SYTTD: S4, E5 – “Ready or Not”

Original air date: 9/25/2009

Category is: brides who are not ready to buy a dress. In the words of icon Randy Fenoli, “Nothing makes me feel used quite like a bride that’s just wasted my time.”

Our first bride is Marcie, an ER nurse who has tried on almost a hundred dresses and can’t make a decision. She tells consultant Keasha that she loves strapless, sweetheart necklines, and a full skirt. Oh, also – she’s in love with a specific dress from the Priscilla of Boston Vineyard collection.

Gotta be top-five classiest bridal gowns you can get in 2009.

Despite already loving a dress, she still wants to shop more, and she’s got a solid budget of $5,000 (again, for 2009.)

Keasha tries two other dresses before putting her back in her beloved vineyard dress. The first one, Marcie shoots down for being “too shiny and too simple.” Fair! Dress #2 goes over well but…. not as well as the dress she really loves.

Dress #3 is the Priscilla of Boston dress she already loves and Marcie immediately starts crying!

It’s a low-stress, highly skilled appointment. Consultant Sarah, however, is having a VERY DIFFERENT DAY on the other side of the salon.

Bernadette. Oh, Bernadette. Bernadette is described by her mother as “headstrong.” When Sarah asks her what she likes, Bernadette responds with a laundry list of stuff she DOESN’T like: big ball gowns, lace, pick-ups, dresses that are too plain. This is RED FLAG CITY.

Bernadette says her budget is $5,000 and her mom is paying, so let’s just file that away for later.

Sarah brings some dresses in and Bernadette starts rejecting them immediately. Satin is too heavy, she’s anti-belt, she doesn’t like when the bodice and skirt are “separate”, she doesn’t like visible seams. Sarah ropes Randy in and between the two of them, she rejects ten dresses and only tries on 4.

Bernadette describes Dress #4 as “laughable” and “absurd-looking.”

So, this is when Randy’s antenna goes up. He starts asking the mom what the budget is and she says, “$3,000.” Notable, that is much lower than $5,000. Randy and Sarah start to suspect that something else is going on – specifically, that Bernadette already has a dress.

Randy asks Bernadette’s mom if she has a favorite dress at the four other stories she’s been to and here’s how that goes:

Mom: I can’t tell you that.

Randy: So there’s another dress. Do I know it?

Mom: No.

Randy: How much was it? Who is the designer?

Mom: I can’t tell you.

Randy: So it’s under the Kleinfeld budget?

Mom: You won’t know it.

EVENTUALLY it’s revealed that Bernadette has fallen in love with a $1,000 dress at a New Jersey boutique, and she’s embarrassed to reveal that because she thinks it’s too cheap. Randy and Sarah are both pissed off that they wasted their time and they send Bernadette on her way. Oh… and this is the dress:

Finally, we have a quick alterations bride.

Melanie Tyrrell was previously on SYTTD where she bought a dress, cancelled it, bought it again, and haggled with Kleinfeld’s to bring the price down.