Matchmakers Are Busy, But Worried

There was a time, some two decades ago, when matchmakers worried online dating would put them out of business. Back then, one-to-one boutique matchmaking was a niche profession. “People had no idea what it was,” Lisa Clampitt, a matchmaker and founder of the Global Love Institute, a matchmaking school, told me. “They said, like, ‘Oh, you work in a match factory?’” So, as sites like Match.com and eHarmony emerged, it seemed inevitable that they would snuff out the fledgling industry. That idea seems laughable now. Hard figures are difficult to come by, but the number of matchmakers registered in the Global Love Institute’s database has grown from about 1,000 just six years ago to over 10,000 today. And they go far beyond religious communities; of the more than a dozen matchmakers I consulted for this piece, most catered to singles of any faith (or lack thereof), with niches ranging from industry...