Dating Services

I guess this is how you know you've officially "made it." A film is being made about ChristianMingle.com.

Appropriately named "Christian Mingle," the film is written and directed by Corbin Bernsen and will be produced by his production company, Home Theater Films. The new romantic comedy will partner with the ChristianMingle website itself, which holds the distinction of being the world's largest and fastest-growing Christian community.

The movie tells the story of Gweneth Hayden (played by Lacey Chabert best-known for her role as Gretchen Wieners in "Mean Girls"), a 30-something marketing executive who has a top-notch career, a killer wardrobe, her dream apartment and a fantastic circle of friends. In other words, she believes that the only thing missing from her otherwise-perfect life is a man (played by Jonathan Patrick Moore of "L.A. Complex").

In a moment of desperation, she signs up for ChristianMingle.com to find him. But her Christianity is more than a little rusty, and her attempts at impressing her dream guy end in disaster when he calls her out on her "faux faith." As a result, Gweneth comes to the realization that it's not her lack of a relationship that's keeping her from happiness, but rather her lack faith. She commits to leaving her superficial life behind and renewing her relationship with God. In the end, Gweneth gets what she wanted most: a "life-changing" love.

"'Christian Mingle' is about a young, modern, single woman. She's trying to achieve it all - a successful career, amazing friends and finding Mr. Right," Bernsen said. "She stumbles into the world of online dating looking for an instant 'soul mate solution,' but ultimately ends up taking a personal journey transforming her life."

"Our goal at Home Theater Films is to inspire and entertain our audience," Bernsen continued. "We want to make great movies that everyone can enjoy and elevate them with contemporary, relatable characters that naturally demonstrate their faith in real-world situations."

Other members of the case include Erin Bethea, who notably portrayed female lead Catherine Holt in the film "Fireproof," Stephen Tobolowsky ("Groundhog Day"), and John O'Hurley ("Seinfeld"). Behind the scenes, "Christian Mingle" is written and directed by Bernsen and produced by Chris Aronoff. Matt Swanson and Charlie Schafer serve as Executive Producers. The film will include music from Capitol Christian Distribution, who will also handle the home entertainment distribution.

Production began in Turlock, California, at the end of 2013 and will wrap in Los Angeles with the theatrical release planned for Spring 2014. To find out more about this dating site you can read our Christian Mingle review

Recipient
Millionaire Match

MillionaireMatch.com is the recipient of the Editor’s Top Pick - Wealthy Award for 2013. Millionaire Match is one of the original sugar daddy dating services and has now been in business for over 13 years. With plenty of exposure on national media networks like CNN, CBS and ABC this dating site continues to grow which means more matches and selection for its members whether you are someone looking to find a wealthy match or who wants to meet an attractive single looking for a good time.

Millionaire Match was one of the first dating sites to bring you verified members. If a member so chooses they can submit the appropriate documents and have their photo and profile verified along with their income level. This makes it much easier for members to trust each other and also means that you have a much less chance of running into scams when compared to similar dating sites. They also have recently released an iPhone and Android dating app which allows you to answer messages and perform searches while on the go.

Read our review of Millionaire Match for more information about this dating service or visit MillionaireMatch directly.

This Year's Runner Up for this award is: Seeking Arrangement

Are you the shy type? You're not alone. Many daters have trouble approaching someone new, striking up conversation, and asking someone out - even online.

That's why a new dating app called Anomo could help you in breaking the ice. Created by James Sun, a self-proclaimed introvert, the app helps shy people create an avatar - or "anomo" - to hide themselves while they strike up new conversations. In essence, they can hide behind a mask.

This might seem risky in today's dating environment, but the app verifies its users through Facebook. (Nothing is posted or shared from Facebook, and other users can't see your profile, but they do see your verification.)

Recipient
Are You Interested?

The Top Pick - Innovative 2013 Editor's choice Award goes to the dating service called Are You Interested? (AYI for short). This site worldwide has over 70 million users and 3 million Facebook fans. Are You Interested main audience is adults under 40. Their matching strategy is based on activities and what each person enjoys doing. There are no in-depth tests that try to figure out your personality and what makes you tick by taking hours of your time and asking hundreds of questions. AYI is a great choice for the casual dater.

How is Are You Interested innovative? They have their service available on a large number of relevant platforms. Along with their website you can find AYI as a Facebook App, Android App and iPhone App. Allowing their service to be available on so many devices means almost anyone has the ability to access the service. For you this means more members to be matched with. Are You Interested also kept up with the technical challenge of making sure all of their dating apps are bug free and share a consistent look and feel.

Read our review of Are You Interested? for more information about this online dating service.

This Year's Runner Up for this award is: OkCupid

There has always been a nagging problem lurking in the back of the online dating industry's head: when you've built your business around helping singles find true love, what happens when they find it? On one hand, your marketing department has a lot to brag about. On the other hand, you just lost a customer.

HowAboutWe has answered the question and solved the online dating paradox with an innovative strategy: aim for a whole new market. Co-founders Brian Schechter and Aaron Schildkrout turned the problem into a business advantage by creating a dedicated site for people who are already paired up. The site was christened HowAboutWe for Couples, and a new era of online dating was born.

"We had always focused on bringing online dating offline," Schildkrout told Fast Company. "All the sites are designed to keep users chatting, poking, and endlessly searching profiles online," but HowAboutWe's purpose was "to connect people in the real world." Its original incarnation earned over 1 million users easily, but the dating experience doesn't end at a meet up.

"Couples go on thousands of dates in the course of their relationship," Schildkrout observed. Multiple studies have shown the positive effects of date nights for committed couples. One such study from the National Marriage Project found that married men and women who go on dates at least once a week are 3.5 times more likely to report being "very happy" in their marriages. Consequently, they're also less likely to get divorced than those who do not spend dedicated time with their mates.

To help its couples stay together, and keep them coming back for more, HowAboutWe for Couples curates a list of date ideas culled from existing data on dates, information gleaned from the site's user base, and a team devoted to uncovering the best undiscovered dates. Think dessert tastings, archery lessons, hot air balloon rides, and an aphrodisiac pop-up dinner, whatever that is.

The couples' site operates similarly to the original dating site. Users pay a membership fee ($18 per month) to browse dates, and pay per date based on the ones they choose. Unlike coupon sites like Groupon or LivingSocial, HowAboutWe doesn't extract a percentage from the cost of the date. 100% of the proceeds go to the vendor. Because of this, Schildkrout says, HowAboutWe is able to offer more unique experiences then the daily coupon companies.

So far, HowAboutWe's move seems to be a good one. Though only 12% of users who met through the site are currently using the couples service, Schildkrout reports that it has maintained a 90% month-over-month retention and has over half a million users. To find out more about this dating and couple service you can read our How About We review.

Recipient
Passion.com

Passion.com is the winner of the Editor's Top Pick - Sexy Award. With millions of members spread across many countries Passion.com is the most popular by far here in North America. If you are looking to hook-up with someone or want an intimate encounter then Passion.com is an ideal dating site for you to try out.

It doesn’t matter if you are a man, woman, or couple you will find Passion.com easy to join with lots of features and tools which will make finding your partner(s) a snap. Along with the profiles you have photos and videos to look through. You can commutate with other members either via email or in real-time via instant messaging or video. It is a lot easier to figure out if things will work when can communicate directly with someone, especially if it is for a one night stand.

Passion.com is free to join but to communicate with members you will need to buy a monthly membership.

Read our review of Passion.com for more information about this dating service or visit Passion.com directly.

There was no runner up in 2013 for this award.