Whatever Happened To The Most Memorable Say Yes To The Dress Couples?
On TLC's Say Yes to the Dress, soon-to-be brides visit a store in hopes of finding their dream wedding gown (and that it'll be within budget). In the original SYTTD (as opposed to the many spinoffs (like Say Yes to the Dress: Atlanta, Say Yes to the Dress: UK), brides visit the iconic Manhattan bridal salon, Kleinfeld. There, they drape themselves in tulle, run into designers, and beg their bridal consultants for more "bling."
More than a decade after SYTTD's premiere in 2007, the reality show has become an empire, with brides and non-brides alike addicted to the drama of the dress-shopping experience. But SYTTD isn't just about trying on dresses. There are family dynamics to watch, tear-jerking stories of brides who've endured massive struggles before their special day, and even a few celebrity brides. It's easy to get emotionally invested in a bride and her family, and wonder when the episode is over, "Hey, what ever happened to them? Did that bride get the surgery she needed? Did that young bride-to-be get the wedding of her dreams? Is that one kooky couple still together?"
Here's what SYTTD's most memorable brides are up to now.
The Bionic Bride started a family
Season 17 bride-to-be Rebekah Marine walked into her Kleinfeld appointment with an amazing accessory: a hyper-advanced prosthetic arm.
Known publicly as the "Bionic Model," Marine was born without a right forearm. In her SYTTD episode, she explained that, while she once struggled with her disability, she now uses it as a platform. Two years prior to her bridal appointment, she received a sophisticated prosthetic arm (complete with moving metal fingers) and she started modeling with it. Soon her career took off and she started modeling for top designers and even became a motivational speaker. She shared, "My whole message is about living with uniqueness and celebrating that."
Marine chose a tulle and lace mermaid gown, one of Randy Fenoli's designs, for her big day, and her gorgeous wedding (complete with a new gold wedding prosthetic) was featured at the end of the episode. But what happened after the vows? Well, Marine is still thriving. According to her website, she continues to model and tour as a motivational speaker. She's also going strong with her husband, and the couple welcomed a baby boy, Jackson, in March 2019.
This bride is lucky her husband fired her
When bride-to-be Emily began her appointment, she gushed about her fiancé, David Gotterup. She mentioned that he worked in the mortgage industry and that they met when she was working for him. "He fired me so he could date me," she shared, as reported by Forbes. The appointment got stressful, though, when Emily had a hard time sticking to her $5,000 budget. Eventually, she settled on a $6,500 Pnina Tornai. It was over budget — but she was willing to splurge for her beach wedding.
After their wedding, however, it seems the couple only ran into more financial problems. In 2015, Gotterup was charged on an 11-count indictment for scamming homeowners through a mortgage loan modification scheme, reportedly conning a total of $2.5 million out of homeowners in a five-year period (via Forbes). In 2017, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison. While hard time can't be good for a marriage, at least fans can appreciate how lucky Emily was to get out of the scamming mortgage company while she could.
The Boston Marathon bride amputated her leg and ended her marriage
Season 12 bride Rebekah Gregory came into Kleinfeld with just a month to find her dream dress — but that short time frame wasn't her biggest challenge. Gregory walked into the salon on crutches, recovering from injuries sustained from the 2013 Boston marathon bombing. When Gregory came to Kleinfeld, she'd already endured more than 15 surgeries, as noted by the New York Post.
While Gregory got a dream dress from Kleinfeld (and a fairytale wedding), after the show, she and husband Pete DiMartino didn't get the "happily ever after" they'd hoped for. After just ten months of marriage, the pair separated. A few months earlier, she'd been forced to make the difficult decision to have her leg amputated.
Soon, however, things started looking up. Gregory wrote a book — the aptly named, Taking My Life Back. Then in 2015, she remarried, and, in 2016, they welcomed a daughter, Ryleigh. "I've learned that you enjoy every part of the ride when you experience it with your best friend," Gregory said in an Instagram post celebrating her and her husband's two-year wedding anniversary. "What we have built together, I wouldn't even trade for two real legs."
This twin now works in both comedy and law
Attorney Amy Pokora and her twin sister, Emily Wilfinger, are practically SYTTD regulars. Between dress shopping and fittings, the two have been on a total of four episodes of SYTTD (plus the spinoff series Say Yes to the Dress: Randy Knows Best). But when Pokora first stepped into the store in Season 10, she was simply shopping for her wedding dress.
While Pokora insisted on a sexy gown, her sister tried to convince her to get a less revealing dress. When Pokora found a fitted gown with a sheer panel at the waist, her sister asked, "Would you want your attorney to wear a see-through dress?" Pokora then tried a panel over the sheer dress, but in a Season 11 episode, she went in for a fitting and had it taken out.
