Who's a fan of the beloved Say Yes To The Dress show on TLC ? Oh, yes, that's the one I'm talking about. I've been watching it religiously for the past few years. I even have a confession to make — my fiancé proposed to me after he saw me watch the show over and over again, ha, ha! No kidding! How's that for a good strategy, huh?
Well, anyway, as much as I love the show, I didn't realize there were things I didn't know about it. So I'm sharing a few secrets with you below. Check it out!
Okay, so you've seen all the brides featured on the show, right? So how do they end up there? Well, as with any other reality series, you need to apply. I pretty much guessed that part. I'm sure they want to pick the brides with the most interesting stories, eh?
Even though the show goes through a rigorous screening process to pick the brides that will end up on TV, you can still get picked shopping at Kleinfeld. Oh, yes. If you happen to be there while the show is taping, you can end up as an unpaid "extra," or better yet, you can actually get chosen to be on the show, too. Yay!
As I mentioned, the show does screen the potential TV brides. They want to weed out anyone who's only there for their five minutes of fame. So if that's what you're after, perhaps you should pick another reality TV show, hee-hee. If you do get chosen, they will let you know within two to four weeks.
Any lucky brides that will end up on the show need to be prepared for a few hours of taping. Upon arrival, the bride and her entourage will have an interview with the producers. Then they will proceed to pick the dresses. Overall, the whole appointment plus taping might take between 8-10 hours, so pretty much the whole day.
When you watch the show, Kleinfeld looks like a huge store. But in reality, it's all the lighting and clever camera angles. There are only four areas for the blushing brides to model their dresses in front of their entourage. So the actual area can only accommodate four brides at a time.
So it would seem that the brides on the show only try on about three dresses. I can tell you right now that wouldn't be enough for me, ha, ha. In fact, I ended up trying on 21 dresses before I found "the one." And TV brides try on an average of 15 dresses before they narrow it down to three you see on the show.
Usually, on the show, they only show you one stockroom full of gowns. But the truth is that Kleinfeld has three of them to store the enormous amount of wedding dresses they have. Wow, that's good to know, huh? That means you have endless choices. Am I right? That could be a blessing or a curse, if you know what I mean, though.
Speaking of dresses, just how many does Kleinfeld have at any given time? Well, about 1,000 dresses by more than 60 designers. Holy cow! And I thought picking from 21 dresses was hard enough. No wonder it can take hours to make a decision.
Is it just me, or does it seem that the entourage on SYTTD is pretty opinionated, huh? Well, that may not be a coincidence. Apparently, the more drama, the better, when it comes to being picked for the show. That does explain it all, no? So your mean bridesmaid might get you a ticket to the show, ha, ha.
It's no surprise that brides and their families end up shelling out thousands of dollars on a dress. After all, this is supposed to be the most special day in a woman's life. But can you guess what the most expensive dress ever sold at Kleinfeld's cost? Well, let me blow your mind. It was a glorious gown with a price tag of $70,000. OMG!
If you guessed Pnina Tornai, you would be right. The fan-favorite designer has made her name at Kleinfeld, and at least one of the dresses gets featured on every episode of SYTTD. And if you've had your eye set on a dress created by this amazing designer, you need to be prepared to pay between $2,400 to $5,000.
No, she's not. That's what I thought, too, but I was wrong. I guess many people thought that because of how often we see her on the show. But Tornai actually visits the store monthly to meet with future brides and host trunk shows. And that's usually when they film the scenes for the show, too. So you never know when you might catch a glimpse of Pnina in the store.
If you plan on shopping for your wedding gown at Kleinfeld, get ready to pay for it. On average, a bride spends around $1,357, according to The Knot. But Kleinfeld's brides spend more than that. There, the average spend jumps to above $2,800.
There are no canceled weddings. At least not according to the show. What I mean by that is that once your episode is taped it will air whether the wedding took place or not. So if you and your fiancé choose to cancel the wedding you'll still see yourself on the show.
There are 24 bridal consultants at Kleinfeld, including fan-favorites like Randy, Camille, and Diane. They are all very skilled and professional at finding brides their perfect dress. However, some of them get more screen time than others due to their knack for picking dresses or causing drama, hee-hee.
As the show grew in popularity, there were brides all over the world who wanted to be featured on TV. Many traveled as far as Japan, New Zealand, Dubai, Angola, and the like. In order to accommodate these brides and their large entourages, the show allowed a lot more people to come and see the dress. This drew ire from regular shoppers at Kleinfeld who had to stick to their normal party numbers.
I don't know if it's any surprise that the show did get sued multiple times. The most famous was the Godino case. A woman sued the show because her episode aired before her actual wedding. Sadly for her, the judge ruled in the show's favor because the bride did sign a contract. So yeah, read that fine print, ladies.
Well, as it turns out, Say Yes To The Dress was a catchphrase used by one of Kleinfeld's long-time consultants. So when the producers of the show were trying to come up with the name, they really liked it, and that's how it came to be. And of course, whether a bride ends up on the show, she's still asked whether she is saying "yes" to the dress.
I didn't know how long the actual taping might take, but from having worked as an "extra" before, I figured it would be quite a few hours. I also didn't realize that the TV brides get to pick around 15 dresses to try on. I definitely didn't get that many options at Kleinfeld's location in Toronto. Those are some lucky brides, right? Not only do they get to be featured on the show, but they get a nice variety of dresses to pick from indeed.
