Gilt's Wedding Weekend

I joined Gilt Groupe, an online sample sale site, last year when I saw an invitation link in Real Simple.  (It used to be invitation-only, but now I think anyone can join.  But if you join using my invitation link and purchase something, I get $25!)  For anyone who's never used Gilt before, it is an online designer sample sale site, which does most of its business in women's clothing.  They have sales in labels such as 3.1 Phillip Lim, Vera Wang, Roberto Cavalli, and Proenza Schouler.  However, there is also a Gilt Man, Gilt Fuse (more inexpensive clothes), Jetsetter (a luxury travel site--I may blog about this later) and sections for Home, Children, and Gifts.

Here's how Gilt Groupe works.  Once you sign up, you get e-mails for the site daily, a few minutes before the sales start.  For women's clothing (these sales and the Jetsetters ones are the only ones I look at), the sale begins at noon EST, or 9am PST.  However, if you want to buy something, you need to put it in your cart right away.  If you click onto the sale at 9:15 or even 9:10, 90% of the items will already be in members' carts.

Here's why I've never actually purchased anything from Gilt, though:

• Even though everything is heavily discounted (at least 50% off, and often more), it is still more than I'm willing to spend.  I'm not really into designer clothes or labels, although I do look at fashion blogs and runway shows online from time to time, so while I am willing to pay more for quality (one of the reasons I don't shop at H&M anymore), I don't want to pay that much more.  To give you an idea of the prices on Gilt, I have rarely seen a dress for under $100, shoes for under $200, and jeans for under $80.
• You need to make a decision to buy quickly.  I am not an impulse shopper, especially with a large amount of money.  But one thing with Gilt that I've heard of people doing is putting things in their cart right away and then keeping it in there for the next hour while they mull over their decision (Gilt removes it from your cart if you haven't made a decision yet).
• Shipping is pricey.  It's $12 for ground shipping on items over $50.  I actually almost bought a pair of jeans on Gilt before, but when I added shipping it was just way more than I wanted to spend.  Plus...
• The sizes are for tall people!  The aforementioned time that I tried to buy jeans I realized that they are sized for people who are around 5'10."  I'd have to have them tailored, big-time.  Not that I'm opposed to it, and it's not that expensive to have jeans tailored, it's just that I'm kind of lazy when it comes to things like that.

Ok, so now that I've finished telling you about Gilt, you may be wondering what this has to do with weddings.  And, why am I posting this on my wedding blog when I just said that I don't even use the site!  Well, this weekend, Gilt is having a "Wedding Weekend" sale in conjunction with Martha Stewart Weddings.  They haven't shown what the sales are going to have (and they never do), but apparently there will be: gowns by Carolina Herrera, Vera Wang, and Temperley London, bridesmaid dresses by Amsale and Thread, the Blueprint Cleanse, Elle MacPherson Intimates, Stuart Weitzman shoes, etc. etc. etc.  I'm still a little dubious about whether it'll really be a good price, but it's worth checking out, no?

Here's a sneak peek!

(from the Gilt blog)