[EXCLUSIVE] Designer Reco Chapple Talks Designing Kandi Burruss’ Wedding Gown & Feuding With ‘Married to Medicine’s’ Mariah Huq

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Part 2

How he was selected to design Kandi’s wedding dress: 

Going back to when she first met Todd, I knew about Todd before the rest of the world so I was always team Todd. I was like, ‘OMG girl, you’re marrying that dude!’ I was like this is going to be your wedding dress and we just toyed with the idea so when it came up until the wedding I said, ‘Girl, word on the street is that you are getting married soon and who’s making your dress?’ She said someone else and I felt like total sh*t. I was like what? We already talked about it and she was just like her team didn’t want to come to me because it was an incident that we had sent her a dress and it really wasn’t the right dress that we were suppose to do for her but Kandi is last minute as forever, she’s late and she comes last minute to you so I was like, ‘Well, I’m going to have to do something that works’. So I sent it to her the dress, it didn’t work out so her crew held it against me and they didn’t want me to do her wedding dress but she was just like from the time that we have, Reco is the only person that can do this so she came back to me. She came back to daddy.

If he felt more pressure, than usual, to design Kandi’s gown and bridal party:

To be honest, no. I couldn’t let the pressure get to me because I did Fantasia, Tiny and Rasheeda’s dress at the wedding. Girl, they didn’t want to come for a fitting and we’re just going to be real…I couldn’t allow myself to get stressed out because everyone was like ‘You’re so not stressed out’ like I was cracking jokes and working on a gown and I literally had a week and a half to do all these pieces.

How expensive Kandi’s wedding gown was: 

Well her dress is worth $20,000. The feathers alone that she had for the train was $5,000. Pretty much, I did the dress as my wedding gift to her simply because if it wasn’t for Kandi, I would not be where I am today and I literally love her for that.

Crediting Kandi for much of his success, early in his career: 

She made it popular to wear Reco Chapple. She didn’t care about how much it cost and she was always like pulling me into the limelight like, ‘This is who made my dress’, recommending me to her friends with money and Kandi, once you’re in her camp, she really takes good care of you and makes sure she gives you a proper platform to make more money. Even since I did her wedding, I’ve done about 6 wedding gowns and it’s only been about a month ago.

On how he handles criticism about his work: 

Yes, because people have been going in. You have good reviews and bad reviews. The people that really matter’s loves Kandi’s dress, the people that know fashion. But you have the hood-rats and the ghetto folks that’s like ‘Oh this is too over the top’. At the end of the day, you can’t afford it so I gave my client what she wanted and she loved it. At the end of the day, we both walked away happy. I loved it.

On the history that he has with Married to Medicine’s Mariah Huq [who he refers to as Keisha, her first name]: 

That was my girl. Even before the show–if I needed to borrow anything, any money. Anything, she was right there….We really took care of each other. I mean, I loved that girl like a sister.

How he became involved in the conflict between Mariah and Quad: 

Well to be honest, I really think that Keisha wanted to point the finger and blame someone.

What he believed sparked his disagreement with Mariah: 

She said, ‘How dare you shoot somebody in my cast before you shoot me?’ I’m supposed to be your