Mass Match: Lanie Delphin Runs a Private, Affordable Dating Service in Western Massachusetts

The Short Version: Lanie Delphin is a down-to-earth matchmaker with 15 years of experience helping clients find love. She started Mass Match, a private dating service in Western Massachusetts, to bring a personalized touch to the matchmaking business. She meets one on one with her clients and relies on her intuition to recommend date prospects. Over the years, thousands of singles of all orientations, ages, and backgrounds have come to her for assistance and benefited from her time-tested dating advice. Lanie prides herself on offering uniquely affordable services for the everyday dater seeking a long-term relationship. If you’re ready to date for keeps, Mass Match can connect you with compatible individuals in a network of single professionals in Western Massachusetts and neighboring communities.

One day, a spirited and educated young woman made an appointment with matchmaker Lanie Delphin. She felt like she was at a loss in the dating world, so she had a lot of respect for matchmaking as a profession. “I don’t know how you do it,” she said as soon as she met Lanie in person. “This must be so much work.”

Lanie had to laugh. It is work, but she loves having such a meaningful impact on a person’s life. And she’s got a knack for it. In a relatively short time span, she watched the young woman in her office go from frustrated single to happily married mother. “It really is hard to have everybody’s happiness on your shoulders,” Lanie reflected, “when you can only do what you can do. But, for me, it’s really been a labor of love.”

Lanie Delphin runs Mass Match, a local matchmaking business, with the support of her husband, Bud Delphin.

Sometimes dating is too much work for singles to do on their own, and that’s when they call on a matchmaker like Lanie. Since 2002, Lanie has run Mass Match as a one-woman operation in Massachusetts, providing straightforward dating services with a personal touch. She draws upon her 15 years of experience and human intuition to suggest compatible dates for her clients.

Lanie met her husband through a national dating service in 1999, so she knows how important a matchmaker’s work can be. She had to borrow $1,500 from her mom to join the service, which she said she only got one date out of, who was not her husband, and now costs thousands of dollars to use. She feels great sympathy for the financial plight of today’s singles.

Today, her business connects singles living in and around Western Massachusett. Lanie charges affordable rates for her help. Her most popular package costs less than $300. Lanie has not raised her prices in years and categorically refuses to price gouge the people who come to her for help. She has more integrity than that. “Matchmaking is one of the few businesses in the world where you can’t guarantee anything to anyone,” she said. “I never know who’s going to be lucky.”

Attentive and compassionate, Lanie’s goal is to provide a cost-effective solution for singles in Western Massachusetts, parts of New York, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Vermont that hover around Western Massachusetts, or who are willing to drive to Western Massachusetts to meet her. “I see people of all ages, all educations, all religions, and all orientations,” she told us. “I don’t have a niche. I help everybody.”

Mass Match gives singles the opportunity to make a change in their dating experiences. Lanie’s hands-on matching and dating coaching makes the whole journey a lot smoother and less frustrating because you have someone to talk to and guide you along the way.

Lanie uses the details in the application form to create a personalized bio for her members.

You can express interest in Lanie’s dating services by signing up online. If you don’t have a computer or internet access, the matchmaker can also send the information via mail. She asks new members to fill out a detailed application that touches on everything from their political views to their employment status. This helps her get a firm handle on who the person is so she knows what she can do for them.

“What I think makes Mass Match different from other services is it’s just me,” she told us. “I don’t have a staff or a cast of characters who come and go. I’m the only one who meets and matches people.”

Lanie invites new clients to a one-hour introductory meeting, in a convenient location, and has an informal conversation with them. “I really try to get their story,” she said. “I want to hear about their experiences in the past.” She asks in-depth questions so she can put together an attractive and accurate dating profile for them.

Then the matching starts. Lanie matches her clients based on their parameters and her intuition. Of course, she does give herself some wiggle room with the client’s criteria. “People come in with all these set ideas. I don’t even listen when they tell me they want a certain hair color,” she said, chuckling. “It’s never going to be about someone’s height or weight or anything like that. It’s about who they are.”

Mass Match offers singles access to a local network of dateworthy options.

The only people who see your profile information are the people Lanie matches with you (these matches show up on your private page). Mass Match is a private service that gives singles peace of mind. This way, you’re not plastering your life story to the entire internet — only to select individuals hand-picked by a professional matchmaker.

Additionally, Lanie has a mandatory response policy, which means everyone you contact must respond to you within a week. No ghosting or game-playing. Mass Match provides a safe and respectful portal for singles to introduce themselves to targeted matches. It’s a low-pressure dating environment made more efficient through Lanie’s guidance.

“Nobody has to meet anyone just because I matched them,” Lanie said reasonably. “I just require polite behavior. People really appreciate that somebody will answer them one way or the other.”

Lanie’s advice as a dating coach comes from her experience as a matchmaker in West Mass. For 15 years, she’s heard her clients’ dating histories and watched them fall in love, so she has an informed perspective on what makes a relationship work. According to Lanie, it’s all about the four C’s — chemistry, communication, compatibility, and character.

In addition to matchmaking, Lanie offers dating coaching to help singles attract the right person.

The matchmaker emphasizes the importance of those four dating aspects, particularly compatibility and character. It’s the deep personality traits that impact relationships in the long run, so Lanie preps singles to get it right from the outset. Her upbeat advice empowers daters to make good choices.

“My favorite part is the educational aspect to it,” she told us. “I really enjoy getting people to change their minds and open their hearts to what counts.”

She encourages single men and women to let go of their checklists and biases when going on a date. Her dating philosophy is to give people a chance to surprise you and date different people without rushing into anything too soon.

“You don’t want to burn too hot too fast. Sometimes chemistry takes time to grow,” she said. “Being compatible and having good character — that’s what’s going to matter.”

Over the years, Lanie has received wonderful feedback from the men and women she’s helped get in a long-term relationship. Her website has so many encouraging testimonials from engaged and married couples who wrote to Lanie to thank her for her support (and sometimes to invite her and Bud to their weddings).

“What an incredible gift we have been given through YOU!” gushed Amy, a newlywed who met her husband through Mass Match. “Do you just love your job at times like this? I hope so!”

“We are amazed that we are truly matched on so many levels,” wrote Valerie and Alan of Westfield, Massachusetts.

“When I describe Mass Match to my friends, I use words like integrity, professionalism, understanding, and always seeking ways to improve the service.” — David, a 58-year-old Mass Match client in Lenox, Massachusetts

Another couple described a whirlwind two-year romance, going dancing, to the movies, and on vacations abroad together. Charles and Cynthia met through Mass Match and told Lanie, “We are so happy that your local, easy, personalized interview matchmaking dating service was there for us. Two years and two weeks later we are engaged to be married.”

“Lanie, I would have paid you double if I had known I would meet my bride,” said a client who got married in 2012.

Lanie loves to hear these touching stories of couples she introduced staying together and even starting a family. “It’s pretty profound,” she said. “One day I had an idea in a living room to start my own business, and that led to babies being born. It’s amazing.”

Since 2002, Mass Match’s dating services have assisted thousands of singles searching for a long-term relationship. Whether you’re gay or straight, liberal or conservative, in your 20s or in your 80s, Lanie keeps her door open to anyone and everyone in the dating scene.

When you sign up with this matchmaker, you’ll get personalized guidance in the love department from someone who cares. Lanie provides hands-on support to singles in the Western Massachusetts area. She’s there for her clients every step of the way with dating advice on everything from how to pick the right match to what to say on a date.

“Dating is complicated, and people need somebody to talk to,” she said. “People love that we’re real people and not some slick operation. We’re local.”