Lori allen bridals biography template

And it perturbed her that so many people hae begun asking her when she’s going to retire. She has no desire to do so any time soon.

“Over and over they ask me,” Allen said. “People seem to want to shoo us older women away. Same with advertising. It’s not geared to us. We have so much buying power, yet all they do is try to sell us Depends and walkers. It made me madder and madder.”

She joined her daughter Mollie Surratt, who owns a marketing agency, and prepared a book proposal. Thomas Nelson signed on last year. Last August, she, Mollie and Diehl sequestered themselves at Chateau Elan for a week and shaped the book, which they finished in December.

“I agonized over every sentence,” Allen said. “I’m a perfectionist. I want it to be meaningful. I wanted it set in my voice.”

Diehl, the ghostwriter who has written books with Esther Williams, Dan Rather and Natalie Cole, said it was a joy to work with Allen. “It wasn’t like I was coming in cold,” she said. “It was like working with someone I already knew. What comes through about Lori whether in person or on TV is her absolute rock-solid genuineness. There is no artifice, and I think that’s part of why she’s successful.”

The toughest chapter, Diehl said, was recounting Allen’s breast cancer battle in 2012. Allen’s husband Eddie was fighting cancer at the same time. She had options and ultimately chose a double mastectomy.

“It was very difficult to make a decision like that,” Allen said, “to cut out something like that.” Though she has replacements, she can no longer feel anything from her collar bone to her ribs.

Her book might have come out sooner, but she had an accident last year that now opens the book: falling flat on her face during a “Say Yes to the Dress” promo shoot and slipping on a wedding dress train.

She broke two wrists, her nose and two ribs and ended up with a concussion. She learned she had osteoporosis, which meant more surgery work than

Lori Allen: There’s nothing to me more important than women, supporting other women. I mean, I just feel like that’s my mission now to spread the fact that I did it and it wasn’t easy. And I don’t want anybody to think my life has been a bed of roses. But you can do it too. 

Embracing God-Given Second Chances: Lori Allen & Raleigh Keegan – Episode #214

Narrator: Welcome to the Jesus Calling Podcast. Every day the sun rises means God gives us another chance, if we just pause and take a look. For our guest entrepreneur Lori Allen, her chance was to say yes to the things she said no to before. And for country singer Raleigh Keegan, he found a chance to embrace a long-lost person he held dear.

Lori Allen is the founder of the shop Bridals by Lori,, and star of the TLC reality show Say Yes to the Dress: Atlanta. As an entrepreneur, Lori has stepped out in faith many times in order to serve her clients and grow her business. Along the way, she’s faced some trying times—but credits God with getting her through it all. 

Lori: Hi, I’m Lori Allen from Say Yes to the Dress: Atlanta. I own Bridals by Lori, and recently I’ve written my very first book, Say Yes to What’s Next. 

Getting to where I am today has been a very long journey. Not easy. Nothing was ever handed to me. But I’ve always had my faith, and I’ve always had a very strong will and conviction that I would succeed.

“I’ve always had my faith, and I’ve always had a very strong will and conviction that I would succeed.” – Lori Allen

Say Yes to New Opportunities

This December marks my fortieth year in the bridal industry. And to be honest, for many, many years I made no money, I put it all right back into my business. And then TLC called, and we got Say Yes to the Dress: Atlanta. 

And I was so excited, because I knew for a small business owner t

Happy October! If you’ve been following me for a while now, you know how strongly I feel about Breast Cancer Awareness Month. I still can’t believe it has been a decade since that April 2012 call that completely changed my life. Sometimes, I think back in disbelief about how I almost didn’t schedule that lifesaving mammogram. I was so busy with Bridals by Lori and shooting another season of Say Yes to the Dress: Atlanta, plus my husband was dealing with his cancer battle, that I was prepared to just skip my mammogram that year. I thank g-d every day for the women at Northside Breast Care Center who called and insisted that I not miss my appointment.

I’ve learned so much in the years following my breast cancer battle. I’ve become a fervent advocate for breast cancer awareness, speaking throughout the country, and sharing my story of what was and what could have been while also offering hope and strength to other women who are starting their journey through breast cancer.

The statistics are sobering: one in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime. But there are also some very hopeful statistics:  from 1989-2019, the breast cancer mortality rate decreased by 42% due to improved breast cancer treatment and early detection. That means that since 1989, about 431,800 breast cancer deaths in U.S. women have been avoided. I’m a living example of how early detection saves lives.

Survivorship brought with it some much-needed changes for me and my family. The immediate years following my breast cancer battle were focused on physical and mental healing. There were PT appointments to strengthen my body from the double mastectomy and of course a lot of emotional and mental work that brought me so much closer to my faith and family.

The reality is that no one walks away from breast cancer unscathed. As survivors, we know that once the surgeries and treatment are behind us, we are different versions of oursel

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