Sample Sale Mayhem

Finished out my second week! It's hard to believe I have been here for two weeks - it seems like it has been so much longer. I feel like I'm finally figuring out the subway system and learning my way around. The good thing about NYC is that it's on a grid system with numbered streets and avenues, which makes it a lot easier to figure out where you're going.

This week was full of sample sales! Well, only two, but that's enough in one week for me. There's a sample sale warehouse right near by work, which could be a good thing or a bad thing :) Every week they house a different sample sale. This past week was J. Crew, this coming week is Rachel Zoe.

The J. Crew sample sale started on Tuesday, and the other two interns and I decided to check it out during our lunch break that day. Big mistake. The line was wrapped all the way around the building. Clearly we weren't going to be able to shop during our lunch break. The sale went until Saturday, so I went back on Thursday during my lunch break. After realizing there was no line, I decided to go in and check it out.

It was complete chaos.

Racks and racks of clothes positioned super close together. Lots of people. No organization. You have to be willing to dig through everything if you're going to go to a sample sale. You also have to have a lot of time, which I didn't.

Oh, and you can forget about dressing rooms. They had a narrow hallway setup with mirrors and racks where everyone just throws off their clothes and tries everything on. It was all girls trying stuff on, so it actually wasn't too bad.

I'm sure if I had stayed long enough I would have found something I liked, but I didn't have the time or patience to dig that day. The prices were pretty good, but some stuff was still pretty high (cheapest pair of shoes I saw was $60 and they were little sandals). I did try on a pair of leopard pants and a leopard skirt (had to) that were both priced at $25, but they didn't fit me quite right. Like I said, you really have to have the time to dig and brave "the dressing room," which of course has a decent sized line of it's own.

However, the J. Crew sample sale was great preparation to the sample sale I went to today - the Pronovias bridal sample sale! That's my exciting news from last week. I realize you may not be quite as excited about this as me, but I had to create a small bit of anticipation for the 5 people that read my blog :)

When I got engaged, everyone kept telling me that I have to go dress shopping in NY. Of course I smiled and agreed, but in the back of my mind I was thinking "do you think I have $10,000 to go blow on a dress?" I would be one of those people at Kleinfeld that gives their budget and the consultants respond by saying, "well, we will definitely be limited about the dresses we choose with that budget."

Thus began the search for bridal sample sales.

I found out about the Pronovias sample sale last week and called to make an appointment. I love their dresses and wanted to at least see what it was about. Since I had to set up an appointment, I knew it wouldn't be like Kleinfeld's sample sale where people line up outside for hours waiting to get in. Thank goodness I didn't have to do that. I asked my friend Sari to come with me and we headed out this morning. I wasn't sure exactly what to expect.

We got there and they had all the dresses organized by price. We started digging and took a few back to  "the dressing room." It was a little better than the J. Crew hallway, but it was still just a smaller room set up with mirrors and racks. I went to David's Bridal up here on Friday night to make sure the style I had always wanted looked okay on me. That made it much easier when pulling dresses today because I only tried on that particular style. They didn't have quite as many dresses as I thought they would today, and I only ended up trying on 2. I loved the front of the first one, but hated the back of it. I loved the second one, but ultimately, I wasn't ready to commit quite yet. I feel like I need to have other dresses to compare it to, and I didn't want to buy it just because it was a great deal. It also was a few sizes to big and was going to need a decent amount of alterations.

One of my consultants that helped me today was Elise from "Say Yes to the Dress." I knew I recognized her when I saw her, and after doing a little research online, I found out she used to be the Director of Sales at Kleinfeld. She doesn't work there anymore obviously since she works at Pronovias, but it was really cool to have her help :)

I'm doing more research to find out about other bridal sample sales or stores up here. Maybe I will be able to find a dress in my budget :) If not, I have plenty of time to find a dress when I get back to SC.

Ok, enough about sample sales and wedding dresses. I also headed to the 9/11 memorial yesterday. Here are a few pictures I snapped.

The South reflection pool

Names listed on the walls of the reflection pool of those who died. 

I'm also going to check out Hillsong NYC tonight! I'm excited to see what it's like. After that, it's time to get out of weekend mode and transition into the work week.