formalities are quite simple. It has become a place where many foreigners go to get married. In 2021, there were 1488 marriages celebrated there and 90% are strangers”.
Among these marriages, four new stories were born under the eyes of the cameras this year. In the heart of the Alameda Botanical Gardens, in the small Mediterranean town, fans were able to attend the wedding of Jeff and Pedro, the first homosexual couple on the show. Before seeing the next unions on M6, Planet invites you to discover the most beautiful photos of Gibraltar in our slideshow.
