Running of the Brides (and bridesmaids!!).

Today might have been the craziest day of my life. We did the famous Filene's Basement: "Running of the Brides" with Hannah to try to find her a dress for the big day. WOW. It was insane, but also very fun! I will try to describe the morning's craziness: I arrived at the site around 6AM and Han and the other girls had been there since 5:15. The doors of the event don't open until 8AM. Some brides and their posse's arrive as early as 3AM, some even camp out! There was already a ginormous line when we got there, and it continued to get longer as the morning went on. Eventually they let us inside to wait where it was air-conditioned, which was nice because of the humidity! Hot, hot hot! Around 7:30 you can feel the energy building up amongst everyone inside. People go all out for this event. Our team went pretty casual with matching teal beaters but some people wore custom made shirts, balloons and all kinds of funky headware. At about 7:45 people are so anxious to get inside to where the dresses are that everyone ends up pushing forward and mashing up against each other. I'm not even kidding. My heart stared to race I was so nervous I might get trampled. People die doing stuff like this. You know it's time when everyone ahead of you in line starts screaming and then everyone literally starts running,

I mean like, SPRINTING towards the doors. Now at this point I started laughing because I just couldn't get over how ridiculous it all was, but I also started running as fast as my legs would carry me. Heck, I wanted to grab some dresses too!!! Move over, people! I ran through the space like a crazy person, grinning like a fool and trying like mad to find some dresses. But as soon as I got to each rack other girls were pulling them down and taking them. Every single dress (around 3,000 total) was off the racks in less than 2 minutes!! Running of the Brides is riiiiiiDICULOUS. People were hoarding dresses and sitting on them. It was NUTS. The other bridesmaids luckily were able to grab some dresses and we traded with other brides for dresses that were Hannah's size and style. After about 10 minutes the insanity dies down and then you can finally get to business. In the end she found 2 dresses she really loved, and at $250 each, she bought them both!! Might even make more $ on the one she ends up giving to a bridal consignment shop. Super! Looking back on it all I would say it was a pretty great day. We found a dress, had a blast, and most importantly-- WE SURVIVED!!!

The bride, bridesmaids and moms

getting lunch after a morning of hard work!