Acclaimed Wedding Planner,
Diann Valentine
Gets New TV Show on TNT
Wedding Day

Wedding Day has moved to Thursday Nights at 8pm

Dreams really do come true.

From humble beginnings to soaring above and beyond achieving her wildest dreams, Los Angeles-based, renowned wedding and event producer and designer Diann Valentine continues to turn fantasy into reality. 

This vivacious, innovative mastermind gives deserving couples the wedding of their dreams as the host of Mark Burnett’s highly anticipated TNT series, “Wedding Day.” 

In addition to hosting “Wedding Day,” Valentine is lauded as a go-to-wedding and event designer who takes traditions and gives them a modern and unique flare, setting her events apart from others in her industry. 

Sought-after and admired, Valentine is the creative genius behind the jaw dropping weddings of Usher, Toni Braxton, Kelis, Lela Rochon and Boyz II Men crooner Shawn Stockman just to name a few.

Born in Oakland, California to a contractor father and mother who were both savvy real estate entrepreneurs, Valentine has always been pushed to settle for nothing less than her dreams.  The self-confessed “daddy’s girl,” credits much of her success to her father who always told her that she is “smart, beautiful and can do whatever [she wants] to do;” and her mother whose advice has never failed her, “when in doubt, pray,” two mottos that continue to guide her life. 

While attending Oakland’s Skyline High School, the overachieving Valentine was part of the debate team, active in student government, a school representative for the Oakland School District, and asked – for the first time ever – by her cousin to plan her big day.  Honored by and excited for the opportunity, Valentine got to work.  She not only enjoyed the excitement and chaos of planning her cousin’s wedding; but found herself really good at it, too.  Not wanting to give up a good thing, Valentine formed her own wedding planning company called Memories, before she even had her high school diploma.

After graduation, Valentine went on to attend college at California State University, Hayward Campus, graduating with a B.S. degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Marketing.  Throughout college, Valentine continued to prosper with Memories and through word of mouth, was hired by the Bay Area’s elite to plan their weddings and events. 

Some of these clients included professional athletes such as NBA star Jason Kidd, Joe Smith, an R&B star and members of the Fortune 500.  As a brand new college graduate, Valentine was a successful event producer who was far ahead of the wedding planning trend that was to follow years later.  However, Valentine dreamed of a life outside of Memories and packed up her mattress, TV, wardrobe and drove down to Los Angeles to begin a new chapter in her life.

Her first celebrity wedding was for actress Lela Rochon (Any Given Sunday, Waiting To Exhale) to director Antoine Fuqua (Training Day, The Shooter).  All aspects of the wedding, from picking the linens to the final dance, were covered by the style and trendsetting bible, InStyle, which solidified Valentine as the expert of all things wedding.  Suddenly, Valentine’s opinion mattered to the vastly growing industry of wedding planning and she was now the “it girl” of the business.

Firmly entrenched, D. R. Valentine & Associates, Inc. was born and her reputation expanded. Valentine’s dinner parties were featured in Essence Magazine and InStyle and sought-after by some of the biggest names in entertainment, producing weddings for: Usher, Toni Braxton, Kelis and Nas, Boyz II Men crooner Shawn Stockman, Chante Moore and Kenny Lattimore, Major League Baseball’s Gary Sheffield and NBA players Jimmy Jackson, Eric Williams and many more.

After giving wedding planning tips on “E! News Daily,” “ABC’s InStyle Celebrity Wedding Special,” “Entertainment Tonight,” “CNN,” and “HGTV” as well as doing spreads in Brides Magazine, InStyle, USA Today and Essence, Valentine published her first book, Weddings, Valentine Style. 

She continued to reach for new heights.

The next iteration, Valentine will host “Wedding Day,” the newest lovechild of Mark Burnett, the mastermind behind the runaway hit series “Survivor” and “The Apprentice.”  Each episode of “Wedding Day” features Valentine and a team of dream makers, including famed food expert Alan Dunn, making the wedding day dreams of a deserving couple go from fantasy to reality. 

