For years dating services have been seen as a daggy last resort, used by those who have given up on meeting people in real life.
Thanks to Tinder, dating services have surged in popularity, and the RSVP and E-Harmony's of the online dating world have become increasingly acceptable.
However, the move online is hardly leaving traditional matchmaking in the dark ages.
In fact, old-school, face-to-face matchmaking is still doing well, and not just for the matchmakers: their customers are doing well out of it too.
Mel met her husband and father of their baby daughter, Bruce, through a traditional matchmaker.
Ellouise is just nine months old, and the first child for both Mel and Bruce.
While she clearly loves life as a new mother, Mel wasn't always sure she'd get here.
"I've been married before; I was with my first husband for nine years and we were married for four," Mel says. When they split in 2008, Mel threw herself into serious dating.
"I tried internet dating, meeting people through friends, hooking up with old acquaintances. It got to point where guys were happy to have fun but they weren't really committing," she says.
She always wanted to have children, and being well on her way to 30 made her aware her biological clock was ticking.
"I got serious. I did what everyone said; I looked approachable at the supermarket, I went to parties, I really did spend a couple of years on the dating scene," says Mel, who is now 32.
"I was out there, giving it a go, and I was actually dating with the intention of finding someone I could marry and have kids with."
So after about three years of dating, Mel decided to give up conventional dating and give matchmaking a go.
"One day I was listening to the radio and this ad for Ideal Introductions came on, so I looked up the website, contacted them and had a chat on the phone, and then made my way into the office," she says.
Linda Prescott, founder of Ideal Introductions, says the process of joining a matchmaking agency is quite selective.
"We chat on the phone first and if we don't like sound of someone, we don't invite them in; we knock back about 40 per cent of people who enquire," says Prescott, who has been a matchmaker for more than 20 years.
Elite Introductions founder Trudy Gilbert says her company is extremely selective as well, catering to business professionals, millionaires, actors, and models.
"I won't take on anyone who smokes, and I don't take on anyone I don't like; if I'm going to be their advocate, I've got to like them as a person," she says.
If a potential client like Mel passes the phone interview, the next stage is to go into the matchmaker's office for a face-to-face interview to talk about her likes and preferences, giving the matchmaker a feel for what she is after in a match.
Gilbert says that, after the interview, she already has a hunch about which clients would be compatible with someone like Mel.
Two compatible clients will get a call from the agency, to tell them everything about their potential date. If they're both interested, the clients talk to each other on the phone to see if they want to arrange a date.
When Mel first spoke to Bruce one Thursday evening, she says they instantly hit it off.
"I thought, he seems friendly and interesting, seems to read a lot, so we chatted and made a date for the Sunday," Mel says.
They arranged to have a lunch date, and met in the local park.
Bruce and Mel talked so much they walked the length of the street three times before deciding on a restaurant. Then they decided to go bowling, and ended up spending most of the day together.
"We spent over five hours together but when I got home and saw my aunty I said, 'I don't think he likes me'," Mel says. "But I heard from him before I heard from the agency. We spoke on the phone that night and I said I would be happy to see him again and wrangled him for date two."
Prescott says matchmaking is still popular because the calibre of matches is so much better, compared with online dating.
Fewer people use traditional matchmaking – Ideal Introductions and Elite Introductions have about 1000 active users between them – but both local companies say business is booming.
"We are just getting busier and busier," Prescott says. Her company has expanded its client file base by 50 per cent in the past three years.
She says one benefit she offers her clients is that they do not choose potential dates based on appearance; in fact, her clients don't get to see a photograph of their potential date before they meet them in real life.
"We match with our heads not our hearts, and we match on compatibility. If you don't have that, then you don't have anything." Prescott says.
Gilbert, who has worked as a matchmaker for nine years, says face-to-face matchmaking is successful because people go to her looking for something serious.
"They don't come in and pay me to play," she says. "Those who come to me have a strong desire to have a long-term relationship.
"You can have success online but it's really pot luck. Where do you start? How do you weed out the unsuitable responses? Wouldn't you rather pay someone to do all that hard work for you?"
Using a professional matchmaker is not cheap – you can pay anywhere from $900 to $5000 for their services, depending on the company and membership level – but Gilbert says it's a worthwhile investment.
"With me it's effective and efficient. What's the opportunity cost of doing it yourself? You might even choose badly for yourself; you could just keep meeting the same kind of people.
"We're used to outsourcing in business, IT, nannies, personal trainers and marketing, so why not use a matchmaker in your personal life?" she asks.
And it seems to work. Seventy per cent of Prescott's clients have ended up in relationships, and both she and Gilbert have celebrated hundreds of weddings with clients.
Mel and Bruce are a matchmaking success story, and they have done plenty together since their first date in September 2011. They moved in together in February the next year, got engaged two months after that, got married in April 2013, and had a baby.
Mel says their relationship has worked because they were both honest right from the start.
"I was me from the start and he knew exactly what he was getting," Mel says. "He's a wonderful partner and a fantastic dad.
"The dating agencies may not get it right with every person, but if you don't try, you're not going to find anything."
