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There’s a little-known secret buried deep in the annals of reality TV, and it’s the majesty of a short-lived show called Bridalplasty that aired from 2010-2011. In case you never got the chance to watch it (and you should immediately YouTube it if you haven’t, since it doesn’t seem to exist anywhere else on the web), it was a series where real-life brides competed against each other to win plastic surgery and cosmetic procedures so that they could be the “perfect” bride. The last woman left standing at the end of the competition would also nab her dream wedding — the dress, the venue, the cake, all of it.
And while it was clear that some women were mainly just there for the free wedding (though, hey, if a boob job was on the table, they weren’t going to turn it down), others had a long list of procedures they wanted to win. Together, the competitors scrambled to tell the difference between store bought and fancy AF cakes, assemble a puzzle of their “after” pics, heavily photoshopped to look insanely skinny yet busty as hell in a wedding dress, on top of their “before” pics, and take a lie detector test in front of their future hubbies, all so they could hear host Shanna Moakler say things like, “Congrats! Come grab your syringe and go down to the injectible party!”
And among them was Jenessa, the star who stole the show. The second we met her, we knew she was different, as she freely shared with her co-stars and the audience that the only reason she was engaged in the first place was because she had given her fiancé an ultimatum. “Like, I made him propose to me,” is her first line on camera. “You have 30 days. I was like, if I don’t have a ring on my finger in 30 days, I’m so leaving… We were together for four years and I was like, this is ridiculous! You will propose to me!” But, hey, it worked.
“When you made it clear to me that you needed an engagement ring so that you could be engaged and wed according to your schedule, I said I’m not gonna fight this. You know, I’ve got my hands on a real winner here,” he explained. And he definitely did have a winner on his hands. Because behind the scenes, Jenessa was basically a total puppet master, pulling the strings for the other contestants so that she could both stay in the game and eliminate her fiercest rivals. Oh yeah, so the brides didn’t just compete to be top bride and win liposuction or a nose job or veneers. At the end of every episode, they also voted between the two lowest performing brides to decide who would stay — and who would go home. And this star thought she had the brains to beat them all.
From the beginning, she was playing to win: “I can’t wait to scope out the other girls, see what my competition is and formulate my game plan.” And she did have some procedures on her list, like the nose job she eventually won and a little bit of liposuction recommended by none other than Botched/Real Housewives of Orange County/Good Work/The Swan star Dr. Terry Dubrow. If there was even a hint of an imperfection anywhere on any of the brides’ bodies, any extra bit of fat on even the skinniest thigh, you could trust Dr. Dubrow to find it and draw a big, purple circle around it in marker — so that everyone else could squint and try to see it, too. But mainly, it was clear that Jenessa was in the game purely to blow the other brides out of the water, show off her game face, and win maybe just for the sake of winning. You know how most reality stars go on a show to try and find fame? Yeah, Jenessa wasn’t here for that — she was here for pride.
And she should be pretty proud. Because from pretty much the first second, Jenessa scored herself that coveted TV villain title, guaranteeing herself plenty of screen-time. And while some girls were onto her, it wasn’t usually until it was too late and they were sent packing. Even though there were some contestants who discovered her tricks early, like Alexandra, Jenessa still managed to out-maneuver, proving herself one of the most iconic, legendary, successful reality villains of all time. There was just one flaw. When it came time for the final challenge, the last women standing — Jenessa, obvs, and Allyson — they were told they winner would be picked by a panel of Bridalplasty experts. Aaaaand those experts turned out to be all the women that the plastic surgery-seeking strategist had already played and sent packing. Yikes.
Unfortunately, Jenessa was no longer able to snake her way to the top. Not only that, Allyson called her “the biggest super c–t [she’d] ever met in [her] entire f–king life,” and most of the other brides agreed. Basically, it was open season on Jenessa, with everyone informing her exactly how much of a b—h she’d been. Well, except for Melissa who called her a “f–king genius,” which she clearly is. And she did have one friend, Dominique, who stood by her side. But mostly it was a lot of “GTFO.”
Needless to say, despite all of the villain’s hard work and scheming, she didn’t quite nab that perfect wedding. But what happened to Jenessa after the show? Did she continue to treat chaos like a ladder and try to climb to the top, Littlefinger style (although we all know how that worked out for him)? Seems like it! As promised, she’s pretty much stayed out of the fame game — unlike Alexandra, who had previously competed on The Biggest Loser and went on to appear on My Big Fat Revenge in 2013. According to IMDb, Jenessa did make an appearance on 50 Greatest Wedding Shockers around the same time that Bridalplasty aired, but then she recommitted herself to her real work. According to her LinkedIn, she graduated from a Solutions Consultant, which is what she was doing at the time of the show, to a Business Development Manager, Director of BI Sales, and eventually Director of Financial Services Sales in 2016.
Oh, yeah, and she and her fiancé did end up tying the knot. From her Facebook, it looks like the two had a gorgeous ceremony in 2012. Sure, it wasn’t free, but it still looks pretty great. She apparently even made up with castmate-turned-enemy Cheyenne. The two attended each other’s bridal showers despite the fact that Cheyenne told her during the finale that she didn’t have “dignity, respect from other people, [or] class.”
Now, seven years after the show has finished airing, the TV villain and her husband have three adorable little kids, two boys and a girl. So while Jenessa may not technically have been the winner of Bridalplasty, we won’t pretend she didn’t win our hearts — and everyone else’s grudging admiration for a game well played. Congrats, Jenessa. Keep up the hustle.
