Vera Bradley is a company based in Ft. Wayne , Indiana started about 25 years ago when two friends were in an airport and realized there were no feminine luggage pieces. Soon they named their company Vera Bradley after one of their mothers and started making purses that are high quality and very unique with patterns changing every season.

After 25 years of business Vera Bradley bags and accessories are hotter then ever. Every year Vera Bradley has an outlet sale in Ft. Wayne, IN usually the first Wed-Sat of May. This year 63,000 fans of Vera Bradley swarmed Ft. Wayne, IN to get the best deals they could ever dream of getting.

The Vera Bradley sale is a great way to gather your best buds, or relatives together for one night or for a couple of days. All around Ft. Wayne at this time you see women just hanging out with other women sporting their Vera bags and accessories of course just laughing and having a great time. Many of the hotels offer special discounts for Vera shoppers. There are also plenty of places to eat and shop at around town besides the sale.

My gal pals and I made plans awhile ago to the Vera sale and decided that going the first day it was open to the public would be the best. We all arrived the day before the big sale and checked in to our hotels and then met up for dinner at this local brewery located downtown Ft. Wayne, IN called Mad Anthony’s. They had any kind of great appetizer you could think of including six types of potato skins, burgers, unwraps which are a flour tortillas with gourmet toppings on them and if you are nice they will even let you customize your own as one of my friends did, and much more. It was a great place to just meet up and chat and have a good time.

After we left mad Anthony’s we went back to our hotel which was the Hyatt Place (I can not say enough about Priceline and their deals!) We got a room for $76 total with tax. You could not ask for a better deal. We all talked and some of us got some ice cream from a local ice cream shop from next door. After watching American Idol and talking we decided we had to go to bed because of the big sale the next day. Besides the 4 gals one friend brought her baby boy who was almost like one of the girls! He NEVER cried just laughed and had a great time. At six months of age he was the one wanting the party to continue on all night.

The next morning we all got up early around 5:30 am to get showers and eat some breakfast before we left to shop. Once we got to the sale we waited in a line inside for a little bit till the doors opened to the public at 8:00 am. Once inside we all split up trying to cover ground to get the stuff we wanted. Honestly, even if we did not separate we would have probably gotten everything we wanted. The Vera staff had everything organized so well and they kept bring more stuff out. When it came time to go through our stuff before we went to the checkout it became hard to find a place to kneel and look through. Just like the other women there we all picked up many more things then what we needed. The things we did not want went into bins that were located at every isle and people even went through those to see if anything had been put in there that they might want. Once we got through deciding we headed to the registers which were very organized there had to be about 40 of them. No wait it all ran smoothly! Major props to Vera Bradley and your staff for a job well done!!!

After the sale and the rush of getting great deals we went to lunch and said that this was a great trip to just have a night away with the girls and we have decided to make it a yearly outing which we can hardly wait till next year!

When I got home I went through the actual prices to the sale prices I actually paid. I spent $276.00 at the sale but if I would have bought it at a regular store the price would have been over $890.00 which means I saved around 68%.....what a deal! Get your gals together and start making plans and contact us at for help planning your itinerary.