Entertainment

Final chapter of ‘Bridezillas’ era starts tonight

31.1t777.brides3--300x300.jpg

(
)

RIDE THE WAVE: Perturbed bride Amanda (above) is featured on tonight’s “Bridezillas,” while Melissa Rivera from Queens (inset) appeared on the show in 2008. (
)

Nobody intends to become a “Bridezilla.”

Not the real-life bride-to-be who was upset because the apostrophe on the “ladies’” restroom sign was straight instead of curly. Not the woman who got angry because her wedding planner’s engagement ring was bigger than hers. Not the brides who approach their weddings clutching binders of clippings they’ve been collecting for decades.

But with tens of thousands of dollars and a lifetime of expectations on the line, sometimes it just happens. “You’ve got to remind people to breathe, that it’s a happy occasion, a wedding, and it’s all going to be fine,” says Jennifer Gilbert, owner of Save the Date, an event planning company in Manhattan — whose clients have included the woman who resented the size of her ring, and those who bring in binders. “I can laugh sometimes, and then I say, ‘What happened to the nice person that I know? No bridezillas here!’ ”

It’s been 10 years since the premiere of “Bridezillas,” the WE reality show that tracks highly volatile brides through the wedding process.

After a decade of temper tantrums and crying jags, the show’s final season premieres tonight. It inspired not only a new spinoff, “Marriage Boot Camp: Bridezillas” — which features former “Bridezilla” couples hashing out their marital difficulties — but a universally understood shorthand description for brides behaving badly.

“Every single one of my clients uses the word — whether it’s saying, ‘Hey, I don’t want to be a bridezilla,’ or ‘I know I’m totally going to be such a bridezilla,’ ” said Sarah Pease, owner of Brilliant Event Planning in Manhattan. “It doesn’t matter what kind of personality they are, it doesn’t matter what kind of wedding they’re having. Every single person is using this word.”

It has also helped brides to become more self-aware of behavior they might not want to see in their wedding video — though it’s too late now for Melissa Rivera, who lives in Queens. She signed on to the show in 2008 and knew getting married would be stressful, particularly because she and her fiancé were paying for their $25,000 wedding.

“You just want it to be so perfect — you put so much into it, and if things aren’t going the way that you want, you just go crazy,” says Rivera, whose televised hardships included a fight over a stripper at the bachelor party and an uncooperative groomsman. “I definitely felt like I was a crybaby.”