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- While chatting with PEOPLE, Randy Fenoli reflected on his most unforgettable moments from Say Yes to the Dress
- The bridal fashion designer listed dramatic scenes from three episodes of Say Yes to the Dress and one episode from Say Yes to the Dress: America
- A new season of Say Yes to the Dress premiered on April 5 and will air through May 10 on TLC
After appearing in hundreds of episodes of Say Yes to the Dress, Randy Fenoli is revealing his top moments from the beloved bridal series.
The TLC reality show — which debuted a new season on April 5 — follows the sales associates, managers and alterations specialists at New York City’s Kleinfeld Bridal as they help pick dresses that suit unique styles, personalities and bodies. As the salon’s former fashion director, Fenoli, 61, has seen his fair share of demanding and emotional brides through the course of the series’ 23-season run.
Now, Fenoli is looking back on his most memorable moments — from heartwarming to intense — from past seasons of Say Yes to the Dress.
Season 15, Episode 3: “I Want My Daughter to Look Like a Sexpot”
Fenoli’s “No. 1” memory is when his mother, Jeanette, was in town for her 93rd birthday. In this episode, she spent the day at Kleinfeld with her son and showed off her motorcycle skills by riding up the West Side Highway.
“That one, I think, is almost everyone’s favorite episode,” Fenoli tells PEOPLE.
Jeanette died in March 2023 at age 99. That month, Fenoli — who hails from a small farm in Illinois, is the youngest of seven children, and got his start sewing at the age of 9 — spoke with PEOPLE about how his mother was his first muse.
“She went to work one day, and I got out a pattern and laid out the fabric and pinned down the pattern, cut it out, sewed it up, ironed it and cleaned up my mess and hung it in the doorframe,” recalled Fenoli. “She came home from work. She was a nurse, a home health nurse. She was supposed to wear blues. She said, ‘Where did the dress come from?’ I said, ‘I made it.’ ”
As Fenoli remembers, his mom went into the next room and tried on the dress. It fit perfectly, and she wore it to work the very next day.
“The day after that she brought me another pattern and said, ‘Can you sew this for me?’ That was really the start of my sewing career and fashion,” he said.
Season 1, Episode 11: “The Brides of America” (Say Yes to the Dress: America)
In the two-hour grand finale of Say Yes to the Dress: America, Fenoli married 52 couples in Central Park. The massive group wedding consisted of 52 couples from across America (one from each state, plus Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico).
Out of the 52 brides, 10 were featured in the 10-part series, which aired in January 2020. Each bride wore a wedding gown gifted to them from a curated selection at Kleinfeld Bridal.
“That was very special to me — being able to go to 10 of their houses, to where they lived, and surprise them, and kind of ambush them, and get to meet them and spend the day with them and their fiancé, and really get to know them,” Fenoli tells PEOPLE. “Because at a bridal appointment, you meet them, then they go in the room with a consultant, and they come out and I talk to them for a little bit, so I really don’t get to meet them like I did when I spent the whole day with them.”
Season 18, Episode 2: “I’m the Evil Mom Here”
The next memory that popped into Fenoli’s mind wasn’t a positive one. He walked out of a bridal appointment because a judgmental mother was so unkind to her daughter. The duo had previously shopped at around 100 salons, but couldn’t find a dress they agreed on.
“The mother was so nasty I had to walk out of the appointment. She was just so mean to her daughter, and cruel, that I literally walked out of the appointment,” he tells PEOPLE. “I’ve never done that in any episode of Say Yes the Dress.”
“In 23 seasons, I’ve never walked out of an appointment, but the mother was that nasty,” he adds.
Season 17, Episode 10: “Bionic Bride”
Fenoli will always remember helping a bride find a gown to complement her bionic arm.
The bride and model, Rebekah, was born without a right forearm and had a black prosthetic hand, a myoelectric prosthesis.
“There was also Rebekah with the bionic arm, who’s still a dear friend of mine,” Fenoli recalls. “She was bullied as a child, and so I felt for her because I was bullied as well, and we got together and she actually fell in love with my dress, and I got to surprise her at her wedding. So, that was fun.”
After a two-year hiatus, Say Yes to the Dress returned with new episodes on April 5 on TLC. The six-episode installment airs through May 10 and features a range of experiences and emotions as the search for the perfect dress narrows down.
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