Running of the brides

"Rory Newcomer of Leesburg, Va., squeezes into a wedding dress as hundreds of brides-to-be and their friends sort through discounted dresses at Filene's Basement in Towson Friday morning."

I just finished the first week of my internship at The Baltimore Sun and closed out the week with a pretty cool assignment: Running of the Brides.

Hundreds of brides-to-be and their helpers lined up during the night to be among the first in line when Filene's Basement opened for their annual, one-day sale of wedding gowns.

Each bride was hoping to find the wedding gown of her dreams at a drastically reduced price, as more than 1600 gowns from designer and famous name bridal houses were priced with an average savings of 71-percent to 95-percent.

Being a fairly early assignment, I arrived to the department store in Towson around 6:45 a.m. and started combing the crowd for wildly excited brides-to-be.

Since the doors didn't open until 8 a.m. I walked up and down the line a few times chatting with those half awake like myself and those whom looked like they drank 45 cups of coffee.

Around opening time, I made my way inside and tested out the exposure of the store and readied my other camera.

After the doors opened the herds of women, and some Fiancés, sprinted through the store and grabbed any dress they could, not knowing the type or size. They then bared it all as they tried them on directly in the middle of the store.

The dressing room numbers were extremely limited and all these women had in mind was finding the perfect dress.

During their search, they guarded their own pile of dresses and made trades with other brides-to-be. It was like being at a fast paced auction.

The toughest part was tracking down those in my images to match their face with a correct name. But overall it was one of the craziest, fast actioned assignments other than sports I've been on in a couple months.

As for The Sun, I am learning a lot and having a blast. Everyone is super supportive and helpful. I cannot wait to be back on tomorrow morning.

I've made a small Soundslides (without sound, and I need to update to the newest version) of some of my favorite images. Until I work on widening my blog, so one will fit and images will be larger, click here to see those photos.