The Dress Hunt, Pt. 3

At 7AM on Saturday morning, I headed out solo to Glamour Closet's big sample sale.  It was a huge sale where all the dresses in the store had been marked down to either $500, $1000, or $1500, with a few $99 dresses thrown in.  This annual sale is an AMAZING deal because the samples in the store are typically all over $1000 even with the deep sample discounts, because they retail from $4000 to $10,000.  I hadn't gotten much sleep the night before because I was so nervous.  I was still feeling shaken up by my experience at Karoza and knowing that I would only have 50 minutes in the store at Glamour Closet made me nervous that I would feel pressured to buy again.  I was especially nervous that I wouldn't find anything and then would end up "settling" for that Tara Keeley.  Also, I was hoping that this sale would not reveal the evils of humanity and be like the infamous wedding dress episode of "Friends" or worse, the Filene's Basement Running of the Brides (a Boston sale where all sample dresses are $249, $449, and $649... women fight over dresses, stockpile and barter dresses, wake up before dawn).  I had Eddie pray for me the night before and we agreed that if it started to get out of hand, I would leave.

After parking on a side street (Sycamore, I think), I walked over to Glamour Closet and was pleasantly surprised to find that the line wasn't very long at all.  I think I was the 14th bride in line (it seemed longer though because most people had brought helpers with them (you're allowed up to 2).  The first bride in line got there at 2:30AM!  She was wearing her pajamas. :)  In the line, I started talking to some of the other brides (there was one other girl who was there by herself) about their weddings and what they were looking for in a dress.  After all, you only got 50 minutes in the store, so I thought it'd be good to know what I wanted ahead of time to maximize effectiveness.

At around 8:50 AM the store manager (or so I assume) came to make a few announcements.  To my relief, he stated that he wanted the sale to be as civil as possible.  So he requested that there be no stockpiling, no fighting, no bartering, and that when you had decided against a dress, to put it back on the rack (or give it back to the consultants).  Even better, they were only allowing ten brides in the store at a time and there were seven consultants in the store!  There were only four hundred dresses so I felt reasonably confident that I'd be able to see all of them.  However, they weren't organized in any particular way (silhouette, designer, etc.) so I had to use my "skillz" from shopping at Ross and Marshalls to look through the racks quickly.

When the 2:30AM girl came out (after probably only 15 minutes!), it was really cute because everyone clapped for her who was standing in the line (all of the shoppers got clapped for) and she said, "It's worth it, ladies!" (hahahaha) which was really encouraging.  The dressing room area was already full (but they drew up curtains in the store windows so it was kind of a big dressing room), so after pulling about 2-3 dresses from the shelves (wedding dresses are super heavy!), I set myself up in a corner of the store to pull them on.  The other girl who was there by herself came to my corner too and it was helpful to have someone to bounce ideas off of (I didn't really want to ask anyone to come because I felt that it might be too much to ask, but it would've been nice to have someone saying, "Yes! That is so you!").

Because I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted, I was able to comb the racks pretty quickly.  I actually went through them three times, because girls were constantly putting dresses back on the racks, and I didn't want to miss anything.  I think I tried about six or seven dresses, and then I found one that I loved!  I think I'm going to hold off on posting it on the internet (although I may cave and post pics when I start going to fittings), because a part of me wants it to be a surprise for our guests!  But that's actually kind of a weird desire of mine, given that I've already shown it to Eddie.  Yes, I've already shown Eddie the dress on the designer's website, and he has seen the back of the dress (because I didn't want to take it out of the garment bag).  I was surprised by the shocked and appalled reactions that we received because of this.  And he may actually see me in the dress before the wedding (gasp!) due to a logistical thing we're working on (also a surprise). But I'll tell you this much, it's by a Spanish designer called Rosa Clara, and it's strapless and lace. =)

Who Should Go To a Wedding Dress Sample Sale:

• People who don't mind changing in front of other people.  Since the entire store becomes a dressing room, you need to have little inhibition in that regard.  Some women wore bodysuits or leggings, but most just changed in their underwear.  However, some women did bring their fiances (aka MEN) along with them, so you have to roll with the punches and accept that there may be men there.  Luckily, there weren't any men there when I was trying on dresses. Whew!
• People who have a good idea of what they want.  Since you only have 50 minutes to shop (with very little direction from the sales consultants), you should do plenty of research beforehand to see what styles you like and try to visit some bridal shops beforehand to check out what styles work for you.
• People under street size 10.  Samples are the gowns that brides try on in the store, which are then clipped to your body (not sure what they do if you're over a street size 10... :( ).  The samples range from bridal size 8 to 12 (and they run small, so they are for street size 4 to 10).  I also saw a few runway samples, which were bridal size 4 or 6.
• People who want a designer gown.  For me, that was important because I wanted lace, and the lace on more inexpensive gowns turned out to be too shiny/cheap-looking when I tried it on.  If having a designer gown isn't important to you, you can still probably find a cheaper gown elsewhere, despite the crazy sale.  For example, if you're trying to find a gown under $500, you probably shouldn't be shopping at a sample sale.
  

I have to say, the saddest thing for me about buying my dress is that dress shopping was over so quickly. I loved trying on dresses, so maybe one of my friends who gets engaged will let me come with them? ;)

Previously:

The Dress Hunt, Pt. 1

The Dress Hunt, Pt. 2