Okay, when I think of timeless design and endless love, I don’t think any of the following words: Las Vegas, dice, casino, rockabilly.

Tragically, the couple whose wedding reception was this week’s Design Star challenge didn’t feel that way, and thus a hellish red, black, lavender and white wedding was born, designed by the most irritating contestant of all, Robb, who observed when the challenge was announced, “I’ve never done a wedding before.”

It’s my most fervent hope he never does another, but given that the judges keep not sending him home, I don’t think that hope’s going to be realized any time soon.

Last week, one of this season’s two gay contestants, Santa Barbara wedding and event planner Scott Corridan, got canceled, which is an irony and a shame because I’m very sure that this tragic design could have benefited greatly from a nice gay wedding planner like Scott. The queer sensibility was left up to the always-sparklicious Josh Johnson, and for my money, he’s the one I’d have hired to do my Vegas wedding if, one, the laws of our nation were changed to recognize my right to marry, and two, I were drugged and forced at gunpoint to get married in Las Vegas.

But this isn’t about my big lesbian wedding, it’s about Stephanie and Bruno’s big traditional fairy tale princess rockabilly Vegas casino wedding. The remaining designers had one night to come up with a presentation for the happy couple, and all the designers pull an all-nighter so they'll be ready for the 6 AM presentation.

Each designer presents his or her idea to Bruno and Stephanie, who rank the presentations and choose the one they want for their actual wedding reception. Christina, who I’ve never been wild about, had been appropriately horrified at the groom’s rockabilly casino idea, and did what smart wedding planners have been doing for generations and ignored the groom and focused on giving the bride the fairy tale white and lavender wedding she’d asked for. I’m sure it was totally unprofessional of her and it got her booted off the show in the first ten minutes, but I went from finding her annoying to shouting “You go girl!” just in time to see her, well …. Go. Sigh. This show hates me.

This was the moment I had a very bad feeling about our boy Josh, who is not looking as sparkly as he did when the show began. The bride and groom don’t seem enamored of his presentation, and I couldn’t get a feeling for how it was supposed to look from the camera angles we were given on it.

It was really hard for me when HGTV decided to do a reality competition show last year. I kind of hate reality TV and competitions make me horribly anxious, and yet, if you don’t count my Xena: Warrior Princess DVDs, HGTV is pretty much the only reason I have a television. In fact, the first blog post I did here was all about my big gay home decorating network.

I got over my internal conflict and watched the first season of Design Star. And I loved it, because it was backstage drama-lite and design-heavy, and of course, it brought the world David Bromstad as the first out gay design star. And when I heard there were actually two out gay contestants on this season’s show, I was bouncing up and down going “Me! Me! Pick me!” when AfterElton.com was looking for someone to interview them. When I turned in the interview, I said to Michael in a really offhand way that if he’d like someone to recap the show I might possibly be willing to consider it.

The original Design Star was set in New York, a place actually famous for design, art, and culture. The current season is set in Las Vegas, which I find somewhat terrifying as a design concept, but so far hasn’t impinged noticeably on the content of the show. (Next week it probably will, as they’re designing wedding chapels.)

The first season was also less about the drama and more about the design, a ratio that’s been a bit altered this season, and not for the better. I may be in the minority, but I don’t actually like seeing all the behind-the-scenes stuff, and I could live the rest of my life happily without ever again seeing a designer shed tears or indicate in a quavering voice that they have failed to do their best.