Weddingbee Blog

Even though I knew I had found a dress I loved, countless friends had been dragged to the salon to see it and reassure me that it was beautiful despite being far from what I had originally set out for, and my mom and sister had seen it and approved, I still didn’t buy the dress. Why?? Because I was waiting to see if I could get an awesome deal at Filene’s Running of the Brides (RotB)! The thrifty gal in me couldn’t spend so much money on one article of clothing without at least trying to find a better deal! Luckily there was a RotB in DC in late July, which was still enough time to check it out and if nothing worked out, go back and buy my dress (I should have taken it as a sign when I started referring to it as ’my’ dress, but I was so set on going to RotB).

I wavered in the weeks leading up to the event whether I wanted to be super hardcore (camp out and be one of the first into the store) or more laid back (show up later without all the people, running and screaming). I could see the benefits of both:

• Camping out - I had heard stories of the typical dresses found at Filene’s and knew that if I wanted an A-line, all-lace, ivory dress in my size, I would probably need to be in the first wave of people.
• Laid Back - I hate shopping. I hate crowds. This seemed like a pretty good argument against camping out. If I went later, I could leisurely look through the dresses and not be harassed.

Fortunately for my sanity, the laid back side won out - I decided that if I wanted a lace dress, I wanted ’my’ lace dress. If I was going to go to Filene’s, it would be to find an awesome deal in a completely different type of dress or to strike it incredibly lucky with a lace one that looked a lot like ’mine’. If it was meant to be, it was meant to be. And thus, the Sauntering of the Bride and her two adventurous friends!

I drove down with friend/lab-mate Michelle and met up with BM Diana, arriving at the Filene’s store around 10:00 AM. There was no line, but the store was still plenty crazy, and boy oh boy were there a random assortment of dresses.

(the DC Filene’s RotB, at 10:00 AM when we got there)

There were the usual groups you hear about before you go - people with matching T shirts/uniforms, groups hoarding 20 dresses and not trying any of them on, people looking to exchange for any size 10, etc. We quickly found a quieter spot and started the hunt for dresses. We started with a rather humorous first attempt:

(this dress was a leeeetle too big, I was trying to hold it back here)

We grabbed this one because we thought, ’ooh, lace!’… but it was about 8 sizes too big - I’m not exactly a size zero (ha! or 2 or 4 or 6 or… you get the drift), but I was swimming in this one. With long sleeves and waaay too much fabric at the hips, we deemed this one a good warm-up and moved on.

(I loved the way this made my waist look!)

I liked this dress and I can’t for the life of me remember why I didn’t consider it an option… Oh wait, I think it was too short. This was something that happened fairly frequently, as I mentioned before - it can be hard to find standard dresses that are long enough (Miss French Fries and Miss Scissors can probably back me up on this).

(Another ’hey look! lace!’ dress. The swimsuit adds a nice touch.)

Oh man, this dress was bad, bad bad. First of all, I couldn’t get my arms through the armholes. And it wasn’t just me, my super thin friends who were with me also struggled to get their arms through the holes! Then the weird poofing around the hips, and the fact that as opposed to the first dress, this one was about 10 sizes too small. We decided, no more grabbing any dress that has lace on it just because it has lace!

(I must stop making stupid faces in pictures - clearly I love the hive to post these photos… ugh)

I actually loved this dress. I have about 12 photos of me in it, because I wouldn’t take it off (and yet I was making a stupid face in all of them). It felt so elegant, fit me like a (tight) glove and I really liked the beaded detail which wasn’t too overwhelming but added just enough sparkle. The only thing that I didn’t like, which eventually made me take the dress off, was that it was a silver/pewter color. It’s hard to tell in this photo, but it was very apparent in person, and I just didn’t feel like I could pull it off. Silver doesn’t really go with the warm vibrant spring feel we’re going for, and I’ll admit part of me really wanted a traditional white/ivory dress!

(I have quadrants!)

While I liked the theory of this dress on the rack, the execution was not that great. It seemed like the perfect simple-with-interest dress, but instead it made me feel like I was being dissected. Just when we were about to give up, BM Diana made a final tour of the store and came back with what was almost a win:

(Hmm, I look kinda green in this photo)

Yup, an all-lace dress. And it was only one size too big! It also had a great train length:

(Bright white lace)

I then spent the next 20 minutes debating about what to do. I didn’t like the white color (I considered dying the whole dress in tea… is that crazy?), I hated the rhinestones along the top edge, I’d have to get it altered at least a size down, and it just didn’t feel as nice as ’my’ dress. So, after making my friends wait it out while I argued with myself, I put the dress down and finally came to terms with the fact that I had actually found MY dress the very first time I went dress shopping!

(My wonderful and cheerful Filene’s helpers, BM Diana and friend Michelle)

Overall my experience at RotB was pretty good, if not fruitful. There was no line by the time we went, people weren’t too selfish or rude, we had some fun trying on a couple ridiculous dresses, and we got to eat a delicious lunch afterwards! Plus, I was pretty happy in the knowledge that I had found my dress after all… or maybe, rediscovered is a better word?

Did you get a dress at a Filene’s RotB? Was anyone brave enough to camp out? Did you find ’the dress’ early on but not get it because you felt like you hadn’t tried on enough dresses to really know?