Mid-Week Mugging is a series of features by BayToday. Each Wednesday, we will run a profile on a local business or organization that will be "mugged" with BayToday coffee cups. The subjects will then "mug" for our camera and we will tell a little bit about their story.
"We're taking all the work associated with dating and doing it for them. We're matching qualities based on what our clients are looking for out of a partner," explains Lynn Larondeau, co-owner of New Beginnings Matchmaking, a local labour of love that assures, "We do all the work. You have all the fun!"
Describing one another's true strengths, as they often must do with their matchmaking clients, Adale Boudreau describes Lynn as "the romantic," while Lynn says her friend and business partner is "the realist."
Drawing from their own quite different personal dating experiences, one married in her forties, while the other entered the dating scene after a lengthy relationship ended, the two women have put their many skills, from marketing to entrepreneurship, to life coaching, to effective use in forming New Beginnings Matchmaking.
If your attempts to get back into the dating world have left you with a frosty demeanour and your heart a tad cold (similar to Jack's from Titanic), it could be time to try something new. If you are single and ready to mingle, what better venue than the Chief Commanda II? Few environments lead to striking up meaningful conversations between available adults than a sunset cruise and, short of abandoning ship, nowhere else to be.
"It's an opportunity to mingle," said the team, again finishing each other's sentences. "This can open up your circle. No matter how many friends you have, it's still that circle. There are so many other people out there that you've never met.
"The Singles Cruise, and the other events that we host should be seen as an opportunity we are offering to meet other singles. We had a bowling night a couple of months ago, and we have a couple who met there and started dating," Adale continued. "Plus, we had a woman who met one of our male clients, and it turned out her mother was perfect for him. You're not always going to meet your partner, but you might meet somebody who thinks you'd be perfect for their brother or sister."
The date-finding duo has focused their energy and considerable positivity into the Singles Cruise, and they are billing the event as "the hottest night of the year." The cruise will be hosted on the Chief Commanda II from 7 pm -10 pm, Saturday. Singles are encouraged to bring friends and couples are welcome as wingmen/wingwomen. The singles will wear glow-in-the-dark wristbands, while the other guests will be marked by different as wristbands as taken. The event promises to be less like Titanic and a shade closer to the Love Boat.
Adale points out that "people who are single and might not have a huge circle of friends, or all their friends are married, they feel uncomfortable to come to an event by themselves. They all want to find a partner but are afraid to put themselves out there. That's what we want people to realize, that your friends can come with you and kind of be your support system."
A "Tap Takeover" showcasing fine craft products from New Ontario Brewing will flow throughout the three-hour tour, while Blue Screw will perform and provide the soundtrack to the night as connections are made. Also, participants will have a chance to win a Michael Hill jewellery piece, valued at over $600. Upon returning to port, the after-party will keep going well into the night as the venue switches to The Boat Going Nowhere.
Tickets, $35 each, are available at the Chief Commanda II box office, which is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day leading up to the Singles Cruise.
Being available, to Adale and Lynn, means more than being single, although that is also a prerequisite for using their services. For their clients, it is imperative that they are emotionally prepared to enter back into a romantic relationship.
The two agree that their personal touches set their venture apart from online dating sites. "The swipe left, swipe right mentality," that online dating has created, where "if that picture doesn't do it for you, you move on to the next one. It's so superficial," says Lynn, adding that New Beginnings clients are ready for a "serious, committed relationship and are looking for life partners to have monogamous relationships with."
All members of New Beginnings are screened through in-depth conversations about their goals and expectations, as well as personality testing. The two say they have turned down clients in the past because the potential clients were still getting over previous relationships and were not ready yet to take advantage of their services.
According to Titanic's love theme, "My Heart Will Go On," but it has got to be hard to get the blood pumping when one partner in the relationship is bobbing in water with a temperature below the freezing mark. Jack did the chivalrous thing and it cost him his life. Maybe he knew they could never make a go of it off of that ship. But, seriously, Rose, how much space on that floating debris did you truly need to blow that whistle?
One of the best parts about the Singles Cruise on Lake Nipissing? No icebergs, guaranteed.
MythBusters video courtesy of the Science Channel via YouTube
