Weddingbee Blog

After finding some inspiration at Belle Vie Bridal and White Chicago, it was finally time to get down to business at the Running of the Brides.

A couple of the Chicago girls spent the night at our place and helped make some signs saying just what we were looking for, as well as some custom shirts so that all of us could find each other.

Additional Decorations provided by Mr. Bacon

The front of our super cute custom tees. On the back we had our last names, and I had Mr. Bacon’s!

The three of us were up and out of the house by 4:45 AM, and we met up with our fellow dress hunters at 5:30 AM. That’s two-and-a-half hours before the doors open, and we were in line down the block and around the corner!

So we kept ourselves busy with bagels and coffee, then we went over the game plan. Like the crazy person I am, I swung by Filene’s during my lunch break the day before, drew out a quick floor plan, and noted the best way to attack the situation. I wasn’t sure where the dresses would be, so we took our best guesses and decided that first we would just run for dresses, the slightest of our group would pick a place, and we’d meet back by her with whatever dresses we could find.

After a little bit of stretching, the folks in the front of the line (who arrived as early as 3:00 PM the previous day!) started to pack up their gear and we were ready to go in. But first we had to wait…and wait…and wait…So, of course, we took pictures!

Finally, we all pressed together, we yelled and screamed for the news camera crews, and we all counted down in unison…TEN, NINE, EIGHT, SEVEN, SIX, FIVE, FOUR, THREE, TWO…ONE!!! And we all started pushing and running toward the doors. We went through the doors and down the escalator, and it was complete and total chaos downstairs. No biggie—we were all prepared with our strategy, until we got to the racks and they looked like this:

Source

We immediately moved on to the next strategy (and I know it’s shady, but c’mon—the dresses start at $249!): sneakily removing dresses from the piles of other brides while they weren’t looking. That strategy was a success! We got six to eight dresses, assessed if I liked any of them and if any of them were in my size, then we went back to the throngs of women and started trading. From 8:00 AM to 9:45 AM I tried on nearly 25 dresses, and I couldn’t find the one. They were either too sparkly, too white, too boring, too fancy, too small, too big, too tattered, or too something.

While I was wading through dresses, one of my helpers spotted a dress that she really liked. (Note, this helper is not engaged, but has been dating her man for over six years and they were looking at condos together, so she’s knows it’s going toward the chapel sooner or later.) She was dying for me to try it on, but it just wasn’t my style, so I suggested she try it on. It fit like a GLOVE! Suddenly we were screaming and jumping around and SO EXCITED! We were buying a dress that day! It wasn’t for the original bride, but it was so exciting that I had all but forgotten that I didn’t end up with a dress.

Running of the Brides was one heck of an experience, and I’m glad that I went for the early-morning camping out and that I tried to find the dress of my dreams, but next time I’ll just swing by in the afternoon when the “crazy brides” have all gone home. I said it back in July while waiting on the sidewalk with these ladies, and I’ll say it again now: If you ever need a wing woman to go dress diving, I’ll be there no matter how early in the morning!

Has anyone had success at Running of the Brides? Would you give it a try?

(All are personal photos unless noted)