Meeting Your Match

Ever since I interviewed matchmaker Karlie Girouard last year, I’d been curious about the process. How does she make love connections? Is she just a really good guesser? I know she has a good track record, and that her luck in matching friends who ended up getting married (there were several) inspired her to open It’s Right, her matchmaking service.

When this story came around, I chose to be matched, simply because of that curiosity. It was also good timing. At the same time I approached Karlie about being in the issue, she approached me, telling me that she had someone in mind for me to meet and that she’d like to offer me a free match.

I met her in December at her East Greenwich office (the service is statewide) and we had a lengthy first meeting. She explained the process to me: it involves a background check and some pretty firm rules about how the dates should go, which, for people who have difficulty dating, is a good thing. Then she had me take a personality quiz and did an extensive verbal interview, wherein I told her everything from tiny details like my favorite restaurant to my big picture goals, like whether I wanted kids and where I wanted my career to end up in the long run.

After our conversation, she told me that the guy for whom she’d contacted me wasn’t going to be a match – one of my deal breakers is cats (I’m allergic), and he had two (plus, it’s creepy). But, she said, she had someone she thought would be a match for me. After my background check (it turns out I’m not a serial killer after all), she called me and told me all about the guy. When I said yes, she called him and told him all about me. After that, we saw pictures of each other, and when we liked what we saw, Karlie gave him my phone number. The first time we talked it was like we had already gotten all of the awkward getting- to-know-you out of the way. Things got complicated with our schedules, and we haven’t been on a date yet – but I’ll admit that having Karlie do all of the hard work was pretty nice, and very easy. The next time I’m feeling frustrated in love, I’m definitely giving her a call.