Once again OWN brought us a couple who was willing to face a challenge. Together for 3 years, Khalel and Melissa were excited about starting their lives together as husband and wife. Despite Melissa being a self-proclaimed high-maintenance gal, Khaleh was looking forward to impressing his bride by planning the entire wedding. Hoping for a traditional wedding, Melissa was in for a surprise, because Khalel wanted the theme to be “futuristic”. Forget the prince and the princess….he was thinking robots. Oh lordie…this will be interesting!
With only 3 weeks to plan the wedding of her dreams, Khalel will have his work cut out for him. Luckily he has his best friend and best man, Zaiid, there for support…and a place to stay since the show insists the couple remain separated until the wedding. So excited about the event, he began creating a schedule in hopes of managing the stress.
Melissa tours venues, looks at dresses and glows as she talks about fairytale weddings, nature and being outdoors. At the same time, her fiancé is making his list: florescent flowers, a robot liquor luge ice sculpture, and loft, bachelor-pad style venues. Loving the loft, he opted for a simpler plan. He chose the Sky Room which gave him an all-inclusive deal. BUT it cost him over 75% of his budget. Then he headed out to find a dress. Waiting for a dress to knock him out, he found it when he realized the price. With less than 2 weeks to go, they headed to a discount wedding dress store in hopes of finding the perfect dress. Finding it on the internet, he was a lucky boy! It looked beautiful and only a little over $937.
With only 10 days to the wedding, Khalel headed off to a back alley in LA. The dresses weren’t futuristic, they were hoochie! After trying on almost every club dress on, they finally found one that they all loved. 5 dresses for less than $500…he was doing great! With no cash left, everything seemed to be going off without a hitch, until the lighting. Khalel wasn’t going to be able to get the lighting he expected for his futuristic wedding. He hoped the venue would be able to find a way to make it work…and they did!
In the meantime, the bride and her friends headed off to the Bachelorette party. Dressed to the nines, the girls went to a simple dinner club, El Cid. They had a blast. BUT for once on “Don’t Tell the Bride” the groom did it right. With only $41 left in budget, he cut his Bachelor party done to the bones and actually pulled out the invitations for his friends to help him. It was great to see him putting her first.
Less than 48 before her big day, Melissa saw her dress for the first time. Brought to tears, she was the happiest bride. She felt beautiful…like Cinderella. The wedding couldn’t come soon enough.
Khalel had thought of everything…well almost everything. He forgot the hair and make-up and transportation to the wedding. He didn’t realize it wasn’t done by her friends. Oops! With no money, he made calls 90 minutes before the wedding and pulled it off. He called in a favor from Melissa’s friend who does her hair and make-up for free –as her gift. As for the transportation…they carpooled. It may not have been perfect but it was all coming together.
The bride was stunning, the bridesmaids were beautiful and the wedding was incredible. They danced the night away under futuristic lights. It was the wedding of their dreams!