She always dreamed of the day she would walk down the aisle (again), but 90 Day Fiancé star Stacey Silva never imagined that her wedding would actually be something straight out of a fairytale. Of course, there’s no promise that the fairytale in question has a happily ever after, and this affair was full of bad omens.
Let’s break the whole scene down.
The Build Up
When the day of her wedding arrives, Stacey secludes herself in the bathroom of the studio apartment she shares with her groom-to-be. With the Coronavirus crisis pushing her plans for a grand gala out of reach — and the clock ticking on fiancé Florian Sukaj’s K-1 visa — the couple has decided they can’t wait any longer to tie the knot. The blushing bride never imagined she would be getting ready by herself, instead of being attended by a flock of bridesmaids and grooming professionals, but she’s determined to do the best she can so that she can look like a princess for her man.
“I’m excited, I’m nervous. I’m ready to do it,” Stacey tells the camera with makeup applied to only half of her face. “Hopefully I’m the bride of his dreams.”
She goes on to reveal that the secret of her ceremony is only known to her, Florian, and their officiant. That means twin sister Darcey Silva has been kept out of the loop, presumably to stop her from pulling the plug on the whole affair.
“I know that [my fiancé and I have] been through some issues with the stupid pictures and stuff … It’s just, like, I don’t want anybody else in our heads trying to stop us or judge my relationship,” she admits. “It’s who I love, and I believe in him. I believe that he has a lot of talent and [there are] endless possibilities for him here.”
Stacey is sounding both like Florian’s manager and also like her own worst enemy. Roughly translated, her explanation reads, “I know my fiancé has been up to some shady shit, but I don’t want anyone, especially Darcey, to remind me of reality when I am doing my best to live in an imaginary romance of my own design. I think Florian is super hot and I’m looking forward to being able to say that I am married to a model.”
The Set Up
But as the bride gets ready by applying foundation to only her left side, Florian is getting ready by setting up their make-shift altar. He’s tucked their Murphy bed away, set up a furry bench with some classy decor, and now he’s arranging all of the candles. He wants to make sure everything is correct for his special day, and he repeats himself just in case he didn’t seem enthusiastic enough the first time.
“I try to decorations and candles. It like to make everything perfect, everything correct. Is special day,” he says. “Everybody like to make the everything correct. It’s special day.” See, guys? He’s experiencing all the normal emotions a typical groom goes through before walking down the aisle. “I don’t feel, like, more excited in my life,” he says, and finally manages to muster enough feeling to put a sparkle in his eye.
Already dressed in his suit (or maybe it’s more apt to call it a pair of skinny black jeans with a blazer over a rumpled button down), he writes out their date in candles on the floor: 20.04.2020. Since he’s Belgian, we’ll accept the European style of the date and refrain from making any 420 jokes.
Stacey also knows how to keep it classy, which is why she’s happy to show off her full glam looked paired with a (frankly gorgeous) hair comb, petticoat and sports bra. She pulls the mountains of sparkly tulle that is her dress over her head and does her best to shimmy into it. “Like climbing through a tunnel!” she shouts, before emerging through the neck of the dress.
When the officiant arrives, Florian greets him at the door to the building and leads him back to the apartment, presumably shielding him in the hallway just in case Darcey is peering out the peephole of her own apartment where she is holed up with boyfriend Georgi Rusev.
Off-camera, officiant Paul must point out the impracticality of the little aisle Florian has made out of tea lights, because half of it is gone when we see him leaning over to light the flames. In a confessional, the groom gushes that he’s been building trust with his future wife. Despite his little sexy photo scandal, he promises that Stacey can trust him 100%.
Cut to Stacey, who all but admits that she knows she can’t trust Florian 100%, which is why she hasn’t told any of her loved ones (including her two sons, apparently) about the wedding. “It’s done,” she says. “We’re ready to start our new life. And nobody’s gonna stop us. Nobody’s gonna sabotage our love.”
The Ceremony
When the bride finally emerges from the bathroom, she does look like a princess, but she also looks like a walking fire hazard. Her groom steps up to the plate as he leaps into action, escorting her around the lit candles and to the other side of his display. They’re looking for fireworks, people, not an inferno, but we already know this special day is bound to go up in flames.
When the officiant asks for Florian’s phone to film the vows, we get an uneasy sense of foreshadowing. When Instagram model Shanti Zohra reached out to let Stacey know about her little play date with the Belgian fitness model, she hit up the Silva sister directly, but we can already envision the bride grabbing her groom’s phone in order to relive their special evening and stumbling on some not-so-special texts or photos instead. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Let’s live in the moment, not in the mess that’s sure to follow.
Paul holds up the phone, and Stacey and Florian stand before him, hand in hand. Florian’s not-exactly-ironed shirt has gaps where the two sides of it meet, giving the audience a shy glimpse at his bare chest underneath and prompting us to wonder if he somehow missed a button. Stacey is glowing, but her groom looks like he’s waiting in line at the bank, and — other than his bowtie — he’s dressed the part.
The officiant speeds through the ceremony. As Stacey looks at Florian, Florian looks at her chest. When Florian finally looks up to meet her gaze, Stacey looks at the camera. They embrace, share a quick marital makeout, and pull away. Florian wipes his mouth.
But the real trouble comes when the couple presents their marriage license to the officiant. The license was issued for a ceremony in Middletown. They’re not currently in Middletown. Having to find a new studio apartment where they could live together means they’ve officially crossed county lines. The vows they just exchanged don’t qualify them to be legally married, and now they’re in for a mad dash to find somewhere they can re-exchange vows (and, presumably, legally film those vows to be aired on TLC) before midnight.
“I don’t know. I don’t know what we were thinking, how it slipped our minds. We just want to get married today. We don’t want to go through this again,” Stacey says. “4/20/20. This was the day that we had planned and we chose. This day was supposed to be special for us.”
Stacey strips off her ballgown, pulls on something that travels with a little more ease, blows out all the candles, and shoves Florian out the door, all while losing her shit. Her not-quite-husband tells her to “relax one minute.” She shouts, “NO!” She lets out a scream of frustration, declares the whole day ruined, and they sprint out of the building.
Florian is not in a rush, but Stacey isn’t calmed by the fact that her dad’s house, where they hope to say their “I dos” on his doorstep in secret, is only five minutes away. There’s also the additional stress that goes along with the fact that the Silva twins’ father lives at the Silva twins’ father’s house. Right now, so do Darcey’s daughters. None of them were informed about the nuptials, and they don’t want to wake them up and have them find out. Hopefully, the late hour and the fact that it’s a Monday will work in their favor, but you never know with teenagers.
The Second Chance
The couple pulls up to the house and they scurry up onto the porch, Paul dogging their steps as he follows along. He asks as fast as he can if they take each other to be their spouse, they answer “yes” in unison, and then they kiss once again. I have to say, this time around it is actually kind of sweet. They’re both looking at each other, for one, and Florian is even smiling this time. Maybe the race against time warmed up the groom’s cold feet?
Back in the car, they both seem equally enamored, and Florian sweeps Stacey into his arms so he can carry her over the threshold once they’re back at their apartment building.
“Well, I guess I got my Cinderella wedding after all,” Stacey declared at one point during the evening. Unfortunately, the promo for the next episode warns that this may be more of a Brothers Grimm affair than anything out of the Disney vault. Shanti is back, but she’s reaching out to Darcey too late to stop the wedding. Stacey’s carriage may not have turned back into a pumpkin at the end of the night, but her husband may still be a cheater.
Images: TLC Screenshots