Update & Vera Bradley

This past week was an exciting one if you live anywhere near Indiana or if you are a Vera Bradley fan. Well, lucky for me I fall into both of those categories. The 2012 Vera Bradley Outlet Sale took place in Fort Wayne, IN last Wednesday though Sunday. Oh what fun! Do you remember my posts about this sale last year? (Here they are!) Well, we had a great time at the sale again this year!

Back in January, one of my best friends Brooke decided she wanted to go. After a couple conversations she found she had an entire group of people who wanted to come with her. The more the merrier, right? Well, that's exactly what I was thinking! Brooke, her mom Lisa, sister Brinley and sister-in-law Kelley arrived at our house Thursday evening after driving from Lexington, KY. I was SO excited!

We spent Thursday evening catching up with each other and watching Grey's Anatomy. Of course the anticipation for the sale was building...actually, I could barely sleep Thursday night. Don't judge!

Friday morning we woke up and were eager to get ready and hit the road. Our shopping time was at 2:30pm, but we wanted to get lunch and get in line WAY before that. Before leaving Stephen took some picture of us all in our matching shirts that Lisa made. She is so talented-don't you love the shirts?!

LOVE this girl and am so blessed and thankful that we met on a Carnival cruise many years ago!

Louie was not too happy that I was getting ready to leave...but still, how cute is he?!

And an up close view of our shirts. Glitter? Yes, Please! Thank you, Lisa!

We grabbed lunch at Chipotle...because you know how I love that place! After lunch we headed to the sale to claim our spot in the line. Luckily, we were early enough to be pretty close to the front of the line...maybe 30 or so people were in front of us. I call that success. Now came the not so fun part. The waiting in line. Ugh. We waited in line for 2 hours before our time to shop. It wasn't all that bad though, we had plenty of people to people watch and we got LOTS of comments (and looks) about our awesome shirts!

We mapped out a game plan and decided to try and stay together. Well friends, that doesn't work. There are just so many tables and people and Vera bags. Thankfully though, our bright shirts worked to our advantage in locating each other when we were separated. Perfect! 

Finally, we were in!

Here is a shot of the inside:

We shopped for almost our entire allowed time and got some great awesome deals. For example, XL Duffel for $39.99? Nice to meet you! Angle Tote for $19.99? Nice to meet you as well! :)

In the end we bought LOTS of things and ended up saving almost $1,000 total with all our purchases combined. Thanks for a great sale this year, Vera!

Oh, and we are featured on the Vera Bradley blog today. Check that out here.

After shopping we did some more shopping at Kountry Kitchen and Target. We also got some dinner in there at Cheddars, which was delicious as always. We headed back to my house and spent the night making lollipops and cupcakes and playing some fun games of Catch Phrase. It was such a fun day! 

Saturday morning we woke up and decorated cupcakes...and then ate them for breakfast! Soon afterwards the gang was back on the road and headed home.

After they left, our day consisted of making laundry detergent and doing a lot of laundry in between taking naps. On Sunday we taught Sunday School, went to church and then went to see The Hunger Games. Oh my! I finished the book a week or so ago and was ready to see the movie the next day, but I had to wait for Stephen to read and finish the book too. Well, he did and we got to see the movie. Amazing. We both really enjoyed the movie, but agree that the book was better. There are just some details that can't be captured on film and your imagination views them better anyways! :)

Have you read or seen The Hunger Games? What did you think?

Hope everyone had a good weekend!

Vera, Vera, Vera! {part two}

I experienced something new yesterday. The Vera Bradley Outlet Sale. It was incredible and kind of unbelievable. We started the day at a reasonable time, unlike black Friday shopping. Thankfully we had tickets for the one of two ticketed days. Our time on the floor according to our tickets was 11:00am-1:30pm. We travelled to Fort Wayne and were in line at about 10am. We were inside in line, which apparently it much better than the experience the ladies I went with had last year! So, here we are sitting in line and waiting to be let in...and my anticipation was building. Seriously, I had butterfly's in my stomach.

They give you flyer/map things that tell you what they have for sale and what it is priced at. This is important because all the items are much lower than tag price. Hence the name of the event; outlet sale. We really did not have a plan of attach because we all just wanted to see what they had and then we would make our decisions. I knew I wanted one thing for sure; a Mailbag. Sadly, the Mailbag was not the printout they gave us of what would be on sale. More on that a little later...

Diane, Melissa and me waiting in line and getting excited :)

The line wrapped all around...we were in the front!

The line started moving and before we knew it we were inside. The doors opened and it was like a Vera Bradley heaven. I had never seen so much Vera in one place...it was wonderful!!

They give you giant pink trash bags to shop in. Yes, I said pink! I thought they were huge and that I would never need something that big; but I was wrong. Before I knew it my bag was full. We filled our bags up with things we wanted or thought we wanted and then we to the side to purge. They have carts and "dumpsters" stationed throughout the showroom so when you decide you don't want something you just toss it into the dumpster. It was so easy!

The 5 of us shopped for over an hour and got lots of great stuff...

We headed to checkout and got through very quickly...like quicker than you can checkout at Target or Wal-Mart. I was super impressed by the process. Vera knows what she is doing!

After shopping and checking out we headed across the street for some yummy Italian food and fellowship. After stuffing our bellies and making a few other stops we were headed home where I got to organize and go through my purchases. 

Here is a breakdown of what was purchased:

• 2 backpacks
• 4 curling iron covers
• 3 journals
• 1 lanyard
• 1 tote
• 1 mailbag (they had them!!!)
• 2 hipsters
• 1 coin purse
• 2 wallets
• 1 makeup bag
• 1 reusable shopping bag
• 1 pair of sunglasses
• 2 small purses
• 2 luggage tags

My favorite purchases would have to be the sunglasses and mailbag purse. I was so excited when I saw a box that said "mailbags" because they were not listed on the brochure but they are retired. They are no longer making them and have replaced the bag with the hipster...which is nice too, just not the same. 

It was a great, productive, and successful day. I was able to complete Mother's Day shopping and some Christmas shopping, woohoo! I cannot wait to go next year! Also, if I bought you anything it is shipping out this afternoon when I get off work. they are already packaged and sealed!
Happy Friday and have a great weekend everyone!

Vera, Vera, Vera!

 Today, I will be using a vacation day at work and shopping with my sister-in-law and some wonderful ladies from church at the annual Vera Bradley Outlet Sale in Fort Wayne :) I have been looking forward to this day for about a month and even more as the day got closer! Can't wait to hit the sales floor and pick up some oh so cute floral purses and bags :) Have a great Thursday everyone!