If there’s one crazy event to experience in a lifetime of wedding planning, there’s nothing that can quite top Filene’s Basement’s semi-annual Running of the Brides, happening this year on February 19th, 2010 in Boston, MA. Check their website for the fall date as well as dates in other cities. (The Boston Running of the Brides is going to be at the Hynes Convention Center, official details are here)

For the uninitiated, Filene’s Basement basically gathers lots of extra inventory, sample sizes, of designer wedding dresses, and sells them at a heavy discount to the masses twice a year at an event called Running of the Brides. Dresses that used to be thousands of dollars can now be grabbed for $699 or less – all dresses are priced from $249 to $699. It’s truly a steal, allowing couples to use the money saved to invite more guests, add decor, have a nicer honeymoon, or just not go broke.

I went last year with my roommate Christina to help her find her dress. We did not do the running part in the morning. According to the website: “When the doors open, they run full speed towards the racks. In less than 60 seconds, the racks are stripped bare (store employees have to hold on to the fixtures so they don’t topple). The women grab whatever gowns they can, haul them off to a corner, strip down to their underwear and start trying on dresses. Minutes later the trading begins. Every dress, no matter what size, style or color, gets bartered for another, as each bride tries to find the gown of her dreams at a cut-rate price.” Yeah.. I’m 5′2″ and weigh less than 100 pounds, there’s no way I’d survive that kind of situation. We opted for midday instead.

Here are the lessons Christina and I would like to pass on:

- Go in at 10AM rather than door opening. By that point, many of the dresses have already gone back up on the racks and you will not be caught in what can only be described as a crazy, screaming, opening of the floodgates.

- Bring a mirror and 2 – 3 helpers. Dresses are heavy, sometimes the plastic wrapping is hard to take off, and you want to save time taking them off the racks and have more time trying them on

- Make your helpers easy to identify. Have fun and make team T-shirts, whistles, bring walkie-talkies, whatever will make communication easy for you.

- Wear a body-hugging underwear or swimsuit or even track gear, or wear the underwear that will closely resemble what you will wear on your wedding day. Most people change on the spot so you want to be comfortable walking around. Keep in mind that there will be a few brave men at this event.

- The majority of the dresses on the racks will be popular sample sizes – I saw mostly sizes 8 – 12 (wedding dress size, not street size). Buy a dress that’s larger, not smaller. Alterations will be able to size them down, but keep in mind that a difference of greater than 2 sizes may lead to a drastic change to the style of the dress.

- As great a discount they can be, sale prices still can lead to impulse buys. Therefore, make sure you think hard before you pay because all sales are final

The roommates back then – Lusi, the beautiful Christina, and me at Christina’s wedding! (photo taken with a Canon SD800)

Anyone else been to a Running of the Bride? Got any additional advice to pass along?

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In other news, I received word today that I’ve won the Bride’s Choice Award 2010 from WeddingWire! This award recognizes the top 5 percent of local wedding professionals from the WeddingWire Network who demonstrate excellence in quality, service and professionalism. The Bride’s Choice Awards™ are determined exclusively by recent newlyweds (brides and grooms) through extensive surveys and reviews! A big big thank you to all my 2009 brides for making this possible for me!

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Some details and getting read… I placed the rings against one of the colorful pillows in the lobby. Thanks to my friend Sam Lipoff for lending me a couple of his lenses and his D700 for this weekend (my second camera is coming in about a week). The rings were shot using a 60mm f/2.8 macro lens

Meanwhile, downstairs, the ceremony was getting set up.

One of the flower girls was a little shy before the ceremony!

The ringbearer was enjoying the bubbles

The gorgeous Ada walking down the grand staircase in the hotel towards the ceremony

Other shots I usually try to get during a ceremony is the groom watching his bride come down, and the father clasping their hands together

Cute flower girls!

Going in for the first kiss

We went to the hotel pool to take these formals. I’m LOOVING the color of the drapery!

Beautiful!

A typical Chinese wedding reception is not complete without…. games!

A very energetic first dance =)

Bouquet toss

Detail montage. The colors of wedding included yellow, green, and white

Congratulations Ada and Qizhi! It was incredibly fun to be a part of your beautiful wedding, and I have to say, you guys are such great sports throughout all the crazy games! See additional photos here

Vendor Love!

Reception + catering: Woburn Hilton
DJ: New England’s DJ

Also, as you may have noticed, I’m playing around with the watermarks on my photos – still in the process of figuring what I want for my final company logo. The reason why photographers watermark their photos is because these photos are our intellectual property. Republishing / reposting them anywhere – including Facebook profile photos, Facebook albums, other websites, embedding in Youtube videos, without proper credit is considered stealing and punishable under federal copyright law. And if there’s one thing makes me feel sad is when my photos are stolen, because I’ve spent so much time working on them! If you have any questions on how you should display my photos or if you’d like to not display without the watermark, feel free to email and I’m happy to show you the several options.

