On tonight’s My Big Fat American Gypsy Wedding, a pair of thoroughly modern gypsy sisters plan a double wedding to their gorger fiancés, and a 34-year-old Irish Traveller tries make a splash in the world of rap music.
Louisville sisters Kayla, 21, and Kandace, 20, already live with their fiancés, much to their traditional Romanichal mother Sandy’s dismay. Evan, 19, is Kayla’s man; they’ve been together for three years. Steven, 22, is Kandace’s man. Together five years, they already have two kids.
In addition to fretting over their living in sin and having babies out of the bonds of matrimony, Sandy believes her daughters shouldn’t work. They should take care of the house, get their hair and nails done and that’s about it. “That’s real love to me,” says Sandy.
Sandy and Steven actually get along pretty well, but mama doesn’t approve of Evan because she thinks if her family ever got in a fight — say at the local fair — Evan would just run and hide. Though Kandace works hard to get her mom to accept her man, Sandy says she has to smack Evan … just once.
The girls are planning a traditional gypsy wedding on the rooftop of a local hotel, applying their “Be cute, but put it on mute” philosophy to the matching “mullet” dresses (leg-baring party in the front, full-skirted gypsy business in the back) they order from Sondra Celli.
And when the gents accompany the gypsies to Boston to get those gowns fitted, a series of unfortunate events that lead right up to — and through — the wedding ensues.
Meanwhile, in Columbus, Ohio, Irish Traveller Al Burke, 34, is working as a blacktopper, but he dreams of stardom as the first gypsy rapper.
Al’s the divorced dad of Jade, 13, and Chloe, 12, who are planning to come cheer him on at a rap contest sponsored by local radio station Power 107.5.
Fascinated by Al’s story, DJ Terrence Sigers interviews him and gives him a chance to preview his skills over the airwaves before Al competes with other area talent for a record contract and the attention of local music managers.
Will Kayla and Kandace’s gorger-meets-gypsy wedding give Evan the chance to redeem himself in his new mother-in-law’s eyes? Will Al Burke take home the local-rapper prize?
Find out when My Big Fat American Gypsy Wedding “Big Dreams, Bigger Problems” premieres tonight at 9/8CT on TLC.