These days, this Kleinfeld bride is still an attorney, and she and her husband have their own law practice, Lewis and Pokora. While law may pay the bills, it seems she's found her true passion: standup comedy. According to her website, she's focusing on her comedy career now, booking shows in her home state of Arizona and even New York City.
Every little Cheetah Girl's dream
Former Disney Channel star Sabrina Bryan is known for her part in Disney Channel's The Cheetah Girls. But in her Season 17 SYTTD episode, Bryan was looking to be more of a princess than a pop star.
From the beginning, she knew she wanted a Hayley Paige dress but didn't know what style gown she wanted. "I'm coming to Kleinfeld with a very specific knowledge of my designer," she said. "I just don't know what my silhouette is." Eventually, Hayley Paige built a custom look, and Bryan went away with both a ballgown and a second fitted dress.
Since Bryan's October 2018 wedding, she's been busy giving a voice to newlyweds everywhere. In an interview with KTLA 5 Morning News, she pointed out that, while there's so much advice out there for couples planning weddings and those expecting babies, there's not much to help enrich married life before kids. So, she she's working on a blog and podcast to give advice about enjoying being a newlywed. "Eventually we will have kids and that will be another amazing journey," she shared, "but I'm really excited to see what being just a newlywed means."
Sutton Foster headed back to Broadway
When, in Season 12, actress Sutton Foster went searching for a gown at Kleinfeld, her bridal consultant Lisa recognized early on that this bride would need something different. When the bride-to-be tried on a $6,800 Pnina Tornai gown, she loved it instantly, telling Lisa and Randy, "I've never worn anything like this."
Since her SYTTD episode aired, Sutton made some big changes. Soon after her wedding, Sutton took a break from performing on Broadway and took the starring role in TVLand's Younger — and the series was a hit. In the years since, her acting career has stayed strong. In June 2019, she posted a picture at an event for Season 6 of Younger, saying, "I really am the luckiest." In March 2019, Foster announced her return to Broadway, starring opposite Hugh Jackman in The Music Man.
But it's not just her career that's grown — her family has too. Three years after her wedding, Sutton and her husband adopted a daughter, Emily. In an interview with People, she said, "It was a really beautiful and amazing journey to find her."
The caped bride filed for divorce
In Season 15, bride Jasmine Solaperto went into Kleinfeld (with her fiancé, Brian Sullivan) knowing she wanted a sexy and unique dress. Sullivan told consultant Lisa, "Dude, there's no budget. We brought the Amex." So, of course, it was an appointment to remember.
The bride-to-be ended up with a sexy romper with detachable skirt, plus a $5,000 dramatic cape. Five weeks later, in November 2016, the couple wed at the Grand Canyon. However, the marriage was short-lived. In February 2018, Solaperto announced in a YouTube video that she and Sullivan were filing for divorce. In the video, Solaperto explained, "I fell into a health coaching program which literally like changed my f**king life." Apparently, this coaching helped her realize that her marriage wasn't working. She said, "Looking back, in retrospect, I know that there were so many red flags and I just ignored them."
These days, Solaperto seems to be healing. In one Instagram post from June 2019, she said, "When I remove the emotions and stories AND show the f**k up for myself in the way I know I desire to, ABUNDANCE becomes my new normal."
This bride split from her country singer beau
In Season 8 of Say Yes to the Dress: Atlanta, bride Morgan Petek had a hard time choosing a dress. Petek was marrying country music star Jerrod Niemann, and she wanted the dress to be perfect for her high-profile wedding. She tried some gowns and loved one of them, but, as soon as it seemed like she'd found the one, Petek had other ideas. "As soon as it really sunk in that this is the dress that I'm gonna get married in, it just did not feel like the right dress," Petek confessed. Still, Petek decided on a custom Lazaro gown, and the pair married in October 2014.
In February 2019, however, the two filed for divorce after just four years of marriage, making that last-minute dress hesitation seem prophetic. The couple said in a statement, "We have learned and grown into the people we are today. We wish each other all the best in the future."
These days, Niemann is still performing and Petek is passionate about her job as a nurse practitioner. In a post from May 2019, Petek announced she would be moving to New York to start her "dream job."
The Girl With No Job was fired
Claudia Oshry is known for her popular Instagram account Girl With No Job, but, in Season 15 of SYTTD, she was known for her fast-talking sassiness. Her quick wit and take-no-crap attitude helped her cut down dresses faster than consultant Lisa could get them off the hanger. "This is the first time I might be afraid of my bride," Lisa said. Luckily, Oshry found her dress and wore it to her 2017 wedding.
Months after Oshry's wedding, however, news broke that right-wing and anti-Islam commentator Pamela Geller was Oshry's mother. Soon, racist tweets made by Oshry resurfaced, and, in March 2018, Verizon's Oath canceled her social media talk show, The Morning Breath. Oshry quickly issued an apology on social media. She said, in a tearful video (via People), "I need to just come right out and say how sorry I am. It's not cool, it's not funny."