The show takes the wedding plans of the couple and throws limitations out the window as they seek good-hearted volunteers and tap into their creative craniums to really make the big day, truly magical.  More importantly, in addition to giving a dream wedding, Valentine and crew are also changing lives by giving the couples a new start in life, whether it be donating a year-supply of food to students of a low-income neighborhood school where the bride teaches or funding a four-year college tuition for a groom who had to drop out of school to get a job to support his family.  From dream day, to dream life, Valentine is making dreams, realities.
           

Wedding Day episodes include:

Holli & Steve:                       Saginaw, Mich.
Just four days before his wedding day in 2007, Steve received a call that his bride-to-be, Holli, had been injured in a near-fatal car crash and had only a 50% chance of surviving.  After six days in a coma, she finally came to, but everyday since then has been a struggle to withstand the long, painful road to recovery.  Holli and Steve’s walk down the aisle includes a New York shopping spree, a Badgley-Mishka wedding dress and Manolo Blahnik shoes.  The couple even gets to enjoy a special performance by Boyz II Men, who were moved when they heard Holli and Steve’s story.

Jaénelle & Nyk:                   Detroit
Nyk had been in love with Jaénelle since he was ten years old.  Years later, she noticed.  Jaénelle and Nyk started dating and quickly fell in love.  When Jaénelle became pregnant, the two decided to get married.  But their plans had to be put on hold when Jaénelle delivered earlier, and their daughter, Anayah, had a non-functioning kidney.  The crushing prognosis was especially tough on Jaénelle, who is a neo-natal intensive care nurse at Children’s Hospital.  After Anayah’s risky surgery, the couple no longer had the funds to throw a big wedding. 

Christina & Shawn:            Iraq
After almost five years of being engaged, Christina and Shawn started to think their wedding would never happen.  Each time the two Army captains tried to set a date, one of them would get shipped overseas to serve in Iraq.  Working with the military and the Catholic Church, WEDDING DAY arranged to fly the couple home for a wedding they’ll never forget.  The day includes the ceremony at the very church in which Christina’s parents got married; the New York Police Pipe and Drum Corp; a major donation to The Fallen Soldier Fund, a charity close to the couple’s heart; and a chance for Christina to trade in her fatigues for a couture wedding dress.

I have seen Valentine’s career soar having known her since the mid-90s; recently, we spoke about this dream of a lifetime opportunity --

Sandra Varner (Talk2SV): Congratulations on the new show!

Diann Valentine: Thank you.  It’s been a long, long time coming, girl.

Talk2SV: Yes, but you have pursued it and it paid off; now you’re here to tell me about it.  Realizing television deals are years in the making, in a concise way, tell me how did this dream of yours come true?

Valentine: Well, (a while back) I locked into a development deal with another production company; my manager, my agent --I’m signed with ICM (International Creative Management)-- got a call that Mark Burnett was doing a new wedding reality show and they wanted me to come in and audition.  I went in just for a normal audition and chatted with the executive producer as if we were two friends talking.   I left (the audition) and before I made it back to my office they called back and said they wanted me to come in for a screen test.  The screen test was again with the executive producer of the show as well as the two co-presidents of Dream Works; then, I eventually got the call.

Talk2SV: Gee whiz.  Now, from start to finish, how long did it take from the audition to the deal being offered to taping the shows?

Valentine: From the audition, it took about a month to get the offer, which was excruciating.  Then, from offer to pre-production was about another month, but, they were gearing up immediately.  Tthen we did our first wedding. This was in March (2008) and I think our first wedding was May 5th, which was the pilot.  We initially shot a pilot. 

Talk2SV: To my mind, it sounds like it moved rather quickly; but, for you, someone waiting for it to happen, it may have seemed like forever.

Valentine: Forever, an eternity.  Once we actually started working on the shows it all happened so fast.  It’s hard to believe that when I first got cast for the show they were saying that it was going to premiere in June of this year (2009) and I was like, ‘you’re kidding me, a whole year later?’ I can’t believe how quickly that year went by. 

Talk2SV:  Turner Network Television (TNT) has certainly upped their game in the primetime TV arena.  They now have clout that no one ever thought they would have so I’m sure the placement, the positioning (next to HawthoRNe with Jada Pinkett Smith), I’m sure you must be excited about the time slot.

