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| Screencaps Courtesy: TLC |
We're talking about Bayleigh Dayton and Chris "Swaggy C" Williams -- better known to those in the reality TV community and the fandom that spends their summer watching Big Brother as Swayleigh. It was two years ago that they were riding a high after getting engaged on finale night of BB20 just after his early exit and her being the first member of the voting jury... and 48 hours later they and the cast of that show flew up to Las Vegas to celebrate their engagement with their fellow reality TV community. So began their amazing ride that's taken them to a number of places around the world and back including getting to know so many people along the way, including the boss lady of the NBA champs.
After stops at the 2017 Miss USA Pageant pre-BB and Family Feud post-BB, this year Swayleigh broadened their reach beyond just those who follow Big Brother to other places on the TV dial: they, along with BB20 winner Kaycee Clark and Fessy Shafaat, were rookies on The Challenge Total Madness. Three of them made it to the final but fell short of the top prize as the summer sensation continued its MTV takeover two years after it began on Vendettas... but we all remember the huge blowup in the bunker involving the two ladies.
Along the way - including having just hosted a large but COVID-safe housewarming last weekend at their new digs across the street from the Staples Center, there was another stop on the Swayleigh World Tour in 2020: a pit stop from the Total Madness final in the Czech Republic en route to the Big Brother All-Stars house brought them to the Big Apple, and another milestone towards becoming official in wedded bliss thanks to putting on a wedding dress.
With the cat now out of the bag of the next Challenge season debuting in three weeks from tonight, the appearance of one of this winter's challengers on Double Agents brings to mind that one time back in 2014 of Nicole Zanatta joining her triplet sisters Ashley and Samantha along with their mom in picking a wedding outfit for Sam on TLC's Say Yes to The Dress. It was Nicole's first time on national television, proceeding by several months her going onto Real World Skeletons, where the skeleton visit to Chicago amounted merely to just a family weekend visit from those triplets.
Say Yes and the franchise's various spinoffs has featured hundreds of prospective brides as they walk into Kleinfeld Bridal shop in New York City and other similar stores to try on wedding dresses that cost five figures or less in an effort to have the best one possible for their big day. Most recently, we featured Real World Back to New Orleans alum, Boston radio host Ashlee Feldman, as she went to give Kleinfeld's dresses a try in the Big Apple before opting to stick to those located closer to home in New England. And Mike the Situation came into the shop to help out his sister with choosing a wedding dress with the rest of the Sorrentino clan a year before his big day with Lauren.
For Bayleigh & Chris, they made their way to SYTTD a little bit earlier than the one-time roomie of Jemmye & Knight in the Big Easy, and on the second anniversary of that summer in the Big Brother 20 house. Of course, a big pandemic has caused plans to have their big wedding day to be pushed back until further notice, but for an appearance that was filmed well before the panic began it didn't stop the Swayleigh express from making a stop in Manhattan in the Kleinfeld shop, once again meeting with resident fashion director Randy Fenoli and his staff as they help out with the couple's choices.
Swayleigh are not alone when they come walking in after taking selfies in the streets: when Nicole & her sisters went into SYTTD, their mom joined them to help out, while Ashlee was joined by her mom, brother, her fiancé and radio co-host. And when The Situation made his guest appearance here, their dad and his brother Marc accompanied the bride, sister Melissa. In this case, Bayleigh & Swaggy walk in with two members of the same Dayton family who she competed with on Family Feud -- mom Robin and sister Brittany -- plus Bayleigh's personal stylist Wlaa Style.
They reveal to Randy that they plan on having a large-scale wedding day in the Bahamas post-pandemic (they got hitched for the first time in early 2019 in Jackson, MO), and she prefers a dress that's light, tulle and classy with a mermaid silhouette, and to keep it under $5,000. But there's a catch: Swaggy agrees to join his wife for her appointment and to help her out with the dresses, but when the opportunity comes to choose that outfit he would not be in the room for the selection process in order to save seeing that dress for wedding day.
Given the sultry, tropical setting for where wedding day will eventually take place, Randy, Wlaa and Kleinfeld consultant Krissy pick out three outfits with lighter fabric that can deal well with the warm climate of the Bahamas. The first of these varied dresses is Blush by Hayley Paige, valued at $3,000 but where Krissy feels skeptical of it because it doesn't fit Bay's vibrant personality and was chosen by her male colleagues... and her entourage feels that it's more like a prom night dress than wedding dress, though the husband thinks it mixes class and sexy.
The second choice brought about a glam-filled dress with a low-back and a V-lined plunging neckline and one that the bride called "a mermaid glam." The Tony Ward-designed dress goes for $4,000 which receives a similar reception as choice #1 from the husband and the Daytons, as they would rather forget about having the train in the back of the dress which the mom called it "balled up tissue paper." Not surprisingly, the judges' scorecards gave Bayleigh's second dress a low score... but Bay has other thoughts in which she says she likes #2 because of its shape and couture.
In paraphrasing the nickname given to Aimee of Floribama Shore, Dress #3 is one Krissy would see Bay look almost like a "beach goddess princess." The back-to-basics gown keeps it all simplistic and elegant in not having a train, but do maintaining a V-shaped front and a beaned-up backside that the bride puts at "a 12 on a 10-point scale." The gorgeous dress designed by the Kleinfeld fashion director himself left him speechless when he walked into the fitting room... and she loves the $2,500 dress so much it's enough for it to be THE dress once Bay's family and Wlaa joined them backstage.
In the end, the husband decides to not wait it out until wedding day to see what she will be wearing on the beach, if only for just a few minutes. And once Bayleigh finally walks out into the main room, the entourage are left saying "Wow," while Swaggy says, "I genuinely love this dress," before he walks out again to make sure to not be surprised more at what her actual wedding day dress will be like, which will include a veil adorning her head. The bride says of her wedding day dress, "To finally have found that dress and feel like this is happening, it takes a lot of the pressure off."
👰🏽 👰🏽 👰🏽
As mentioned up top, we are now three weeks out from the premiere of The Challenge Double Agents, featuring the aforementioned Kaycee and Fessy among the thirty competitors from around the world of reality TV competing for $1 million. Because of the earlier than scheduled premiere date of December 9th (the 16th anniversary of me meeting Linkin Park & the late Chester Bennington), there's been a change in our schedule for what will now be the winter 2020-21 cycle of our DCBLOG coverage.
Our traditional preseason preview for Season 36 will appear on here following the Thanksgiving break next week, to be followed shortly after by this season's installment of Who Are These Newbies?, our introduction to the rookie Challengers. As a result, our planned Flashback series will now appear at certain points during this coming season, including in weeks where if a cliffhanger takes place in any episode, which in turn its related posts are tabled to the following week.
In addition to frequent ExtraTime content on here, much of my time during this Challenge offseason and this fall has been taken up by work on my YouTube channel including my DC Vegas Flashback vlogs and now by DC Coast to Coast: a special series of videos covering my trips to New York City in 2008 and Disneyland in 2017. The first wave of vlogs covering the former will premiere one week from tonight to begin the long holiday weekend at YouTube.com/DC408Dxtr.
- I AM DC @DC408Dxtr
#DCBLOG
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