Say Yes to the Dress Analysis

“Say Yes to the Dress” is one of the most iconic TLC series ever and has been on the air for over a decade now. The premise is pretty straightforward, but if you’re a big fan, you’ve probably had some questions over the years. For example, how often does the bride go over budget, and by how much? How often does the mother of the bride influence said bride’s decision? In this campaign, we analyzed seasons 9-19 of “Say Yes to the Dress” in an attempt to answer these questions and more.

The Consultants

Let’s start with the consultants. Lisa Fuhrman has appeared in the most episodes, followed closely by Debbie Asprea. Antonella rounds out the top three, all of whom are also the only SYTTD consultants to appear in 30 or more episodes! Fan favorite Randy Fenoli dominated the earlier seasons of the show, capturing the hearts of brides and viewers alike, but stopped appearing in as many episodes when he received his own show, “Randy to the Rescue,” in 2012. The show was canceled after two seasons, however, and Randy makes occasional return appearances on SYTTD to this day. 

The Brides

SYTTD definitely belongs to the new brides. There were never more than three returning brides in a season, and the show only hit that number twice. In the majority of seasons, just one bride was a returning guest. This kind of makes sense, though, as a lot of people usually go wedding dress shopping just once in their lifetime.

For a show called Say YES to the Dress, the brides sure say NO an awful lot! Proportionally, the season 12 brides were the worst about this, as just over 35% of them turned down every dress they were shown. Season 15, on the other hand, was the only season to have every bride go home with a brand-new wedding dress.

The Stats

It wouldn’t be a hit TLC show without some drama, and SYTTD almost always delivers on that front. We tallied a total of 19 bride-mom arguments throughout the 167 episodes that make up seasons 9-19. 

We already talked about the seasons where, proportionally, the bride said “yes” the most and “no” the most, but across all of the 11 seasons we watched, the bride said “no” to the dress an average of 22% of the time. Meanwhile, the bride said “yes” a total of 171 times!

While you might get the idea that the brides go big and spend more than they should on way-too-fancy dresses, you’d be surprised: The average spend of a SYTTD bride is $6,373, but the budget for the average SYTTD bride is $6,464. However, maybe this doesn’t prove that the dresses are cheaper than you might think, but that brides chosen to be on the show make sure they can afford your typical Pnina Tornai wedding dress!

Closing Thoughts

Lots of women find their perfect wedding dress at Kleinfeld Bridal. But if it’s the perfect engagement ring you seek instead, there’s no better place to start your search than Shane Co. With the option to design your own ring within any price range, Shane Co. is somewhere you can create the exact jewelry you’ve been dreaming of.