Valentine: Extremely excited because our show was created by Michael Wright (Exec. VP, Head of Programming - TBS, TNT and Turner Classic Movies).  The concept of the show was created by him.  It was his baby and this is their first step into reality TV.  They knew that they wanted it to be a big show, and they wanted it to be a ‘feel good’ show, a very positive show.  Since this show was essentially created by the president of TNT and not sold to him by a production company, there is a huge vested interest in it, company wide.  The buzz is, ‘this is Michael Wright’s baby,’ it cannot fail.  It has to do extremely well.

Talk2SV:  And what kind of pressure does that lay at your feet?

Valentine: Well, the good thing for me is for one, it’s a reality show. So, for a change, I get to be myself and I can do that any day of the week; then two, it’s a subject matter that I’m very passionate about and very knowledgeable about; weddings are second nature to me, I could probably plan one in my sleep.  Nonetheless, after all these years in this business-- I’m still just as excited to talk to a bride and I still get butterflies in my stomach on wedding morning-- all of that is just so gratifying to me.

Talk2SV: And it (that ebullience) translates into the show I’m sure.

Valentine: I hope so.  That’s to be determined by the critics, but I hope so.

Talk2SV: Let’s talk about this concept; from what I understand, these weddings are somewhat of a Cinderella Story, where fairy tales come true.  They are dramatic with feel good themes.  Is that correct?

Valentine: That is exactly correct.  The brides, the couple – it’s not just the bride, but the couple – chosen for the season have these amazing stories.  There are extenuating circumstances for one reason or another that have kept them from having the weddings of their dreams.  And, to give you an example, our premiere episode features a young couple named Holly and Steve who were scheduled to marry on 7-7-07.  That date just happens to be my birthday. 

SV: What a timely coincidence.

Valentine: So, they were scheduled to marry on 7-7-07, and, four days before the wedding, Holly was in a terrible car accident.  She was in a coma for six days; woke up from the coma and she didn’t know her mother, her father, her fiancée, her best friend: she knew absolutely no one. Holly spent almost 60 days in the hospital and after that she went into serious therapy and rehabilitation.  Fast forward to roughly a year later, here we come (the Wedding Day crew) knocking on the door saying, ‘Surprise!  I know you thought you lost all your wedding dreams but we’re here to make those dreams come true.’  And, we took all of her dream wedding ideas and simply super-sized them to make it (the wedding) much bigger than anything she could have ever imagined.  In addition to that, one of the partners of the show is Nationwide Insurance; they came on board and donated $15,000.  They put a gym into her home so now she doesn’t have to go to therapy every day.  She can actually do therapy at home in the comfort of her own gym and still work on her rehabilitation.

Talk2SV:  So this is a total makeover?

Valentine:  It is.  It is the kind of story that when you watch the show you will laugh, you will cheer with the couple, you will cry with them, you will do it all.

Talk2SV:  How are the couples selected?

Valentine:  We have a casting department and I’m not sure what the criteria is, but, I do know they scoured the country looking for brides that have extenuating circumstances or couples who are deserving for one reason or another and are unable to have their dream wedding. 

Talk2SV: It sounds pretty amazing.

Valentine:  Just amazing, the mind of Mark Burnett.  I tell you, I cry probably every episode and for me, ‘it feels so good just to do good.’

Talk2SV:  So you’ve done a full season of weddings?

Valentine: Yes, we have completed our entire first season.

Talk2SV: And how many weddings?

Valentine: 10.

Talk2SV: You’ve done ten weddings in what amount of time?

Valentine: In about eight months time.

Talk2SV: My God woman, how are you still standing?

Valentine: For one, I have a lot of help.  Obviously, Mark Burnett Productions is a huge machine and there are a lot of people that contribute to its success, but we literally go in for four days; we surprise them on day one and they get married four days later.

Talk2SV: Are you kidding me?

Valentine: No.  Literally, it’s like a whirlwind.  Many of the couples, not all of the couples, had original wedding dates that we had to keep; so, the challenge is to find a great couple, a deserving couple with a compelling and wonderful story to tell and in many cases, we had to keep those wedding dates.

