It’s every bride’s dream to look great in her wedding dress and be immortalized for the rest of her life in her wedding pictures. A close second has to be modeling her bridal gown in a well know reality television star’s book about wedding dresses. Through a chance meeting, a recently married Haddonfield bride has undertaken a whirlwind media tour and was picked out of hundreds of potential women to be featured in a new book.
Alisa Madonna Taylor, a Haddonfield resident for the past four and a half years and a newlywed, will be featured in three pages of a new bridal book called “It’s All About the Dress,” written by well known reality television star and bridal gown expert Randy Fenoli. Fenoli is the star of TLC’s “Say Yes to the Dress,” which follows the everyday occurrences at Fenoli’s New York City store Kleinfeld Bridal.
The book is intended as a guideline to help soon-to-be brides pick out and find the best gown for their own wedding. All of the women featured in the book are real brides wearing the wedding dresses they actually wore at their own weddings, not simply models wearing dresses.
But Taylor didn’t go to an audition for the book and she isn’t a professional model — she’s never modeled for anything before in her life, she said — but she cultivated an interesting relationship with Fenoli through a fortuitous trip up to Kleinfeld’s when she was searching for a bridal gown.
“I purchased my bridal dress from Kleinfeld. They carry dresses from every price range, lots of different designers, and it was during a trunk show so several of the designers were in. I was not on the television show, but Randy was there that day,” she said. “Randy actually helped me choose my dress, he’s been in the industry for years, I was torn between two dresses and he helped me. I went to pick up my dress later he was there again, so I thanked him for helping me. He said he was working on a project and would love to get some of my photos after the wedding was over.”
Not really thinking too much about it, Taylor sent him a few of her wedding photos. Several months later, she was surprised when she received an email that said she had been chosen to be a part of the book.
She was thrilled to be able to put her bridal gown back on and take even more pictures.
“It’s every girl’s dream to be able to put her dress back on and have pictures taken. I got three pictures in the book, which came out this past November. To be apart of this, I was just so overwhelmed. There were hundreds of brides that he was looking at and I was super excited,” she said. “Hundreds of girls sent their photos in. I’m glad I didn’t know the backstory because it would have made me nervous. From there, Randy has been so sweet. I helped him out with a satellite media tour recently; he sent us an autographed copy of the book, all of these promotions, it’s been so fun.”
Taylor recently appeared on Martha Stewart Show with Fenoli, modeling her bridal gown again and helping him promote the book.
Also, another reality show appearance could be somewhere in the future, Taylor revealed.
“I’m a normal, average woman that was given this great opportunity,” she explained. “I wouldn’t be surprised (to work with Randy again). Randy is so great and he’s launching another television show now called ‘Randy to the Rescue,’ where he basically ambushes brides and helps them pick out a dress.”
You can purchase the book on www.amazon.com.