Later, Oshry started a new show called The Morning Toast, and it seems many of their fans accepted her apology. Oshry's Girl With No Job account is still going strong and she even tours.
Corbin Bleu and Sasha Clements are a Disney fairytale
In Season 14, Corbin Bleu (of Disney's High School Musical) and fiancée Sasha Clements came into Kleinfeld's floating on a cloud of love. Young, beautiful, and totally smitten, they shopped for a dress together in preparation for their July 2016 wedding. After trying some dresses, Clements found a perfect fit in a custom Pnina Tornai gown, which Pnina announced she would now call "The Sasha."
But how are Bleu and Clements doing now? This sweet couple seems to be going strong — plus, Bleu is doing well with his post-Disney career. While Bleu isn't exactly at High School Musical co-star Zac Efron's movie-star level, he's still acting and dancing. He's working on Broadway and is even getting nominated for awards for his role in Kiss Me Kate and Anything Goes. Here's a child Disney star who did right.
In January 2019, Sasha posted a picture of them snuggling on the couch, writing in the caption, "Sparks joy." Too cute!
This Olympic bride found herself in a scandal
When Olympic runner Dawn Harper appeared in Season 10, consultant Allison immediately asked if she had her Olympic medals with her — and, of course, she did. When they moved on to dress shopping, Harper said she wanted a ball gown. "On the track, I'm halfway naked all the time," she said, "so I would like to, you know, just wear something that makes me feel like a woman." In the end, she left with a strapless, princess ball gown.
Then, in 2017, her name made headlines again. However, she hadn't won another medal. Instead, she was in the middle of a doping scandal, as reported by NBC Sports. She served a three-month ban from the track after taking a prescribed blood pressure medication, failing to recognize that it contained a banned substance.
Still, things started looking up when, in April 2019, Harper and her husband welcomed a baby girl. And it didn't take long for Harper to get back on the track post-baby, as proved in an Instagram video of her running in June 2019. When it comes to her marriage, she and her husband are doing well, having celebrated their six-year anniversary in March 2019.
Omarosa tried to take photos at the White House
Omarosa Manigault is known for her time on The Apprentice and for working on Trump's White House staff, but, in 2016, she was just another bride in Kleinfeld. And there, Manigault found the rosy dress of her dreams in a $6,400 ballgown by Ysa Makino.
But there was drama after Manigault left the store. She got married at the Trump Hotel in Washington, D.C., and, after the reception, she and her 39-person bridal party showed up unannounced to the White House and tried to take photos. That same year, in December 2017, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced that Manigault (now Manigault-Newman) had handed in her resignation. However, Fortune reported that Manigault didn't quit — she was fired. And the firing reportedly "didn't go well." Yikes.
By 2018, Omarosa authored a No. 1 New York Times bestseller — Unhinged: An Insiders Account of the Trump White House. These days, it appears things have slowed down. She's still married, and she's been promoting her book and making occasional TV appearances.
This country singer has stayed strong
When Whitney Duncan was on a 2014 episode of SYTTD, she introduced herself as a country music singer, but viewers might know her best from her time on reality shows. She was on Season 5 of Nashville Star in 2007, she was on Survivor: South Pacific (which is where she met her future husband Keith Tollefson) in 2011, and she and Tollefson teamed up for The Amazing Race Season 25 (via People). While at Kleinfeld, Duncan found a fitted lace gown for her wedding.
These days, she seems to have given up the reality show life. She's a fitness trainer and, even though her singing career may be taking a backseat, she hasn't given up on her dreams. In November 2018, she posted a #WaybackWednesday of herself at the CMAs in 2009. She wrote, "This girl didn't know that she (& many many other talented females) would still be struggling to be heard almost a decade later." Still, she's not losing hope, as she said, "This ole girl ain't giving up yet."
She and Tollefson are still together. On Valentine's Day 2019, she posted on Instagram to celebrate six years since their engagement. So, it looks like some of her dreams came true after all.
This paralyzed groom and his wife fostered children
In Season 17 of Say Yes to the Dress, Emily Summers and fiancé Chris Norton came in looking for a dress that wasn't too wide at the bottom. This was important because Norton, who is in a wheelchair, planned on walking with Summers back down the aisle at the end of their ceremony. Consultant Debbie found Summers a form-fitted gown, and, by the end of the episode, viewers saw Summers assist Norton out of his wheelchair at their wedding and walk back down the aisle together.
Since their 2018 wedding, the two have been busy, as they raised a family of six foster children. Summers (now Emily Norton) gushes over her foster kids on Instagram. In one post from May 2019, she described one of her foster daughters as having "the biggest heart" and saying, "I am so proud I get to be her mom."
Summers and Norton also authored a book, The Seven Longest Yards, and celebrated their first year of marriage in April 2019. It seems nothing can stop them.