LO
VE RACHEL KURLAND | JE STAFF
it on and it fit just right, Blair Manus finally
A fter said she “yes. slipped
” Yes to the dress, that is.

Of course, she also recently tied the knot, but her heart said “yes”
a long time ago to her now-husband, Jason.

The two are starring in an episode of TLC’s 14th season of Say
Yes to the Dress, which aired on March 25, and are featured in a new
show joining the network, Say Yes to the Address, which — judging
by the name alone — is like a TLC-infused House Hunters.

“I’m a huge fan of Say Yes to the Dress and just TLC in general,”
Blair said. “I’m always watching TLC in my spare time.”
Say Yes to the Dress films women while they embark on one of the
most daunting and important tasks: wedding dress shopping. But at Kle-
infeld Bridal in Manhattan, they’re not looking for any ordinary dress.

These designer gowns — tulle Alita Grahams, lacey, bareback
Lazaros, diamond-encrusted Pnina Tornais — are sprawled across
the store and generously accompanied by charismatic employees.

Blair applied for her dress decision-making to be recorded, and
TLC chose to film her first and second fittings, another crucial step
in the sometimes-overwhelming process.

For her first fitting, Blair’s mother, Nancy, grandmother, Mona,
and matron of honor, Marla, tagged along, and her fashion-savvy
friend Erica joined for the second round of stitchings.

The fitting was the first time her grandmother saw the dress, and
Blair said she was pleasantly surprised.

26 MARCH 31, 2016
“Both of them” — her mother and grandmother — “were really
nervous. The way I dress is pretty sexy, and I have one of those typical
Jewish mothers and typical Jewish grandmothers who’s always like,
‘Can you cover up? Why do your boobs always have to be out?’ ”
Blair joked.

“But the reactions that I got from everybody that I brought to
my fitting was literally, ‘This dress was made for you.’ ”
And it really was. Blair chose a Pnina Tornai gown that Israeli de-
signer Tornai herself actually customized for her after meeting at
Kleinfeld. The silky white fabric forms a tight bodice with subtle lace de-
tailing and straps and a sexy see-through button-up back, accom-
panied by a modestly bedazzled veil.

“My favorite part of the experience was just the attention that
you get when you shop at Kleinfeld,” Blair said. “Everybody treats
you like it’s the best day of your life. Everybody was very caring as
far as how my dress fit, and if it wasn’t perfect, they were actually
more of a perfectionist than I was.”
Blair, who grew up in Lafayette Hill, and Jason, a Bucks County
native, were married on Nov. 21, 2015 at the Sofitel in Center City.

The two go way back, but Jason doesn’t exactly remember it that way.

In the small Jewish community within Philadelphia, Blair, who
at the time was Blair Aaron, said, “everybody knows everybody.”
She went to a bar one night — Opa in Center City — and, by the
luck of Jewish geography, ran into two friends from summer camp,
SIMCHAS JEWISHEXPONENT.COM




along with Jason.

“I noticed her as soon as she came into the
bar,” Jason admitted, “but I would have never
said anything, I was too nervous to talk to her.”
“She actually approached me,” he recount-
ed of their meet-cute. “I had no idea who she
was. I’d never seen her a day before in my life.

But I kind of just went with it.”
But Blair knew him. She remembered see-
ing him around town and down the shore for
the past decade.

“I said, ‘I’ve seen you around for about 10
years, I guess it’s time we finally had a con-
versation,’ ” Blair recalled. “Jason claims he’s
never seen me a day in his life, but he acted
like an Academy Award-winning actor and
was like, ‘Yeah, I was thinking the same thing,
have a seat.’ And we ended up talking for an
hour, and immediately, we both knew that
was it for us.”
(Surprisingly — maybe Blair forgot this
part — Jason said she turned him down the
first time.)
That was almost four years ago.

Maybe she turned him down the first time
because she couldn’t believe her prayers had
been answered — literally.

Three weeks prior, she was driving around
town for work and randomly stopped in a
cash-for-gold store because she heard the
Blair’s happy response to seeing
herself in her wedding dress in the
Kleinfeld dressing room.

owner was an Israeli Jew. Out of curiosity, they
struck up a casual conversation.

From one Jew to another, the saleswoman
asked Blair what she had planned for the up-
coming High Holidays.

“I said, ‘Just going to my mom’s house for
dinner. Typical High Holiday thing,’ ” Blair
replied. “She was like, ‘Wait a minute, you’re
not going to synagogue?’ And at that time, I
really stopped going to synagogue after my
Bat Mitzvah.”
She wasn’t planning on going, but the
woman told her, “If you don’t go to synagogue
and hear the shofar being blown, it’s literally
like not showing up to your own court date.”
Out of Jewish guilt and a fear of bad karma,
Blair asked her mother if she could tag along,
but of course, the tickets were sold out.

So she asked Aunt Estelle, the Jewish ma-
triarch of the family, who recommended she
go with cousin Patsy to an open synagogue in
Rittenhouse Square, Leyv Ha-Ir ~ Heart of
the City.

“Maybe I’ll find my soul mate if I go,”
Blair remembers thinking. “And the whole
time I was in there, I was literally praying,
‘I’m ready for my soul mate. Please send
me my soul mate. Please. Enough is
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