As a proud devotee of all things Gypsy Wedding, I’ve been hoping against hope that My Big Fat American Gypsy Wedding — now airing Sunday nights on TLC — would offer me up a U.S. version of my most beloved Irish Traveller, Paddy Doherty.
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On Sunday’s upcoming episode, “14 and Looking for Mr. Right,” I found him: Douglasville, Ga., resident and Romanichal gypsy Pat Baby. Proud paver, party-thrower and papa to his utterly stunning 14-year-old daughter Priscilla.
Because 32-year-old Pat Baby and his 33-year-old wife LouAnn have raised their daughter in strict adherence to their cultural beliefs, Priscilla has been pulled from school and the whole family is now thinking about the rest of her life in earnest. Which means finding a husband.
“Thousands of gyspy girls around the world, we think of this as fun,” says Priscilla as she carefully wipes down her family’s collection of porcelain knickknacks. “If I don’t clean, I kind of feel empty.”
To gather the largest pool of potential mates — and indulge his own devotion to a good time in the process (his favorite place on earth is the liquor store) — Pat Baby is planning the biggest Halloween blowout the state has ever seen. And he’s not taking any chances that any of the other gypsy ladies will outshine his little girl. The two are jetting off to Boston to meet designer, Sondra Celli, who has crafted the girl a complete party wardrobe in keeping with Priscilla’s “Queen of Hearts” dreams — right down to a pair of spike-heeled go-go boots encrusted with 43,000 Swarovski crystals. “I want to look like a human lightbulb,” Priscilla proclaims. And Sondra makes it happen.
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Though his daughter is delighted, Pat Baby is taking no chances. Before he parts with his cash and leaves Boston with the wares, he parades his daughter through the streets of Boston, holding the voluminous half-skirt of her party gown like a faithful bridesmaid and reveling in the attention they can’t help but command.
“That’s his movie star! That’s Pat Baby’s girl!” Celli tells me. “He has a pretty girl. She’s young. She’s single. And he wants her to have the right guy — someone’s who going to take care of his daughter!”
Find out whether Pat Baby’s plan is a success and Priscilla’s duds dazzle — plus the additional significance the party takes on for the family — on My Big Fat American Gypsy Wedding this Sunday night at 10/9CT on TLC.
Photo Credit: TLC