Local TV hosts share their latest adventure with a new reality series

Taking on a big project with your significant other can often include frustrations and triumphs, and that was certainly the experience for local TV hosts of The Marc and Mandy Show which is filmed in Blumenort. 

They decided to take the cameras along for their journey of building the cabin of their dreams, sharing their adventure on television with a 4-part series called “Marc and Mandy Vacay Getaway.”

The completed dream cabin for Marc and Mandy, built last year. (Photo Credit: CS Photos, Steinbach)

Although Marc Atiyolil and his wife Mandy MacLaren expected some challenges, they admit there was a lot of tension when things did not go as planned. 

“We’re going on our eighth year of being on TV with The Marc and Mandy Show and we wanted to do something different,” Atiyolil says. “And we're like, ‘if we're going to take our marriage and our family on this adventure, why not bring the cameras with us?’ Because we're always talking about different trends and spaces and renovations during our host chats, but we've never actually taken the cameras along with us and showed the journey the ups and downs, the fights, the make-ups.” 

MacLaren says the challenges began early in the project. 

“I may or may not lose my mind in the very first show,” she admits with a laugh. That might have been related to the lumber not showing up when it was expected. 

Atiyolil recalls the camera operator commenting later about the difficulty he had with sticking around during those tense moments. 

“We really wanted to show a real-life build,” he says. “The ups, the downs, the challenges and the stress that it puts on a family and on a marriage, and also how to resolve those and how to work through it.” 

While they had done a lot of planning in advance, Atiyolil says you can never be completely prepared to deal with unexpected situations. 

“No matter how much you plan, there's still things that happen in the build that you kind of have to work around and laugh off,” he says. 

With the cabin complete and the first episode ready to air this Saturday, the couple can now laugh about the experience.

-With files from Corny Rempel