Visiting Princess World

I took a half day off from work to check out the infamous Running of the Brides at the Hynes Convention Center - it was unreal to see how many dresses were crammed onto the racks:

Photo courtesy of Megan Jicha of the Boston Globe

My intent was to avoid the morning craziness depicted here:

Photo courtesy of David L. Ryan of the Boston Globe

So I opted to go in the afternoon. At 2 pm, this is the sight that greeted my eyes - there were still plenty of browsing brides but no craziness:

With hundreds of gowns to choose from, many were truly ugly - like this one:


And this one (what bride wants rosettes and tons of tulle coming out of their butt?)

Happily, I'm also glad to report there were tons of gorgeous dresses as well - I saw labels from some of the major bridal dress salons in MA and I found seven dresses to try on - this was the heap I lugged over to a quiet corner with a mirror:

Let me just say I was planning to go in without changing in front of tons of strangers and salespeople, but in the end, it was just easier to join the dozens of other girls in their underwear in the aisle who were also trying on gowns. I thought I would feel more self-conscious but everyone was focused on their own thing.

Although the lighting was horrible, I wanted to give you a sense for the dresses I was trying on - as these were sample sizes, most were a little too big:


It was also a pain in the butt to get into some of the dresses, as the skirts were full enough to stand on their own and there were all sorts of complicated sets of zippers and straps:

For fun, I tried on a Carolina Herrera gown with a full skirt - you can't tell from this picture, but that sucker was huge! I felt like Martha Washington (I don't know why that's the first comparison I thought of!):

The skirt was beautiful but definitely confirmed that I didn't want something too poofy:

The funniest line I overhead amongst the racks was one girl telling a friend that the sale was like "Princess World" since there was so many beautiful dresses to try on.

So, the best thing is that I did end up buying a dress at the sale. I'm not 100 percent that it's the one, but it was so beautiful and such a good bargain that I couldn't pass it up. I'm still going to check out some bridal dress shops to try on dresses but I may already have my wedding gown (which will need alterations, a new zipper and a cleaning). I can't post a picture of it, as Andrew reads this blog, but it was beautiful enough that I got compliments from strangers as I was wearing it.

Overall, I thought the sale was a great experience, and something that every bride should try out even if they don't end up with a dress.

Strategies for Success at the Running of the Brides

This is taken directly from an email I got from Filene's Basement's PR person:

The Week Before the Sale:

Pick a team -- people whose taste you trust and are willing to get in there and do shopping battle for you

Hold a pre-sale meeting with your team

• come up with a team uniform- matching hats, t-shirts, headbands, carry whistles-anything that would make it easier to find each other in the crowd
• assign jobs to team members—someone to gather, someone to trade, someone to help you in and out of the dresses, someone to guard your inventory from prowlers
• tear out pages from bridal magazines, or print styles from on-line wedding gown sites to show your team what you’re looking for
• pick place to rendezvous in the store

The Morning of the Sale:

Dress code-- wear a sports bra and shorts or a bathing suit so you can try on dresses anywhere in the store; DO NOT WEAR FLIP FLOPS if you plan to participate in the “rush to the racks” (we’ve seen a couple of nasty tumbles)

Leave your handbag at home—you’ll need both hands for this.

Please, NO MAKE-UP. You wouldn’t want to see the dress of your dreams only to find it smeared with lipstick. CLEAN HANDS are appreciated.

No food or drinks inside the store; get rid of trash before the doors open in the receptacles provided

Best Time to Arrive

The doors open at 8am. Brides-to-be and their teams who have been in line the longest will get to the racks first. In fact, it’s possible that the racks will be bare by the time you get into the store. DON’T DESPAIR! The dresses are not all gone. You’ll see brides trading or putting dresses back on the racks almost immediately. Use the first hour to look for brides who are trying on dresses you like. Then, be there to grab or trade for her “rejects.”

INSIDER TIP: If you’re not up to the chaos of store opening, arrive late morning or anytime up to store closing. Dresses will be back on the racks and the atmosphere will be much calmer. REMEMBER, this sale looks a lot more competitive than it really is—most of the hundreds of people you see in the rush to the racks are helpers, not buyers. Each team ends up with just one dress. (Alright, sometimes two, but that’s rare). There are still plenty of dresses to choose from. In fact, last year over 90% of the brides-to-be who came to this sale found their dream dress.

At the Event

Be nice—with all the excitement, shoppers have been known to get a little territorial and competitive. As our security manager once said to a TV reporter, “you don’t want to be walking down the aisle knowing you had to punch somebody out to get the dress.”

Be considerate—have your helpers put dresses you don’t want on the hangers and back on the racks. Think of how disappointed you’d be if you found your perfect wedding dress, only to see that it had been trampled on and damaged.

Be fair–keep only the dresses you are seriously considering, and set the others free as soon as possible.

Remember, wedding gowns don’t always run true to size—look not only for your regular dress size, but try a size or two bigger as well. Even if a dress isn’t the perfect fit, at this price it may be worth the cost of alterations. Experts on gown cleaning and alterations will be on hand to advise you.

Try on whatever comes your way--sometimes a gown that isn’t what you pictured yourself wearing turns out to be “the one.”

Be decisive--it’s only a one-day sale and gowns are not returnable.

Have fun--if you find a dress, great. If not and you still have some time to look, go to www.filenesbasement.com/bridal.jsp for the city and date of the next sale.

Running of the Brides

It's that time of year again...



I've already gotten approval to take a half day, possibly a full day from work to go. I don't think I'll be doing the waking up early, waiting in a long line portion of the event - I've read that there are plenty of dresses to look at later in the morning, once the crazies have cleared out and the store associates have had a chance to rehang all the dresses. I also don't think I'll be finding "The Dress" there, but I think it'll be fun to do for the experience - after all, the Running of the Brides started in Boston and it's still the biggest event across all the Filene's Basement stores.