More Celebrity Profiles

63rd Annual Tony’s, A Year of Firsts

By Sandra Varner and Justin Hinton

The 63rd Annual Antoinette Perry Awards for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as the Tony Awards, marked a year of firsts, as this Broadway season becomes the highest grossing theatre season in history.

Staged at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, the show was also broadcast for the first time in the newly-remodeled Times Square, garnered the most expensive opening performance in Tony history, featured three co-Tony winners for the same role with Billy Elliot, The Musical, and enlisted an additional upgrade of performances by including the touring productions of Jersey Boys, Legally Blonde, and Mamma Mia!

With the dry comedic styling of host Neil Patrick Harris (TV’s How I Met Your Mother on CBS), the show started with a series of jokes that featured people from the president to Oprah Winfrey to Harris himself.

Harris’ mellow yet charming demeanor set the stage for a night of elegant camaraderie among thespians.  His ease in delivery as host proved to be a good choice.

The evening’s presentation was in full display and Harris led the pack of “best dressed men.”

The guys didn’t have all of the fun as several fashion highlights were courtesy of: Jane Fonda regal in black; Marcia Gay Harden in a to-die-for, strapless green pleated gown and Angela Lansbury looked amazing in a gorgeous white knit formal pantsuit.

TONY winners accepted their awards with grace and aplomb.  Roger Robinson’s win for “Best Actor” in August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone was doubly sweet as President Obama and first lady Michelle took in the Broadway show during a recent getaway to New York.

Other notable award winners included: Karen Olivo for her work in the revival of West Side Story and Billy Elliot for Best Musical. A special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in Theatre was presented to Jerry Herman, honored for his amazing scores with Hello, Dolly!, Mame, and La Cage aux Folles.

Notable performances of the night came from the casts of Hair and Guys and Dolls. The cast of Hair got the crowd involved as Gavin Creel and Will Swenson stormed the audience, dancing and singing in the faces of those who watched while Titus Burgess and the revival cast of Guys and Dolls amazed the audience with their interpretation of “Sit Down You’re Rocking the Boat.”

I watched an early feed from CBS 5 (KPIX-TV) in San Francisco courtesy of Akilah Monifa-Bolden, Director of Communications, along with department interns: Justin Hinton and Christopher Lange.

Prior to the highly anticipated star-studded night on the Great White Way, I spoke to Harris before the TONY Awards --

Sandra Varner (Talk2SV): Given the rich and long history of Broadway and all that we’ve seen it go through --the ebb and flow of it all-- we’re certainly seeing high moments with the Tony Awards.  How does that make you feel by comparison to your role as host and how would you say it will fare in the history of Broadway?

Neil Patrick Harris (NPH): Well, it certainly makes my enthusiasm more authentic.  The pendulum has shifted drastically --back and forth-- even within this season.  And I love that it’s at a high point now.  I think that part of the job as host is to seem enthusiastic about what you’re talking about and sometimes the season isn’t incredibly enthusiastic-inducing.  But this year is great, there’s something for everyone; there are really great actors that people recognize; there are really great shows that people recognize, so I think a lot of the numbers that you’re going to see will be high energy and really fun to watch.  I know that sounds like the company spiel, but, I actually love getting people to see live theatre and think it’s a rock-on season.  So I’m expecting it to be one of the better Tonys. 

Talk2SV:  On average how many plays do you see a year?

NPH: On Broadway?

Talk2SV:  Yes, and others.

NPH: I probably come here (to New York) three or four times a year and see about four or five shows.  So what is that?  I’m not good at math…

Talk2SV: Is that four or five shows per visit?

NPH: Yeah, four or five shows per visit.

Talk2SV: So, close to twenty a year…?

NPH: Twenty a year --give or take—plus, I just try to see shows in L.A. (Los Angeles) I’m a big fan of just seeing things live.  I go to the Magic Castle a lot ‘cause live magic is great.  I see the Cirque du Soleil shows that are all over the place in Vegas; these shows are just great for families.  Community theatre is just great.  We live in a TiVo world and its fun to make a night of it and appreciate people doing things (live) right in front of you.