Kara Killmer on Her Bittersweet 'Chicago Fire' Exit and That Oh-So-Fabulous Wedding Dress

Kara Killmer

Matt Casey (Jesse Spencer) and Sylvie Brett (Kara Killmer) are headed to the chapel of love, which actually turns out to be a fish store, in tonight’s episode of Chicago Fire, which will be bittersweet because it’s also the final episode for Killmer.

“It is more sweet than bitter,” Killmer tells Parade. “I am selfishly delighted over the fact that Sylvie’s arc as a character started when she was left at the altar by her high school boyfriend, and she comes to Chicago to start over because she’s a jilted bride. And then she ends up across the aisle from Matt Casey, the most eligible and honorable bachelor in all of Chicago and Portland.”

It's definitely a fitting ending for the character, full circle in being left at the altar and ending at the altar. But it’s also satisfying for “Brettsey” fans that it’s concluding on a happy note because Sylvie’s experienced so many highs and lows during her time at Firehouse 51, including several other unsuccessful relationships and seven different ambo partners as she worked her way up to being the PIC, and now she finally has her man and her adopted baby.

“Her relationship with Matt really matured her into the person that she’s supposed to be. It’s just so perfect,” Killmer continues. “I’m so satisfied as an actor on this show that my character gets to have this ending. I couldn’t have planned it any better.”

And speaking of planning, Killmer, who’s married in real life to Andrew Cheney, says it was way more fun to go through all of the wedding preparations for Sylvie without the stress of a real wedding since the production staff handles all the details.

Related: Exclusive First Look at Photos of Chicago Fire's Matt Casey-Sylvie Brett Wedding

“Sue Kaufmann is our wardrobe director,” Killmer shares. “She decided that it would be easier for us to go around Chicago to bridal shops and try dresses on instead of bringing all these dresses into the studio. I probably went on four bridal dates with Sue. I probably tried on at least 50 dresses. We toyed with so many different ideas. There were a handful of very different looking dresses that I had tried on. The dress that we chose was one of those where you put it on and you just go ‘Whoa, nothing else we’ve tried on compares to this.’”

The dress is exquisite and maybe a little grand to wear to a fish store, but then again, Sylvie thought she was getting married at the Shedd Aquarium. But in a typical Chicago Fire things-never-turn-out-the-way-they're-supposed-to moment, the "aquarium" she was promised turned out to be a fish store. Even so, if she’s only getting married once, she deserves the dress of her dreams.

“It’s a little humorous to see it in a fish store,” Killmer says. “It makes it stand out quite a bit. It was such a beautiful dress with this long veil, it’s very dramatic. It has these beautiful, embroidered flowers with tiny, little glitzy beads that are very subtle. It just looked like Sylvie. It even has this nude undertone. It’s not a white, white dress. I feel like pink is definitely one of Sylvie’s signature colors, and so I actually had on pale pink shoes, sort of a Barbie moment. Very Sylvie.”

But first, once Kaufmann and Killmer had narrowed down the dress choices to five, Kaufmann brought them into her wardrobe office and Killmer threw a bachelorette party as she tried them on.

“Hanako [Greensmith], Miranda [Rae Mayo], and my makeup artist Karen [Brody] all came in and I tried on all of the dresses for them,” she says. “I brought sparkling cranberry juice, I made cookies and we had Ella Fitzgerald playing in the background. We had ourselves a little bridal party to get into the spirit of the episode. The dress we landed with was the one that they all approved of. It was a lot of fun. It felt very real.”

Related: Seven Spoilers for the Chicago Fire Season 12 Premiere

The decision for her hair was an easy one. After so many years with short hair, now that it’s grown out, plus the fact that when she’s on duty she has to pull it back, Killmer and hairstylist Telona Wilson decided to let it be romantic and flowing.

“It’s very simple but it’s very kind of wistful and romantic and something different,” she says.

Kilmer choosing Fitzgerald as the musical background to the bachelorette party was an excellent choice because this is a wedding where Fitzgerald’s “At Last” should be the theme song. It’s been years since Casey and Gabby were divorced and he and Sylvie first felt their attraction to arrive at this culmination.

It wasn’t that long ago that the two broke up because the long-distance romance wasn’t working. So why did Sylvie say yes to Casey this time around?

“Well, he shows up at the door in the same place that they had their first kiss,” she says. “It was kind of inevitable. Part of Casey’s influence on Brett is that he sees things through. When Casey originally left for Portland, Sylvie had just started paramedicine and I think there was a great deal of ‘I have a responsibility here that I have to see through.’ And then over the course of their long distance being very difficult, I think they just felt they owed it to each other to give each other a break. But that love was still there.”

During their break, Sylvie dated Dylan (Christopher Allen), which didn’t work out, and in the back of her mind, she knew that she was never going to find anyone to compare to the love that she had with Casey.

“When Casey shows up and does what Casey does, making sure that she is able to adopt Julia and then paints this picture for her with his proposal of being a family, I think everything inside of her was just like, 'Yes, yes, yes, yes. This is what I’ve always wanted, and I want it with you.' So, what are you going to do?” Killmer says.

Chicago Fire airs tonight at 9 p.m. ET/PT on NBC.

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