{"id":44550,"date":"2025-11-25T20:54:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T20:54:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/44550\/"},"modified":"2025-11-25T20:54:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T20:54:08","slug":"randy-fenoli-of-say-yes-to-the-dress-visits-cherry-hills-dress-2-impress-bridal-shop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/44550\/","title":{"rendered":"Randy Fenoli of ‘Say Yes to the Dress’ visits Cherry Hill’s Dress 2 Impress bridal shop"},"content":{"rendered":"

On a gray November morning last Saturday, in a converted Cherry Hill<\/a> Dunkin\u2019 Donuts, bridal magic was in the air. <\/p>\n

At around 9:30 a.m., members of the staff at Dress 2 Impress<\/a>, a new bridal boutique on Route 38, were furiously preparing for the arrival of one of bridal fashion\u2019s biggest celebrities: designer and Say Yes to the Dress star Randy Fenoli. <\/p>\n

Floors were swept, lipstick was applied, and dainty chocolate pastries were laid out on a towering display. <\/p>\n

Fenoli, 61, is a marquee name in the bridal world. He served as the fashion director for New York City\u2019s Kleinfeld Bridal from 2007 to 2012 and starred in the TLC reality show Say Yes to the Dress, set at Kleinfeld, and later his own, shorter-lived show, Randy to the Rescue. <\/p>\n

Fenoli is currently on a cross-country tour promoting his Keepsake Kollection, a new line of bridal gowns set to hit stores in early 2026. Dress 2 Impress, an authorized dealer of Fenoli\u2019s dresses, was part of a select group of stores debuting the line early, an honor that came with a guest appearance from Fenoli himself. <\/p>\n

He\u2019s \u201ca real celebrity,\u201d especially in South Jersey, said Beni Deliivanova, managing partner of Dress 2 Impress. <\/p>\n

Saturday marked the grand opening of Dress 2 Impress\u2019 second store. Their first boutique, located in Linwood, has been open for 13 years. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s a bit of \u201can American dream story,\u201d said Ivaylo Deliivanov, Beni Deliivanova\u2018s husband, who managed the front desk and topped off mimosas as Fenoli and the bridal staff tended to customers on Saturday morning. <\/p>\n

Deliivanov\u2018s mother, Violeta Deliivanova, ran a dressmaking factory back in Bulgaria. When she immigrated to the U.S. around two decades ago, she got into the alteration and dry cleaning business. She opened Dress 2 Impress in Linwood in 2013. In 2022, Beni, Violeta\u2019s daughter-in-law, left the corporate world to become a Dress 2 Impress managing partner. <\/p>\n

Though Dress 2 Impress\u2019 Linwood location has long been a destination for Jersey Shore<\/a> brides, Deliivanov said they were losing out to boutiques in Cherry Hill, where there are more bridal shops, and a giant mall, to meet brides\u2019 needs. The grand opening of their second location marks an entrance into Cherry Hill\u2019s formidable retail economy. <\/p>\n

The boutique is curated with keepsakes and designed for photo-ops. Sequin-covered purses and statement earrings sit in triptych glass cases. White champagne flutes and feathered fans embroidered with \u201cBRIDE\u201d rest next to a large bell that\u2019s rung when a bride meets her perfect dress. A walk-in closet opens into changing rooms and a sitting area where brides perform mini fashion shows for adoring groups of female family members and bridesmaids. <\/p>\n

Before the marathon of brides arrived, Fenoli and Dress 2 Impress\u2019 staff huddled in a back room, as the celebrity stylist imparted his time-tested wisdom onto the group. How do you match a bride to the right silhouette for her body type? How do you manage an overbearing family member with too many opinions?<\/p>\n

Chewy, Fenoli\u2019s Shih Tzu, meandered around the boutique, at times chasing a stuffed macaroni noodle (Chewy has been on at least 80 flights with Fenoli this year). <\/p>\n

The morning\u2019s first bride was Olivia Hafner, a 23-year-old Cherry Hill teacher engaged to her middle school sweetheart. The couple has been together for 10 years. Maria Hafner, Olivia\u2019s mom, called it \u201ca fairytale.\u201d <\/p>\n

Both Hafner women are Say Yes to the Dress fans. They booked an appointment at Dress 2 Impress after seeing an ad online. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m open to trying different things, but I want a ball gown,\u201d Olivia Hafner said, waiting in the foyer for Fenoli and Susanna Kavee, her enthusiastic bridal stylist. <\/p>\n

Over the next hour, Hafner emerged from the dressing room in dress after dress, first in a strapless gown with a structured corset top, then another with sequins, one with lace, and another with elegant detachable sleeves. <\/p>\n

The curated selection and hands-on assistance makes for a \u201cboutique\u201d experience, Fenoli said, one that sets the store apart from a trip to Macy\u2019s or the mall. <\/p>\n

What do brides want these days? Fenoli says \u201ceverything\u201d: glitter, ball gowns, princess-style skirts, traditional silhouettes. \u201cClean and simple\u201d is having a moment, Fenoli added (perhaps linked to the omnipresence of the laid-back-but-still-stylish \u201cclean girl aesthetic,\u201d<\/a> which has dominated TikTok in recent months, with ample criticism<\/a>). <\/p>\n

Fenoli said the world of bridal fashion has changed \u201ccompletely\u201d from his mid-2000s Say Yes to the Dress days. <\/p>\n

Brides show up to appointments with screenshots from Instagram and TikTok videos, asking to try on dresses from unknown designers, located oceans away. Others come with AI-generated images that are impossible to match. More and more, original designs are being ripped off and sold for cheap on the internet. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think technology and the internet has really hurt us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He quickly added: \u201cDon\u2019t ever, ever, ever, ever order a wedding dress online.\u201d <\/p>\n

Dress 2 Impress\u2019 Cherry Hill boutique is open from 10:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., Mondays through Fridays; 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturdays; and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sundays. <\/p>\n

This suburban content is produced with support from the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Editorial content is created independently of the project donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer\u2019s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com\/donate<\/a>. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org\/supporters<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On a gray November morning last Saturday, in a converted Cherry Hill Dunkin\u2019 Donuts, bridal magic was in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44551,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[69,71,70,26455],"class_list":{"0":"post-44550","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-philadelphia","9":"tag-philadelphia-headlines","10":"tag-philadelphia-news","11":"tag-randy-fenoli-say-yes-to-the-dress-randy-fenoli"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44550\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}