Say Yes to the Dress: Ultimate Wedding Edition premieres on January 25 at 10pm ET/PT

On January 25, TLC will premiere SAY YES TO THE DRESS: ULTIMATE WEDDING EDITION, a one-hour special featuring three very deserving couples who get their dream weddings after overcoming hardships and tribulations.

• April and Elijah were originally planning for a Spring 2009 wedding, but when they found out they were both getting deployed to Iraq (they met during training–April, the bride, is a tank mechanic for the army national guard), they had to move up the date to December 2008 and plan their wedding in a month! They just got married December 27. The special also touches upon a great loss for the couple, the groom’s twin brother recently died of cancer. Between the loss of his brother and the couple’s upcoming deployment to Iraq, this was a very emotional event, but also a very joyous celebration.

• Hope and Eugene put their original wedding date on hold when Hurricane Ike hit. To make matters worse, Eugene recently lost his job as a program manager at the YMCA working with disadvantaged young people when budgets were cut due to the recession. They used their entire wedding budget to help family and friends recover from the devastation. We help them plan the wedding they’ve always dreamed of, and help the bride-to-be get her perfect dress as well. They are now getting married on February 14, 2009.
• Theresa and Irving just recently moved to NYC from New Orleans, and had spent most of their money supporting Irving’s little brother. They’ve always wanted to plan a nice wedding but decided their money was better spent supporting Lamar and saving for their move to NY. The folks at Kleinfeld actually surprised the couple by transforming the lobby of the bridal salon into a wedding venue for them, and it’s all documented in this special. This is the very first time the store has ever done this for anyone.