BY DC CUEVA
Back in March during Ex On The Beach: Peak of Love, we focused on two MTV family members - one of the singles from that winter-themed season and a member of the Jersey Shore cast as they got to walk into the New York home base of TLC's hit series Say Yes to the Dress. For Real World & Challenge alum Nicole Zanatta, she joined with her triplet sisters Ashley and Samantha as they and their mom helped the ladder choose her outfit for the big day. And for Mike The Situation, he and the Sorrentino crew joined sister Melissa as they, too, also went wedding dress shopping a year before he tied the knot with his fiance Lauren prior to his prison sentence.
And as it stands now, there will be not one, but two instances this summer & fall where more MTV alumni will be making a trip into Kleinfeld Bridal's wedding dress saloon along West 20th Street in Manhattan. The second one features a married Total Madness rookie couple where one-half of them is back where it all began for her, and we'll be featuring the couple known as Swayleigh - Chris "Swaggy C" Williams & Bayleigh Dayton when they walk into Kleinfeld's then. This takes place while she's again taking up residency in the BB All Stars house with fellow 2-time houseguest & Challenger Da'Vonne Rogers.
The first aired last Saturday night on the lucky date of 8/8, and where someone who is now a radio host and who helps those get their day started in one of America's great cities make the trek down from New England to help out with her wedding dress planning. But a decade ago this summer, she was living down in The Real World right by the Bayou.
Several of Knight's fellow Real World and Challenge alumni who he lived with and competed alongside flew up to Kenosha, Wisconsin for his funeral services on a cold, December day. One of those who ventured up to the Upper Midwest was Ashlee Feldman, who came to New Orleans having been a collegiate basketball player at Northeastern University in Boston after having grown up in New Jersey. When seeing her at first glance walking through Louis Armstrong International Airport upon her arrival, you might've thought that she had work on her lips - but she assured everyone that her lips are natural.
Given her experience on the court, it would have made logical sense for her to be Challenge bound after leaving the RW house. But while she was in the Big Easy, she got to do some radio internship work - including having precious audio files of recording with a portable audio machine amidst the revelry of Mardi Gras get wiped away by accident. But her experience with that microphone would eventually prove valuable in her career plans, and instead of following Jemmye, Knight and Preston to the fifth major pro sport, she would pursue her career aspirations of being behind the mic and working for a radio station in her adopted hometown.
But there's also longstanding traditions: next year sees beloved DJ Matt Siegel mark 40 years as host of pop station Kiss 108's morning show that he's hosted for as long as MTV has existed and when his station was still occasionally playing disco tracks. In another studio in the same building that houses the 8-station local cluster of the nation's largest radiocaster iHeartMedia, last year Ashlee took over hosting morning drive for Kiss' hip-hop sister station JAM'N 94.5, along with co-hosts Santi Deoleo and DJ's Pup Dawg & 4eign who wake up those in a region that four million people call home.
It's her second time being part of radio's most coveted timeslot, having served as a co-host in JAM'N's last attempt to have a locally-produced morning show before it aired for a few years The Breakfast Club from New York hip-hop heavyweight Power 105.1. When she took over the hosting reigns, Ashlee became the first solo female to front a local morning show in Boston, the culmination of working for several years at JAM'N in various on-air capacities - a time where she also briefly dated RW/Challenge icon Zach Nichols before he found his perfect match in Jenna Compono.
After trying out one ideal dress while at home, Ashlee and her entourage came to the Big Apple for wedding dress shopping -- and as is the case for everyone who comes onto SYTTD, they found that just picking that outfit is perhaps the toughest part of the planning process. The first two choices were rejected - the first one by her group and a second scandalous one with a silt thigh-high that's not exactly fitting for a wedding day in front of family & friends. Her original plans were to only wear a white dress, but the third choice was a pink-colored dress gave her a choice to just make a deal to wear that or the one she chose back home.
And in the end, she opted for the ladder, which featured a cape attached to the gown and staying true to her New England roots. As she wrote on Instagram after her return to national television last week, "What a wild wedding ride last night. Shout out to my crew. Love you to Kleinfeld and back. 💍👰🏼 @sayyes_tlc."
- I AM DC
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