Hey y’all! Hope you’re having a good week. I am getting back into the swing of things after my Labor Day weekend trip to the beach. If you read a lot of preppy fashion blogs, then I’m sure you know by now that the big Lilly Pulitzer After Party Sale is next week. To be exact, it begins at 8:00am EST on Monday, September 10, and continues through 11:59pm EST on Wednesday, September 12. Even though you may have read multiple posts about this sale already, I still want to share my own Lilly Pulitzer After Party Sale shopping tips with y’all. In this post, I will share some practical logistics, and some of my favorite picks that will potentially be part of the sale. Without further ado, here we go!
(Photo by Amelia Cassar Photography)
(This post contains affiliate links. I may earn a commission on clicks or purchases made through these links, at no additional cost to you.)
Practical Logistical Tips
If you’ve never shopping this Lilly sale before, then be prepared for the Internet to go crazy. Here are a few practical Lilly Pulitzer After Party Sale shopping tips to help you make order out of the chaos:
1. Take a Deep Breath and Be Patient
The Lilly Pulitzer website has been known to crash in the past due to the influx of traffic during the sale. Although Lilly has taken some measures in recent years to somewhat alleviate such technical snafus, you must still be prepared to wait. When the sale begins at 8:00am on Monday, you will be placed in a virtual queue as soon as you go to the Lilly website. Even if you sign on as soon as the clock turn to 8:00am, remember that hundreds of thousands of other Lilly lovers will be doing the exact same. So there may very well be thousands of people in line in front of you even if you go to the Lilly site the nanosecond the sale begins.
2. Make sure you will be able to remain on your device for at least an hour.
It’s not unusual for it take to an hour for you to get to the front of the virtual line. If you refresh the page or exit out of your browser you will lose your spot. So, if you have to go somewhere between 8:00 and 9:00 on Monday morning, I highly recommend getting in the virtual queue from your smartphone. It may be more tedious to shop from a smartphone, but it’s better than logging on to your laptop, and then realizing you have to go somewhere else before you get to the front of the line.
3. Make your wish list ahead of time and prioritize.
One of the most important things to note once your wait in the virtual queue is over is that adding an item to your cart does NOT reserve it for you. Nothing is yours until you’ve completed the checkout process. Therefore, I highly recommend perusing the Lilly website this weekend. Make a wish list, and star the items you want most. Of course you won’t know exactly what items are available or their cost until the sale opens. But browsing the website ahead of time will at least give you a general idea. I would do this ASAP, as the Lilly site will be down for awhile the day before the sale.
The website usually has tabs divided into the following categories: dresses, tops, bottoms, accessories, kids. I recommend deciding which of those categories is most important to you, and starting there. Once you have items in your cart you feel you can’t live without, I would go ahead and check out. Do note that after checking out you will have to re-enter the virtual line before shopping again. So there is a chance that some of the items that you want might not be available once you re-enter the sale. However, if you take a lot of time browsing the sale initially trying to add everything you want to your cart, you risk some of the stuff you REALLY want selling out before you can secure it at checkout. I personally would rather get the things at the top of my wish list and miss out on the stuff further down my wish list, as opposed to the reverse situation.
4. Create an account on the Lilly website ahead of time.
To expedite the checkout process and make sure you don’t miss out on those must-have goodies in your cart, I suggest creating an account on the Lilly website prior to the sale. If you already have an account, the make sure you remember your username and password. Once you log into your account, make sure that your credit card, billing address, and shipping address are up to date. Doing this ahead of time will save you precious seconds during the sale.
5. Set a budget and stick to it.
It can be so tempting to see all the Lilly goodies on super sale. However, it’s not worth racking up credit card debt, or not having enough money to pay your bills. Therefore, decide ahead of time how much money is reasonable and responsible for you to send at the After Party Sale and stick to it! This is where making a wish list also comes in handy, because you are less likely to impulse buy. And if you’ve maxed out your budget once you’ve snagged the items at the top of your list, then you can call it a day! Also, one important question I ask myself whenever I’m shopping a sale is “do I really love this item, or am I simply buying it because it’s a good deal?” By sticking to items you truly love and abstaining from buying things simply because they are a good deal, you are less likely to overspend. Once again, FOMO is not work making poor financial decisions.
These five nuggets of practical advice are the top things that come to my mind when I think Lilly Pulitzer After Party Sale shopping tips. Now I’m going to share some of my favorite things currently available on the Lilly website to help you brainstorm with getting your wish list started!
Favorite Dresses:
Navy Callista Shift Dress
Bay Dress
Devina Dress
Harper Shift Dress
Gabby Shift Dress
Sophie Dress in Home Slice
Easton Dress in On Parade
Mila Shift Dress in On Parade
Ardleigh Dress
Alivia Dress
Sleeveless Essie Dress
Favorite Tops:
Sleeveless Essie Top
Etta V-Neck Top
Silvana Top
(Photo by Amelia Cassar Photography. The After Party Sale is a great chance to score a fun printed top like this Etta V-Neck. Click here for more pictures on how I styled it.)
Favorite Shorts:
Dahlia Shorts
Buttercup Seersucker Shorts
Adie Shorts in Home Slice
Adie Shorts in On Parade
Favorite Skirts/Skorts:
Cassia Skort
Colette Skort
Lorelie Skort
Luxletic Josephine Skort
Happy Shopping!
(Photo by Katie Cauthen at Purcado)
I hope that y’all have found this post helpful, and that these Lilly Pulitzer After Party Sale shopping tips will enable you to better navigate the sale on Monday morning. In addition, I hope you enjoyed the glimpse at some of my favorite items currently on the Lilly website. Feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions.
Here’s one final tip-if there was a recent Lilly Gift With Purchase (GWP) item you really liked but couldn’t justify the minimum spend to get it, then be sure and check out the Accessories section of the sale. Lilly often adds their leftover GWP items to the sale so that you can purchase them directly without having to buy $500 of full-price merchandise first. Some of my favorite Lilly After Party Sale finds have been overstock GWP items that I scored, like the Chin Chin cooler in this picture.
Do you plan on shopping the Lilly After Party Sale? If so, what’s on your wish list?
Have a great weekend y’all! PS. I’d love to connect with you on Instagram, so hop on over and say hi here.
-xoxo Liz
