Thinking about hiring Laurie Berzack & Carolinas Matchmaker to find your ideal partner?
Learning more about the service before investing your time and money is a savvy move. After all, it’s a commitment with your love life on the line! You want to make sure you’re hiring the right service.
This Carolinas Matchmaker review has all the details you’re looking for, from cost and client reviews to their matchmaking process and what to expect if you sign up!
Let’s start by meeting the matchmaker!
Laurie Berzack: The Face Behind Carolinas Matchmaker
Laurie Berzack is a matchmaker and dating coach who founded Chai Expectations in 2006, a service for Jewish singles.
In 2012, Chai Expectations rebranded as Carolinas Matchmaker, expanding Berzack’s matchmaking services to include singles of all faiths seeking serious, long-term relationships.
As Berzack explained to the Charlotte Observer,
“I’m essentially a recruiter, a consultant and a coach…I ask, ‘What does this person want, and how can I help them get it?’”
The Carolinas Matchmaker Process
A boutique matchmaker, Berzack and her team keep the client list small and exclusive.
In an interview, she explained that “The people who hire me are very socially adept. They need to be at a certain level of readiness to be in a relationship. The people who come to me and say, ‘This is going to work,’ that energy is so positive, it brings success.“
As she told the Charlotte Observer, demand during the pandemic increased the number of Carolinas Matchmaker clients to the highest it’s ever been – 20 matchmaking clients and 8 online dating coaching clients.
She primarily provides matchmaking services for singles of all ages across both North and South Carolina, including Raleigh, Durham, Charlotte, Winston Salem, Charleston, Hilton Head, Asheville and Wilmington.
Berzack also takes on clients from around the US, and can conduct a nationwide search.
What To Expect From Carolinas Matchmaker
Clients can choose to be listed in the Carolinas Matchmaker database of eligible singles for free. But that is a passive program, meaning you’re only considered if you happen to match what a paying client considers to be an ideal match.
Hiring Laurie Berzack as your matchmaker costs around $15,000 to $25,000+, with the details customized to your needs and goals. The contract typically lasts for a year.
The process starts by filling out a short online form.
You’ll then be contacted to set up an initial consultation, where you’ll talk about everything from your dating goals and obstacles to who you envision as your perfect partner.
Berzack uses your criteria to pull compatible matches from her database. She’ll then interview each one before presenting them to you as a proposed match.
Her staff arranges the first date, and they also provide any coaching you may need to feel confident about it beforehand.
After the initial introduction, you can give (and get) post-date feedback. If you’re interested in seeing your match again, you take the reins and set up the next date.
If not, your matchmaker communicates that to the match and gets started on finding the next one.
One thing to note about Berzack’s approach to matchmaking: she won’t show you any photos or provide your match’s last name. That’s so you’ll give each match “a fair shot” and not google them beforehand.
Carolinas Matchmaker Events
Clients can also attend events sponsored by Berzack and her team, and she even developed a program that combines meetups w/ philanthropic causes. Or, as she calls it, Philanthrodating.™
The singles who attend are typically in their 20s and 30s. They connect over shared interests in charity, community-mindedness and humanitarianism. To date, the events have raised more than $20,000 for local nonprofits.
For older daters, she hosts period events for singles in their 40s and 50s.
Laurie Berzack & Carolinas Matchmaker Reviews
Laurie Berzack has gotten a lot of positive press coverage, especially by local outlets in the Carolinas. But what do past clients have to say about their experience with her matchmaking service?
On Google, Carolinas Matchmaker has a 4/5 star rating.
Two of the 5-star reviews were happy with the coaching and support they received:
The other two Google reviews for Carolinas Matchmaker & Laurie Berzack were a 5-star and a 1-star, but had no details listed.
There are no recommended reviews or ratings on Yelp for Carolina’s Matchmaker, nor is it listed on the BBB’s website.
Is Carolinas Matchmaker The Best Service For You?
Berzack has been in business for over a decade, so a lack of online reviews isn’t a bad sign given people tend to leave a negative review faster than they’ll take the time to pen a positive one.
So without many client reviews to go on, you’ll want to consider aspects of her service. For instance, how do you feel about long-term contracts, and how much does physical attraction factor into your ideal partner search?
Berzack doesn’t provide photos. While it’s true you’ll be walking into your date with an open mind about appearance, some people would rather confirm they’re physically attracted to a match before investing emotionally and financially in a first date.
If that’s important to you, you may want to add VIDA Select to your list of potential matchmaking services.
With VIDA, you’ll also be working with an elite matchmaking team. And you’ll review full profiles, including photos, of every potential match. You only approve the ones you’d like to meet!
Most importantly, there are no long-term contracts. VIDA is flexible when it comes to pausing or stopping your service for any reason, at any time. So you aren’t paying for extra time upfront.
VIDA’s average client finds someone special within the first three months. Why not become our next success story?
