The gay wedding planner Frank “Froonck” Matthée (58) has been guiding couples toward the altar for about 25 years. He is also a familiar face on television: in 2005 he planned Sarah Connor’s and Marc Terenzi’s wedding in the reality show Sarah & Marc in Love, which brought him to a broader audience. Later came formats such as Frank — The Wedding Planner, Stars on Ice, and Jungle Camp (I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!). From 2012 to 2021 he also hosted the wedding documentary 4 Weddings and a Dream. With Duell der Hochzeitsprofis, Froonck is now making his TV comeback. The first episodes have been available since Friday at 10 a.m. in ZDF’s on-demand library.
What continues to inspire him about his profession are the special moments with the couples. One of them, for Froonck, is the so-called “First Look.” “That is the moment when we finally show them what we built,” he says in an interview with the news agency spot on news. When tears start to fall or you simply see a radiant couple in front of you, it’s for him and his team “the most beautiful thing.” “Then you know: the work has paid off. Everything fits and perhaps has turned out even more beautiful than they imagined.”
With Celebrity Weddings, Logistics Play a Major Role
His professional eye can’t easily switch off, even away from his own weddings. Accordingly, he keeps a careful watch on the weddings of famous couples. “I look very closely: How are they dressed? What have they chosen?” He quickly moves into analysis: “Would I have done it that way? Would I have done it differently? Does it make sense or not?” At the same time, the circumstances surrounding celebrity weddings are very different: “Of course celebrity weddings involve much larger budgets. You also have to consider other things: media, security, the so-called guest pampering and much more. Those things aren’t always part of non-celebrity weddings.”
When US superstar Taylor Swift (34) and football star Travis Kelce (34) tied the knot in early July at Madison Square Garden in New York City, what puzzled him most was the choice of venue. “I was genuinely surprised that Taylor Swift opted for this multipurpose arena. I probably wouldn’t have done it that way, or at least wouldn’t have suggested it. Creating a fairy-tale setting there would have been extremely elaborate.” Froonck would have preferred a different approach: “I would have probably flown the wedding party to a beautiful castle in Germany and, for example, married at Neuschwanstein.”
But he can’t judge the rationale from the outside. “But of course I don’t know all the underlying reasons.” For a celebration of this size, numerous practical factors must be taken into account: “With a wedding of this scale you need the appropriate capacity when thousands of people are present. Logistics play an enormous role.” Perhaps Swift simply didn’t want to travel far. “And with the guests you also have to consider what options and requirements there are.”
Wedding Planner — Little Glamour Behind the Scenes
Froonck also dispels romantic notions about the wedding-planning profession in the interview. The glamorous sides of the job do exist: “Some people think I move from one tasting to the next, accompany a bridal gown fitting, pick out flowers, and listen to a DJ or musician.” Those kinds of meetings do indeed happen. “We also travel a lot because we specialize in destination weddings abroad and work at stunning locations, in beautiful hotels.”
All of that “is incredibly enjoyable,” but it’s only part of the job. Behind it lies primarily “project management: desk work, phone calls, computer work, and organization.” That’s often not glamorous and is really hard work. In the end, what matters is to find precisely the perfect fit for each bride and groom and their budget.
Comeback on TV
The ZDF show “Duell der Hochzeitsprofis” showcases exactly this work. Froonck and his colleagues Amelie Borges, Marie Mika, and Marco Fuß develop different wedding concepts for couples and compete against one another. Froonck appears in three of the six episodes. Regular television broadcast begins on Sunday (September 6) at 2 p.m. on ZDF. (spot)
