She hasn’t finalized the date, but she has said yes to the dress and Friday night a television audience will watch her choose that dress. Pam Kennedy will be featured in the season premiere of “Say Yes to the Dress Atlanta” along with with Karina Smirnoff of “Dancing With the Stars.”

Kennedy, a former Miss Troup County and Miss Georgia, filmed the TLC reality show in August. The Atlanta version of the popular show features Southern brides trying on and choosing wedding gowns at an Atlanta bridal shop. Kennedy will see the episode for the first time when it airs Friday at 9 p.m.

“I’m a little nervous,” admitted Kennedy, now a pharmaceutical sales representative who lives in LaGrange. “It’s reality TV. You have no idea what they’re going to do with it.”

Kennedy applied online to be on the show earlier last year. At the time, she wasn’t even engaged to longtime boyfriend T.J. Stribling.

“We had been talking for several months about getting married, but he had not given me a ring. When I applied it was for future reference,” Kennedy said.

It wasn’t a quick application. She had to describe everything from her dream dress, to her dream wedding, to the personalities of the people she would take with her if she made it on the show.

“Being a former Miss Georgia, I had many people who helped me pick out gowns,” she said. “There was a big group of those people I would want to take with me because they had a really good eye. They were the ones who would encourage me to try on dresses that I might not like on the hanger, but would turn out to be my dream dress.”

In the end, Kennedy chose six people to accompany her, including her mother, Elaine Kennedy, and Judy Neighbors, both from LaGrange.

“Of course I wanted my mother with me and I’m president of Miss Troup County board and partner with Judy. She’s a lot of fun, so she came, too,” Kennedy said.

It was a long, full day at Bridals by Lori in Atlanta, where the show was filmed. Kennedy tried on five different dresses and was interviewed about each one. Her friends and family members also were individually interviewed, as well as filmed as a group.

“They separate you,” she explained. “One camera followed me and my bridal consultant and then another camera filmed my family and friends. It was difficult at first. You came out in a showroom in front of all the mirrors and it was the first time you saw yourself in the dress at the same time everyone else saw you.”

By the end of the day, she did say yes to the dress. On Friday night, she’s invited a few friends to join her for a viewing party, when she’ll see the show for the first time. No men are allowed.

“You will see my dress on the show and I don’t want my fiance to see the dress,” she said. “We’ll just all get together and have fun. Everybody that went that day agreed that no one was going to get their feelings hurt. We wanted to have fun and find a great wedding dress. And we did.”

Sherri Brown can be reached at sbrown@lagrangenews.com or at (706) 884-7311, Ext. 240.