Now that June and its attendant bumper crop of brides are through, it’s time for the next round of blushing fiancées to step to the forefront. Proposals Bridal Boutique is laying out the welcome mat in a serious way this Friday and Saturday, July 15-16.
This store, a relative newcomer to Little Rock’s wedding retail scene, is in the Heights, just off Kavanaugh on North Grant Street. That’s an intimidating address, and Proposals has a fairly intimidating list of designer lines (Carolina Herrera, Matthew Christopher and Jenny Lee, among others), but if you’re a size 6-12 and are happy wearing a floor model, odds are decent you can find something at a not-quite-so-intimidating price: up to 85 percent off.
The 100 or so sale dresses are “sample” gowns — the ones customers try on before ordering their own untouched-by-other-brides dress to actually wear down the aisle — which I can’t imagine would really be that big a deal as long as no one’s schmeared make-up all over them (and the lovely woman I spoke to at Proposals assured me they’d all been very well taken care of). Off-the-rack is the only way it’s done at (most) other bridal boutiques in town, but at Proposals it’ll get you gowns that usually sell for $300 to $6,000 for $99 to $999. Not bad. If I could find a Carolina Herrera dress that cheap in my size, I might actually think about going through the hell that is planning a wedding again just so I could wear it.
The store is also suspending its appointment system for the sale, so it’s all first-come-first-grab. They’ll also have a few bridesmaid dresses, and undetermined-at-presstime specials on reorders (the un-tried-on versions). Questions? Call them at 661-4696.
In other news:
• Rivermarket Books and Gifts, the little store in the Cox Creative Center, has marked all its “gently read” used books half off while they’re doing a little construction inside — probably through the end of July. This is one of my favorite lunchtime shopping haunts. It’s small enough that you can troll through all the inventory in 15 or 20 minutes, but the selection’s usually pretty good, and the proceeds go to the Central Arkansas Library System. The store’s at Second and Commerce, right by the Main Library.
• Classes may be a month away from starting, but if you’re heading off to a dorm for the first time, it probably doesn’t feel too early to start amassing the eight carloads of stuff you’ll want to take with you. Or to start planning how you’ll rearrange that bedroom once your child finally gets their junk out of it. Enter Stack-n-Rack, the mecca of all things organizational, on Cantrell Road across from Pavilion in the Park. Their back-to-school sale is underway, and runs through Aug. 27. Flipping through their sale catalog, I zeroed in on one of those hook thingies they have at clothing stores to get things down from the top racks ($7). Oh, to never have to stand on tip-toe and dislocate my shoulder again.
• The Old Kitchen Store, in the Lakehill Shopping Center at 3828 JFK Blvd. in North Little Rock, has been through some changes of late, and they’re getting things back on track with a series of weeknight cooking classes — you can go for just one night, or sign up for a whole week’s worth. Plus, they just have some unusual kitchen gadgets you might not find elsewhere.
• I’ve been meaning to mention this for awhile, but space is always against me: Chameleon Art Glass on Kavanaugh in the Heights is now open on Mondays, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Sales? Cool stuff?
shoppingchick@arktimes.com

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