It’s almost one of the best days of the year! The Lilly Pulitzer APS (After Party Sale) is near, and I couldn’t be more excited! Below I’ll give you a quick run down on ways to achieve a smooth transaction. This sale is insane, so being ready and making sure you understand all the ins and outs are crucial in getting what you want. Sit back, grab a snack and get ready for me to fill your brain with all the important details.
Lilly Pulitzer has an APS twice a year and you better believe I’m camped out on my couch patiently waiting in a virtual line; on multiple devices. This is one of those sales you don’t want to miss. Lilly tends to run on the “higher price range” end, so the savings are huge! Let’s just say, I try to buy all the items I refused to pay full price for!
Sadly, Lilly Pulitzer doesn’t offer returns on APS items, so if you get something that doesn’t work, you’ll be stuck with that item. Don’t let this scare you from making a purchase though, you can always resale the item on a Lilly Pulitzer BST (buy, sale, trade) page on Facebook. If this happens to you, shoot me an email and I’ll add you to my favorite pages! To avoid purchasing items that wont work for you, I suggest going to your local Lilly store and trying on some pieces to get a feel for what sizes fit. If you live in a town (like myself) without a Lilly store, most Belk stores carry Lilly Pulitzer, so make sure you stop by for a quick try on sesh!
When you’ve figured out your sizes, make a list of your favorite styles with your size written beside it. This will prevent getting overwhelmed when you FINALLY get in! I can’t tell you how many times my heads gone blank from all the adrenaline and craziness! I know that sounds ridiculous, but these sales are crazy… and you don’t have any time to make mistakes.
If you listen to any of my advice, let it be this! Go ahead and make an account on the Lilly Pulitzer website, so you don’t have to do that the day of the sale. You don’t need that holding you up while you’re trying to check out! If you already have an account, make sure you know your password! There’s nothing worse than trying to check out and getting a password error. Learn from my mistakes!
When I say I use multiple computers, iPhone, iPad… etc. I’m not lying! Once the sale starts (which is normally 8am EST), you’ll be placed in a virtual line and one device will get you in the sale quicker. Make sure to keep the other devices in the virtual lines, because once you’ve checked out, you will want to go back in. Trust me, I’m a PRO at this!
Once you’re in the sale, key in the items you want, put them in your bag and check out. Just because items are in your bag, doesn’t mean they’re yours. Fast transactions are crucial to getting what you want. So hurry, hurry, hurry!
Virtual waiting can be a pain! The sale in Aug went so smooth for me, but the one last January, I waited an hour to get in. So be ready to wait… and wait.. and wait some more.
They’ll add items throughout the sale, so if you don’t see anything you want, check back often! My favorite Lilly item is the Madison Skort. In August, I waited three days for it to be added to the sale. Don’t buy something just to buy something! There’s nothing worse than blowing your budget on day one, and day three rolls around and you’re out of funds!
Not feeling like waiting in a virtual line all morning? You can always go by your local store and check out their sale. Sometimes their prices end up being cheaper than the APS prices!
If you have a beach vacation coming up, and plan on doing family pictures, I suggest getting some matching prints for all the girls in the group. We did this in October when we went to Rosemary Beach, and Riley loved it! She’s now at that fun age where she thinks its cool to match me, so I enjoy getting us matching prints.
If you check out Lilly Pulitzer’s website before the sale, most of those prints wont be included in the APS. The prints likely in the sale, will be summer prints and possibly some early fall prints. If you’re lucky, they might have prints from a couple of seasons ago. I always jump on those items fast, because the quantities are limited.
Below, I’ve listed some favorite pieces and sizes I wear. Lilly’s sizes are all over the place, so the try on sessions are really key to knowing what to order. When I’m wearing other brands that are true to size.. I’m a small in tops, 6/Medium in bottoms and a 4-6/small in dresses. Hopefully that will help you see what things run big/small! Lilly also has a survey you can fill out (it’s fast) to help with your sizes!
Amina Dress– xsmall -$65
Buttercup Shorts– 6- $26
Elsa Silk Top– xsmall-$69
Both ladies have on a large Elsa silk top. I’m wearing the Blaire dress in a small.
Essie Dress– Small- $35
Essie Tank– Xsmall- $25
Luxletic Skort– Medium- $30
Madison Skort– Meduim or 6- $30-$35
Mom’s wearing a large in the top & Riley is wearing a 4 in the Shift dress. Her clothes seem to always be TTS.
Marlowe Dress– Small- $30-$40
Popovers– Small (these go super fast)- $39-$49
Shift Dress (almost all of them)- 4.. rarely a 6- $59-$89
Sophie Dress– Small- $40
I hope this helps with planning your purchases! Please feel free to ask me any questions you may have. The sale starts January 3rd at 8am EST. On the day of the sale, I’ll have a link in my bio on Instagram that you can click to get placed in line. If you’re not a fan of Instagram and want to help me get credit for your purchase, just clink on any pink words in this post and it will also place you in line. Not only would I greatly appreciate it, but the revenue generated from this allows me to continue creating content for you!
I can’t wait to see what everyone gets! Below I added some prints that should be in the APS. Happy shopping, Ladies!
xoxo- Lauren