Love Is Blind Makes The Most Of Its Filming Locations

The latest Netflix reality show opens with shots of 20 and 30-something year olds riding in limos gazing up at the sky. In their voiceovers, they each say how excited they are to get married after failed attempts at finding their forever loves. By the end of the first batch of episodes (Netflix is slowly releasing them over a three-week period), 12 of these singles will become engaged to each other without seeing each other first. That's why it's called Love Is Blind.

Yes, Netflix actually found a group of people who were willing to go on a dating show and accept a proposal after speaking to someone in a separate room, connected by an opaque screen, for only a few hours each day. You might be wondering where Netflix found such willing and optimistic contestants.

Well, the answer to the where-did-they-find-these-folks question is Atlanta, Georgia, which is also where most of the Love Is Blind experiment is filmed.

For the first few episodes of Love Is Blind, the women and men are separated and only communicate when they are in the “pods.” It’s kind of like speed dating except the contestants can only hear each other. These pods and the separate living quarters where the male and female contestants stay for about 10 days are built on a soundstage. When the outside of the building is shone, there is lush shrubby and a glossy driveway, so these producers definitely watch The Bachelor. But hosts Nick and Vanessa Lachey never say where exactly the contestants are briefly living and interacting with each other but Netflix has confirmed to Refinery29 that everything, including the soundstage where the pods are built, is in Atlanta. Well, everything except for one location...

After the six couples get engaged, they travel to Cancun, Mexico for a mini, pre-honeymoon trip. Technically, the resort from Love is Blind, the Grand Velas, is in Playa Del Carmen, but close enough. At the resort, they still don’t have their phones, so they solely focus on developing a physical relationship and furthering the emotional connection they established in the pods. Although they are technically in the real world, they aren’t surrounded by friends and family. The vacation in Cancun allows them to still live in a bubble, testing out their relationship before they have to discuss serious issues. 

The contestants all return to Atlanta where they have homes and where some of their family and friends live. All the couples move into the same Atlanta apartment complex, which appears to be Spectrum on Spring. At the time of filming, it appeared to be empty aside from the couples, providing a neutral place to live before visiting each other’s homes. That tracks since Spectrum only recently opened and Love is Blind filmed in 2018.

The apartment building also gives the couples have the chance to interact with each other to compare their relationships and discuss their problems. They aren't trapped in the building, Big Brother style though. They go on dates, visit with friends, and see what a relationship would be like if they were to get married, all while hosts Nick and Vanessa Lachey remind them that their weddings are only a few weeks away.

The contestants go to the same Atlanta stores to buy their wedding gowns and tuxedos (at CTO Bridal and Guffrey's of Atlanta, respectively) and they have their bachelor and bachelorette parties together. They also have their weddings at one location, an event space called Flourish Atlanta, with what appears to be near identical wedding decor.

Atlanta might not seem like the first place to film a dating series, but it makes a lot of sense. Since the contestants on this show signed up to possibly get engaged to someone they have never seen, the likelihood that they stay together increases if they are at least engaged to someone who lives in the same city. It takes away at least one concern from the newly engaged couples.

But if the show is renewed for a second season, another city could really switch things up. If they keep finding people to go on The Bachelor, there have to be more people who would willingly sign up for Love Is Blind, too.