Feb. 1, 2019

A Sioux Falls banker’s journey to find a wedding gown will be featured Saturday on TLC’s “Say Yes to the Dress.”

Sixteen months have passed since Stephanie Gust, a vice president and private banking officer at Liberty National Bank, taped the reality TV show at Kleinfeld Bridal in New York City.

“I’m really glad it’s actually quite a bit of time later so I can relive the moment,” said Gust, who applied online for the show in 2017 and was chosen after three rounds of phone and FaceTime interviews.

Gust – then Stephanie Alt – traveled with most of her nine bridesmaids, family and friends to New York City for the taping Oct. 4, 2017.

The group of 20, including her two daughters and mother, had a lot of fun, and they were able to do some sight-seeing too, Gust said. The crew filmed the entire group walking into the bridal shop, but only four of them were allowed to join her for the taping as she tried on dresses.

At Kleinfeld, Gust worked with designer Randy Fenoli, who served as her salesperson, and bridal consultant Dianne Barbaro, trying on only four dresses before making her decision.

She’s a little worried about how the edited show will come together, which she won’t get to see until it airs, because she has seen the title of the show, “Don’t Show the Goodies,” and the description of it: “Stephanie has a big budget and wants a show-stopper dress for her second marriage.”

“They asked me what my budget was, and I said, ‘Whatever looks good on me,’ so we’ll see.” She joked that as a banker she knew that would be a conservative amount.

As for the “goodies,” the bridal consultant wanted her to try on several dresses, and she vetoed some because the sample dresses were too small and “as a tall Scandinavian” she knew she wouldn’t fit into them. “I also knew they were styles I didn’t like anyway.”

Her wedding to Dr. Troy Gust, a neurosurgeon at Sanford Health, was June 9, 2018, at St. Joseph Cathedral. The couple’s videographer used a drone to shoot footage that they sent to the “Say Yes to the Dress” producers. Gust hopes the show uses some of the panoramic scenes of the Cathedral and downtown. “They were just gorgeous,” she said.

The show airs at 7 p.m. Saturday and will be available online sometime after that. The Gusts are having a viewing party at Minnehaha Country Club with their wedding party and other guests.

While Gust acknowledged she’s nervous about the show, she’s excited to bring everyone together again.

“This is going to be a fun party.”

Editor’s Note: If you’d like to see a photo of Gust in her wedding dress, come back to this story next week. We don’t want to spoil the show!