Minimum wage payments and 24/7 monitoring: What it's really like filming MAFS.

We are in full MAFS mode, with season 10 bringing us all the drama on a silver platter. 

And for the next few months, our lives will once again be consumed by drama, Instagram feuds and the throwing of beverages. Plus a cheating scandal! Or two, or eight...

But behind the scenes, being a contestant on the show isn't just a simple walk down the aisle. In fact, the cast have to follow some pretty bizarre rules on set. 

Watch the trailer for the upcoming season of Married At First Sight below. Post continues below. 

We decided to take a look behind the curtain at what filming is really like (just in case you needed another reason not to join the show). 

Here's everything we know that goes on behind the scenes.

1. If you have a fight behind the scenes, you need to pause and call a producer to come film it.

Yep, you read that correctly. 

According to Michael Brunelli, contestants are told not to talk to each other when the cameras aren't rolling. And if they do have a fight, they need to alert the producers STAT.

"One of the weirdest things when we were on MAFS was that they didn't film all day, so when the camera crew left [at night], they told us, 'Don't learn anything about each other, don't really talk to each other because it needs to be on camera'," he explained in a TikTok video.

"If you have a fight, you need to stop mid-fight, call the producer so they can bring the camera and can start recording… then you've got to keep going with the fight!"

@m.brunelli

Reply to @thatwildheart ##MAFS ##MAFSA

♬ original sound - Michael Brunelli

2. The MAFS weddings are filmed multiple times.

It turns out the contestants' wedding day isn't exactly the magical fairytale we're shown on TV. 

Dan Webb from season six previously told Mamamia that "you do your wedding three or four times, so they can get different angles". 

"They don't have music [when the bride walks down], it's pretty quiet," he said. "I didn't really enjoy my day, it was very stressful."

Season five bride Carly Bowyer also said that her wedding day "was the longest day of my life".

"I started filming at 6:00am and didn't go to bed until 4:00am, with a camera crew filming us as we got into bed," she told Mamamia. "Then we were woken up at 5.30am... and then off on an overseas flight for the honeymoon."

3. The MAFS contestants have to source their own clothes – and get approval from producers.

When it comes to most reality TV shows, like The Bachelor, the contestants are often dressed by wardrobe teams. But for the MAFS cast, they often need to pull outfits from their own wardrobe.

And once they've selected an outfit they like, the contestant needs to get approval from producers, according to current season 10 MAFS bride Janelle Han.

"For commitment ceremonies and any of those sorts of events, we submit three photos and then they finalise the final one," she told Refinery29 Australia. "That's because they don't want any outfit clashing."

Han also said that everyone does their own hair and makeup on the show as well. 

Image: Nine.

4. The MAFS dinner parties finish at 3am. 

MAFS dinner parties are... eventful, to say the least. So much so, that contestants don't actually finish filming until the early hours of the morning. 

"We start filming [getting ready for] the dinner parties at midday, arrive at 4pm and leave at three in the morning,"  Nasser Sultan previously told Mamamia. 

As for the commitment ceremonies, Dan says they "go for about 12 hours, depending on how many couples are there".

"It's a long process the dinner parties and the commitment ceremonies. And they're back-to-back days. So the dinner parties are always the day before the commitment ceremony so that it's fresh in everyone's mind, because usually the dinner parties are where all the gossip comes from," said Dan. 

Martha Kalifatidis also recently spoke about how long filming takes during an Instagram Live video. 

"That is how you make a reality TV show," she explained. "You film for 12, 14, 16 hours a day and then you just show people 20 minutes."

5. The drama is very much real. 

According to Michael, the drama on the show is actually real. But producers are known for doing some pretty sneaky things to get a reaction. 

"I know a lot of people think the drama on MAFS is fake. It's not," he explained in a TikTok video. 

"The emotions are real, the issues are real but what the producers can do is that if they know you have a problem with someone [and] they know you're feeling a little bit emotional, they might put you at a dinner party sitting across from them, knowing that after a few hours something is going to brew."

"If you're dumb enough to take the bait on that, that's your fault not the producers," he says, before adding, "we were all dumb enough at some point". 

@m.brunelli

Reply to @a.neke #MAFS #MAFSA

♬ original sound - Michael Brunelli

6. The contestants are given curfews. 

Nasser previously told Mamamia that contestants are given curfews at night. During the week their curfew is 8pm and on Friday and Saturdays, it's 10pm. 

Dan also told us that contestants "can't do much".

"You can't go out with the other contestants. You're not allowed to speak to them off-camera. You live in the same hotel... but if you want to go to the gym in the building, you have to pick a time to make sure there is no one else at that time."

Carly Bowyer, from season five, even likened the experience to being on a school camp.