Weddingbee Blog

When I was in college in New England, getting packages with a return address of One Ivy Crescent in Lynchburg, Virginia was a thrill. It meant that yet another boxy, Shetland wool, or roll-neck sweater had arrived from J.Crew. We were addicts. We thought the label “J.Crew U” was a compliment to our great style, not a criticism of our homogeneous look.

One day, I decided to find One Ivy Crescent in Lynchburg, just an hour south of Charlottesville. A friend told me that the clearance center at the J.Crew factory carried current merchandise that had been returned or slightly damaged and not the cheaper outlet-only line that you’d expect. J.Crew doesn’t publish any official information about the two stores it operates out of the Lynchburg factory, but I post their addresses on the Weddingbee boards every now and then in hopes of helping people find them.

During my visit, I got on the factory’s email list and started getting announcements about sample sales and warehouse clearance events. Last spring, I got a message about a wedding clearance event that J.Crew held in an empty storefront in Richmond and decided to go check it out.

I was too excited to take a picture. / Photo from the Richmond Bargains blog

I hadn’t finalized wedding colors or my bridesmaids when this sale happened, so I wasn’t really looking for anything specific. I was stunned that gowns that used to sell for over $1,000 were marked down to $200–300. All bridesmaids’ dresses were $30. All shoes were $10. On top of that, everything was 20% off for the final weekend of the sale.

Wedding gowns to the left, bridesmaids’ dresses in the middle. / Photo from the Richmond Bargains blog

I didn’t feel ready to shop for a wedding gown, and I knew J.Crew’s gowns weren’t really my style. I couldn’t resist the shoes, though. I dug through the boxes and unearthed about five pairs that had promise. I ultimately went home with these:

Miss Mink’s first wedding-attire purchase / Photo by Miss Mink

They were $8. They retailed for $238 when they were in the catalog. I wasn’t 100% sure I loved them, but I figured that $8 wasn’t much of a loss if they didn’t wind up working out.

A few weeks later, I found a beautiful pair of Butter shoes on the website of a shoe store in New Orleans. They were a final sale, but I was so certain that I liked them that I placed the order. Butter shoes, if you haven’t heard of them, are super comfy but beautiful and feminine shoes. Their bridal line, which is called Something Bleu and Bridal by Butter, is being carried by Anthropoligie’s new wedding brand, BHLDN.

When the shoes came, I loved them, but they were too big! I guess I need to order a size down in Butter. Darn it.

Discouraged, I abandoned the shoe hunt for a while and decided to make a few trips to bridal salons to try on wedding gowns. By shopping for shoes, I was putting the cart a bit far before the horse, don’t you think?

Is anyone else shoe obsessed? I was never as fixated on shoes as I have been since getting engaged.

Did anyone else wind up with multiple pairs of shoes?