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We first got ready by the Westin by the waterfront, a giant hotel near the World Trade Center with an impressive lobby

Did I mention talented family? Josh’s mom did all the florals, here is Maureen’s mom providing some touchups

I actually spent most of the getting ready time with the men. We started with portraits in the Westin’s lobby

This is Eddie. There’s some kind of inside joke about this little monkey…

We then moved to the AFH and I had a lot more time to take detail shots and some more photos of the men when they all arrived. Check out that sky!

Get the movie refernece here? Josh and Pat (far right) are movie makers

Josh’s sister decorated this cake!

Back to the women’s side… the only place to get ready was upstairs amongst tons of computers and art supplies and art pieces. Maureen did not break a sweat

I really wanted to showcase Maureen’s beaaautiful long train… this was where I had the most room to put it at the time

To make the background disappear,  I shot against a dark background, I used my longer lens, and further darkened the background in Photoshop

Maureen’s cute nieces were the flower girls

A laugh with grandma before the ceremony

A radiant Maureen coming down the aisle

Love the raised arms!

A couple of formals

I love Maureen’s hair and makeup, everything stayed on so well given it was a HOT and HUMID day. See the vendor love below for more information

Josh just couldn’t help but keep kissing his beautiful bride!

And he couldn’t wait for their first dance…

Father-daughter, Mother-son dances

These are only a couple of the hundreds of shots I got from the reception.. this blog is getting long so I’m only going to show a couple…

I spent most of the night dancing with the crowd! Hahhaa, it was pretty hot, we all worked up quite a sweat. Then someone was able to take this photo of me

Last but not least, some details

Oh man! So I was exhausted by the time I got home, but thank you, Maureen and Josh, for such a fun wedding! See some more images here

Vendor love!

- Dresses: PartyDressExpress.com
- Rings: Engagement – Descenza’s, Wedding – Deprisco’s Jewelry
- Tuxedos – Mr. Tuxedo
- Venue: Artists for Humanity
- Cake and dessert: Elizabeth, sister of groom
- Catering: Fine Catering by Russell Morin
- Florals:  Centerpieces provided by Sue, mother of groom
- Make-up: Special Day by Carolina
- Hair: Special Day by Carolina, flower girls’ hair by Kathleen, sister of bride
- Justices of peace: Willian and Adrienne, friends of the couple
- Paper goods: Emerald Invitations

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Cara and Rick were married on a beautiful, beautiful August day. In fact, all my August weddings had awesome weather, but I think the temperature was a lot cooler on their wedding! Cara really loved photos, and so we made sure we left pleeenty of time for portraits – nearly 2 hours! In fact, I helped Cara go over the wedding day schedule prior to make sure that we could get all the photos in. Cara planned her wedding from Texas, so major props to how smooth the day went! Her wedding party was HUUUGE and we also wanted all the family combinations covered. I’m so psyched to present this set of photos. Enjoy!

Cara waiting

Cute shoes and absolutely gorgeous dress!

The men were pretty good with getting ready on time. I told them they had to make sure to get those boutonnieres on =D

I love this shot of Cara’s hand coming out

Portraits of Cara – is she not GORGEOUS!

Rick is waiting for the First Look!

*tear* look at how happy he is!

So.. the wedding party had 8 on each side plus a flower girl and an attendant! I made sure I got a wiiide lens for this wedding! (28mm f/2.8)

Such goofy men!

Work it ladies!

Rick and his wacky siblings

Rick and Cara are absoluuuutely romantic when they’re together. I didn’t need to give them much direction, they’re just so in love!

Aw aw cute flower girl!

More of the ceremony

What an awesome kiss!

I wasn’t able to stick around the reception – but Steph Stevens covered the reception and from my preview here, it looks like it was a BLAST! I think they did a Michael Jackson choreographed dance later in the night

Congrats Cara and Rick, and a special thank you to Cara’s mom, Lynne, for finding me. You guys are unforgettable and I wish you all the best down in Texas! Please see more photos here

Vendor Love!

Reception Photographer: Steph Stevens Photo
Dress: Wendy’s Bridal, Cincinnati, OH

Rings: Nazar’s Fine Jewelry, Houston, TX
Tuxedos: Classic Tuxedos, Walboro, MA
Cake: Frederick’s Pastries
Florest: A Belvidere Florist, Lowell, MA
Make-up: Elizabeth Arden, Macy’s in Nashua, MA
Hair: Atmosphere Salon, Westford, MA
Venue, Catering, and coordinator: Westford Regency
Ceremony: St. Catherine’s Church, Westford, MA
DJ: New England’s DJ

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