Couple's nuptials set for TV
HARMONY — There were a few extra people recording the wedding and reception of Jennifer Krysinski and Sean Zabriskie last August.
Two producers, two cameramen, a couple of sound technicians and three assistants attended the Zabriskie wedding at St. Peter's Reformed Church, 320 E. Grandview Ave., Zelienople, and the following reception at the Four Points by Sheraton Pittsburgh North in Cranberry Township.
That's because the nuptials of the two Air Force captains were filmed for an episode of the TLC cable channel's “Four Weddings,” which begins its new season at 9 p.m. Aug. 15, although the cable channel hasn't said when the episode with the Zabriskies will air.
The Zabriskie wedding was one of four in the Pittsburgh area filmed for the reality game show involving four brides attending and rating each others' weddings. The winner receives an exotic honeymoon trip.
Jennifer Zabriskie, a 2004 Seneca Valley High School graduate and the daughter of Dale and Sue Krysinski of Harmony, said all it took was an e-mail to get her involved.
“During our engagement, I was a member of theknot.com. It's a wedding website to help with planning. They can hook you up with vendors. They can give you ideas,” Zabriskie said.
“I got an e-mail saying there was a casting call for weddings in Pittsburgh between March and October 2013,” she said.
Zabriskie, a fan of the show, said, “I filled out a form online. They wanted to know the theme of the wedding, how you met your husband, what I hate about other people's weddings.”
“I sent it in April,” said Zabriskie. “I totally did this on a whim, out of my curiosity. I got an e-mail a month later for a Skype interview.”
“After that, a week later I received a phone call that they would like to use me as a contestant and it went from there,” she said.When asked if having her wedding preparations, ceremony and reception filmed was stressful, Zabriskie, a labor and delivery room nurse at Wright-Patterson Air Base in Dayton, Ohio, said, “I wouldn't say it added to my pressure. I wanted it to be the perfect day for Sean and I, that was pressure enough.”“It was an added bonus to our already awesome wedding day,” said Zabriskie. “It was a unique addition to our wedding day for Sean and me.”“Sean loved being in it. He was such a ham on camera. We were kind of crazy on the dance floor,” she added. “He was supportive of the whole process and loved being part of it.”Her mother, Sue Krysinski, said, “I was kind of excited for her. I didn't know what to expect because I'd never seen the show before. I was excited because she was excited.”Zabriskie said she met with the other three brides at a Mount Washington restaurant.Zabriskie said all the weddings took place from the beginning of August to the beginning of September 2013.She added other than saying the three brides were all from the Pittsburgh area, she can't give out too many details.“I can say that all of our themes were very different,” she added.“We are still Facebook friends to this day,” Zabriskie said of her fellow brides.She was able to say hers was the third of the four weddings.“I wore my mother's wedding gown. I had it altered slightly. The majority of the gown was like hers. I altered the back and removed the sleeves,” she said.Krysinski called the film crew “very nice” and said “They also came to our house and filmed my reaction to seeing her in my gown for the first time.”Sean Zabriskie wore his dress uniform, Jennifer Zabriskie said, and three of his groomsmen were also in the military.“That was our theme. We did the saber arch coming out of the church. We cut our cake with a saber,” she said. She added the colors of the wedding were red, white and blue, and each of the 125 guests were given a sparkler when they left the reception.The officiant, St. Peter's pastor the Rev. James Bertoti, said the film crew didn't interfere with the ceremony.“Absolutely not,” said Bertoti. “They were the most professional videographers I have had in the church. They had black on, so you knew who they were, but you didn't see them.”Bertoti said he was familiar with “Four Weddings.”He has two daughters, he said, “And when you grow up in a house full of girls there is always a wedding show on.”“They were very respectful of our time and our space and not being on our spaces. I never felt that they were too much of a presence,” said Zabriskie of the “Four Weddings” crew at the reception.But there were some surprises. She said being filmed as the bride was no problem.“As a guest it was trickier to deal with the cameras than as the bride. The cameras were more on you as a guest than as a bride, because they wanted to film your relation to different things,” she said.“I remember eating was awkward. You can't turn your head away when you are eating, but I was taught it was polite manners not to be chomping in the cameras,” Zabriskie said.The camera crews stayed for the entire reception. Guest brides were immediately interviewed after the receptions for their impressions.The brides had to rate each others' weddings on dress, venue, food and overall experience.“Some of the elements of the other weddings wowed me, and I honestly had a great time at all their weddings. But I wouldn't say that attending their weddings wanted me to change our day. It was the best for us,” she said.The competing brides gathered at Hartwood Acres for the show's traditional summing up and the arrival of the limo carrying the winning bride's groom and the announcement of their honeymoon destination.Zabriskie added the winning couple can't take the trip until their episode airs.Whenever it does, Zabriskie said, “I will have a big party at my house, a big viewing party.”
