Married at First Sight couple Nicole and Christopher had the same concern going into their wedding sight unseen. Ahead of Married at First Sight‘s return to Nashville for its 16th season Wednesday, the couple paired by the MAFS experts opened up to PopCulture.com about their biggest worry heading into their first meeting at the altar, as well as what they learned during their time on the Lifetime marriage experiment show.ย
With a global pandemic making dating in a new city almost impossible, Nicole decided to put her faith in the Married at First Sight experts to find her a partner, and she was paired with Christopher, whose search for a real connection and “loving dog mom” to his two dogs Kobe and Kodah was not going how he would hope.ย
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There was no avoiding wedding day jitters for both Nicole and Christopher, who both told PopCulture they were worried about finding each other attractive as they said their ‘I dos.’ “[My biggest concern was] that I won’t be attracted to my husband or he won’t be attracted to me,” Nicole revealed. “I truly believe that attraction can grow and there is so much more to a spouse and marriage than attraction, but I know it would be so much harder to want to get to know a stranger if we were immediately not interested in each other based on our first look.”
Christopher agreed, “My biggest concern [was] honestly attraction. Am I going to be attracted to her and is she going to be attracted to me? Looks are not everything, but attraction is very important in making any relationship work so that’s obviously the biggest concern.”ย
While Nicole and Christopher can’t reveal just yet if they decided to stay married or get a divorce on Decision Day, both noted they learned big lessons about communication during the early days of their marriage, with Nicole saying she now knows “to always communicate how you’re feeling, even if it’s hard to say.”
“Even if you know someone inside and out, it’s not fair to expect them to read your mind or know how you’re feeling if you don’t tell them,” she shared. “If they don’t know how you’re feeling then they can’t adjust their behavior or work through any issues you might be having. …Feeling comfortable communicating helped me navigate marriage with a stranger by creating an environment where no games were being played and we were able to get on the same page about things much quicker than we would have if we kept things to ourselves.”
Christopher agreed he learned “just how important communication is to make sure you are always being transparent with how you are feeling and what you are going through,” admitting he wished he had been able to communicate his own needs a bit more strongly throughout his experience.
“If I could do it all over again, I would make sure that I had more conviction in my opinions,” he confessed. “There were a couple times throughout the season where Nicole wanted to do things that I didn’t and I just went along with it.I think it is important to not always just do things just to make your spouse happy as you need to make sure you are not sacrificing how you feel about something.Compromise is key but if you have a definite opinion about something don’t be afraid to voice it.” Married at First Sight (produced by Kinetic Content) returns with a brand new season on Jan. 4 at 8 p.m. ET.