Mormon Bachelorette

The Mormon Bachelorette is an online reality show created by Aubrey Messick Laidlaw and a group of friends in August 2009. It's a spin on ABC's reality bachelor shows, but with only Mormons (members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) participating. Instead of cocktails, the participants enjoy "mocktails," since members of the LDS Church do not drink. The end result of the contest could be an eternal marriage.

In the reality series, a woman is set up on a series of elaborate dates. Done the Mormon way, the bachelors each plan and pay for their own date with the selected bachelorette. The 2011 season recruited 22 competing bachelors.

Whoever is selected to be the new Mormon bachelorette will follow in the footsteps of Aubrey and the more recent first Mormon bachelor, Rick Buck, who started out as one of Aubrey’s dates. For the second go around, Rick impressed the producers with his video showcasing himself in classic Hollywood films and landed a season of his own. Rick and his chosen bachelorette, Melanie Carney, are still dating, according to an April 14 post on the site. And Aubrey married her chosen bachelor on March 19, 2011, in the Los Angeles California Temple. [1]

On May 23, 2011, online voting began for who would be selected for 2011's ultimate Mormon-matchmaking experience. Producers still had the final say about which girl was chosen, but fan favorites were a major factor in the selection process. That girl then went on 22 first dates and selected her top seven for second dates, plus one bachelor chosen by internet viewers. After those eight dates, she gave out one final rose to the guy she most wanted to continue dating.

Clips from each of the bachelorette’s dates will be posted to the website, along with her summary of each date, so anyone can follow along. The website is themormonbachelorette.com.