SNOQUALMIE, Wash. — The big day is finally here for "Love Is Blind" fans.
The Seattle-based season of Netflix' hit reality show aired its wedding episode on Friday, giving closure to fans eagerly awaiting its climatic conclusion.
The weddings were held at North Fork Farms in Snoqualmie, Washington, a venue nestled just three miles away from Snoqualmie Falls and provide Mount Si as a stunning backdrop.
We spoke to North Fork Farms venue director Cheyenne Littlejohn-Fay and venue manager Ginnett Durham before the latest episode was released on Netflix to talk about their experience hosting the much-anticipated weddings.
What was the process of being chosen as the venue for the Love Is Blind weddings? Did the show reach out?
Littlejohn-Fay: "They reached out to me via email and originally I thought it was a scam so I kind of ignored it and thought, 'yeah right.' And then they email me again and called me. Then the (Love Is Blind) people came out to visit."
When did the weddings happen?
Littlejohn-Fay: "Last April. It was the rainiest week ever. It was so wet."
Did you know anything about the show beforehand? Were you a fan of Love Is Blind?
Littlejohn-Fay: "We had all heard about it, but we had never watched it."
What did the producers of the show want in the weddings? Were they really specific and hands-on?
Littlejohn-Fay: "They took over. They had their designers and all that. The one cool thing is that they went with all of our preferred vendors. All of the vendors were local and from the community. Definitely, at least five of our vendors helped with the weddings."
Durham: "It generated a lot of business and work for community members."
How was hosting the Love Is Blind weddings different from a typical wedding? Take me through the entire day juggling all the weddings for the show. What was it like?
Durham: "Our typical weddings are done inside the building and outside the patio. But their weddings were done inside their tent which was done extraordinarily. Each wedding had its own theme and they had their own decorators and designers out there. Our typical weddings are about 125 people and our facility was filled with producers and guests and wedding party attendees -- it was big. There was a large difference."
Were the weddings all held on the same day?
Durham: "They were spaced out (over several days). You could tell they were filming. They were using different kinds of drones and different angles on our facility."
Littlejohn-Fay: "They would do the swap at night, like once one wedding was done it was beginning to tear everything down. It's time to swap. The next day was a completely different wedding theme."
Was it stressful making all of the weddings happen?
Durham: "It was a blast. They were really a lot of fun to work with. Netflix was very professional and they treated our facilities with the utmost respect. You could tell their crew had a good time."
What was the most enjoyable part of hosting the weddings?
Durham: "I enjoyed the production, like seeing such a big production and so many screens, cameras and lifts."
Littlejohn-Fay: "I thought it was cool that each wedding was so different. The overturn, when one wedding was done, it was instantly a whole different wedding."
What was the structure of wedding week? Was each wedding back-to-back-to-back?
Littlejohn-Fay: "They had the wedding venue for seven days. It was one (wedding) after another."
How big was each individual "Love Is Blind" wedding?"
Durham: "No more than 50 people. Sometimes less."
How's it like seeing the venue you work for featured on one of Netflix' biggest shows in the country?
Littlejohn-Fay: "It's wild. So it's my family that owns the venue and I'm the venue director so we've had our blood, sweat and tears in the building. So to see it on a major TV show just feels unreal. We have the kids' handprints on the concrete. So much of our family is out there and to see it out there on TV it's crazy. It feels really good. Ginnett is tearing up right now."
Durham: "To see the snippets of our blood, sweat and tears being portrayed as the elegant facility that it is to have a wedding, it's beautiful. It's jaw-dropping."
What about North Fork Farms made it appealing to "Love Is Blind" to host the weddings? What makes it special?
Littlejohn-Fay: "I think one of the first things they (Love Is Blind) said when they came out is, 'When we think of Seattle this is what we think of. We think of the mountains and the green. This is it.'"
Durham: "And our facility is based on a fourth-generation logging family. That really spoke to a lot of them, with the character of the building. The facility is the Northwest. I think they got that vibe out here."
Are you watching "Love Is Blind" now?
Littlejohn-Fay: "I am anxiously waiting. I'm like, 'Who got married? Did he say yes?' I'm so invested in this show now and especially since it's here. I need to know who said yes."
Wait, so you don't know who said yes at the weddings yet?
Littlejohn-Fay: "Oh no (laughs)."
Was the anticipation killing you, keeping this news under wraps for so long?
Littlejohn-Fay: "I Googled all the time, 'When does Season 4 air?' I was very on edge. I would see people posting about Season 4 being in Seattle and I would be thinking, 'I know where it is. I know where it is filmed!'"
How much do you think this experience will help North Fork Farms in the future?
Durham: "(North Fark Farms) offers so much to the community. We have car shows, memorials, birthday parties, baby showers. It's a really great place. We opened at the beginning of COVID-19, so you could imagine we were really slow for a while. Then Netflix (is here) and now we are seeing people gather again. It's super exciting."