What Does A BHLDN Buyer Do, Anyway?

Mornings are tough for many of us and while a lot of people hit the snooze button — one, two, even three times! — this buyer is awake and flicking through her latest Instagram feed. When you’re Alexa Egeck, an Assistant Buyer for BHLDN, every fashion update is crucial, and so why not get ahead when you’re still in bed?

BHLDN (pronounced beholden), an online retailer of elegant wedding gowns, bridesmaid frocks, whimsical hair pieces, statement jewelry, quirky decor, and of course, lingerie, has quickly won the hearts of brides-to-be and put them one step closer to their perfect wedding. From trying on shoe samples to brainstorming new product ideas and even debating the cuteness level of animal cake toppers, BHLDN depends on buyers like Alexa to hash out some serious wedding advice and expertise. Read below to see exactly how this buyer helps create wedding trends.

7 a.m.: Alarm goes off, and I begrudgingly wake up. (I am not a morning person.)

7:20 a.m.: This is when I actually wake up, flick through my Instagram and eventually pull myself out of bed.

8 a.m.: My roommate Celine, who works on BHLDN’s apparel-buying team, and I leave for work. People often ask us if it’s difficult to work together and live together, but we love it, and I especially love that she gives me a ride to the office every day.

8:30 a.m.: Arrive at the Navy Yard and struggle to find a parking spot. We recently moved into a brand new building (URBN owns several of the old shipping warehouses and has been converting them into office buildings), and the parking is impossible!

9 a.m.: The first thing I do when I log into my computer is pull up our sales report to see what we sold the day before. Exciting sales are celebrated by a high-five with my boss Katherine, who sits right next to me.

9:30 a.m.: We head into our weekly business review meetings with the planning team to review sales and overall business issues from the week prior. We discuss reorders, inventory concerns, and markdown strategies.

10:30 a.m.: Katherine and I get back to our desks and divide and conquer the workload that generated out of our business review. We’ve been working together for three years now and make a pretty good team!

12 p.m.: Grab lunch at the campus cafeteria and then eat it back at my desk while catching up on my favorite wedding blogs. I’m a sucker for wedding videos in particular but try not to watch them at work since I almost always get choked up.

12:15 p.m.: Packages arrive (i.e. new samples for us to play with!).

12:30 p.m.: Katherine and I meet to discuss our Fall/Holiday shoe assortment. We’d gone to shoe market last week and as order deadlines are coming up, we have some tough decisions to make. I’ve called in samples from vendors, and luckily Katherine is a perfect size seven, so she acts as our shoe model. We discuss each style while we arrange (and rearrange and rearrange…) photos on a board until we can step back and feel good about the end result.

2 p.m.: Brainstorming meeting with the decor team to come up with new product ideas. We debate the cuteness of foxes versus hedgehogs for a new cake topper and other highly important matters.

3 p.m.: Time for an afternoon snack and a quick Pinterest break.

3:30 p.m.: Meet with marketing team to discuss upcoming projects including trunk shows, fall look book and Instagram take-overs.

5 p.m.: Day is winding down and I use the last couple of hours to catch up on emails and look over my to-do list again.

7:30 p.m.: Celine and I make it to our favorite yoga class at Anjali Power Yoga where we spend the next hour sweating it out to our instructor’s awesome playlist.

8:45 p.m.: Dinner at home, I’m not much of a cook, but luckily my boyfriend is. My only job is to drink wine and wash dishes at the end of the meal. It’s a pretty sweet set-up if you ask me!

Head over to Career Contessa to read Alexa’s full career story.