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If you think back to Valentine’s Day 2025, you may remember the release of a dating reality show featuring a group of Minnesotans.

“Love is Blind” portrayed the relationships of five couples in Minneapolis who got engaged after a short, but intense period of dating, without ever seeing one another. Later in the show, the couples came back to the Twin Cities and put places like Buck Hill, Bryant Lake Bowl and the Como Conservatory on screens around the world. 

At the end of the season, just one couple said “I do” at the altar. Taylor and Daniel Hastings renewed their vows this summer and recently celebrated their favorite holiday, Christmas, together for the first time since their relationship became public. They joined MPR News host Nina Moini to talk about life after the show.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. Use the audio or video player above for the full interview.

What made you want to renew your vows this summer?

 When we got married on the Netflix show, we were only allowed 40 people each for our guest lists. And I’m from a very large family. My mom’s one of eight. Daniel’s mom’s one of nine. There were a lot of people that we weren’t able to celebrate with for the Netflix wedding. 

So we both wanted to have a celebration that we could do our own way. We could plan it how we wanted, have who we wanted, all the things. We had it at the same venue. Legally, we couldn’t really talk about us as a couple. 

That venue was also under the NDA with Netflix, so we felt like there was some comfortability. They knew who we were, and we didn’t have to go into too many details. So it all worked out pretty perfect.

What has it been like since you were able to come forward with your relationship?

 For the most part, there’s been a lot of support. We were the only couple to get married from our season and so I think people thankfully got behind us a bit. So I’d say for the most part, it’s definitely support and positive vibes. 

There’s always people who can find negatives in just about anything. I feel like it’s been busy — we always have something going on — but it’s a good busy. And we’re doing our best. Marriage isn’t easy always, but especially in the spotlight. So it‘s nice to have people supporting us and with us along the way.

What did you think about the nickname for the season, ‘Love is Bland’?

 We kind of played into it, because Daniel kept saying “short king season.” So we were like, “short king seasoning for love is bland,” like, liven it up a little bit. I mean, I think a lot of the contestants were very serious about finding love and not so much making good television. 

So I think a lot of the cast were very conscious of the cameras and knowing what speaking negatively about their partner at the time could have done to them. I think it was probably bland, just because people were serious about it and didn’t want to have too many repercussions when the show came out.

Your social media presence has really grown. What has it been like balancing that part of your life, and what are you wanting to convey?

 I just keep calling it a new normal. Nothing is the way it was before the show, but everything seems to be a normal pace for us now. So finding that balance between work and the public eye and partnerships with social media, and there’s so many opportunities that come our way, but I think Daniel and I have both tried to stay very grounded in all of it. 

I always plan to remain working as a nurse, but I’ve gotten to do slightly less hours because of all of the fun opportunities we’ve had. So I mean, blessings all around. I always would love as a nurse to advocate for patients, and I’ve gotten to do some partnerships with different companies promoting screening opportunities for colon cancer. 

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There was actually a young woman who was diagnosed with colon cancer because she went to get a colonoscopy, based on me talking about it on the show, and that’s how she found it. That’s really all I wanted to do was help one person. I’m so grateful that even that has happened.

 It’s still hard to wrap my mind around that people care this much about what we’re doing with our lives. Three years ago, we were just normal people and now we’re a married couple that has been kind of thrown into the spotlight. For the most part, it’s fun. I think it’s a balance. 

You could dive in and make it your whole personality, or you try to stay grounded in who you are and who you were and your values, and then just work it in and have fun with it. It’s fun to do things like this Christmas card that we did this past year. [We] made it into somewhat of a charity thing for Angel Foundation, so giving support to families going through cancer. It’s cool to have a platform to be able to do something like that.

You’ve had some unique experiences together that can reveal a lot about a person. Are there lessons from the show that you think people can carry into regular dating?

 Daniel and I talked a lot about how we never, probably would have found each other without “Love is Blind,” because Daniel never dated anyone older than him, and I never dated anyone [around] my same height. So I had these settings on my dating apps that I was not even bothering to see people that didn’t meet that requirement. And what a stupid requirement it was. And I didn’t really fully grasp that until I did the show. 

My advice would be that those things really do not matter. Finding a good soul is what matters. They may be right in front of you and you look past it because of superficial, I don’t know, height requirements, or I was older.

 You could date based on age and height and occupation and whatever. At the core of what you’re looking for, a lot of that just doesn’t matter. It’s probably easier said than done in the real world. 

Thankfully, we were forced into a situation where we had to dive into it and forget those things. I think I would tell my younger self, like, hey, if she’s a year [or two] older than you, it doesn’t really matter. 

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The Minneapolis season of the reality dating show came out on Valentine’s Day, 2025. Taylor and Daniel Hastings were the only couple who said “I do” at the altar and they renewed their vows this summer.

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