WeddingChannel.com and Federated Department Stores' Win the Dress of Your Dreams Competition Rewards Creative Brides with a Glamorous Walk Down the Aisle

Business Wire, Feb 2, 2000

Business Editors

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 2, 2000

WeddingChannel.com and Federated Department Stores Celebrate the

Convenience of Online Gift Purchasing with Gown Competition, Bridal

Fashion Shows and a Dowry Sweepstakes

WeddingChannel.com (www.weddingchannel.com), the Internet's most comprehensive bridal registry and wedding planning resource, today announced the &uot;Win the Dress of Your Dreams&uot; competition. Designed to highlight the partnership between WeddingChannel.com and Federated Department Stores, Inc. and the convenience of WeddingChannel.com's online gift purchasing for couples registered with Federated's stores, the competition offers brides-to-be the chance to win a dress from Jessica McClintock's collection of bridal gowns.

To participate in the competition, brides are asked to sketch the wedding gown of their dreams and to write an essay on what the dress means to them. Brides may submit entries in participating stores and via U.S. mail. 24 finalists will be chosen from the entries submitted. Details about the contest are available at WeddingChannel.com and in Federated stores. Finalists' entries will be judged by a panel including real-life married couple John Callahan and Eva LaRue Callahan who play Edmund Grey and Maria Santos Grey on the ABC Daytime Drama, &uot;All My Children&uot;; fashion designer Jessica McClintock; wedding planning expert and editor/contributor to &uot;Going To The Chapel&uot;, Linnyette Richardson-Hall; editor/producer of WeddingChannel.com, Susan Lee Smith; vice president of bridal registry for Federated, Hank Reinhart; and fashion director of BRIDE'S Magazine, Rachel Leonard. Consumers will take part in the judging by voting for their favorite entry on . Entries will be judged on the style and creativity of the design and the originality of the essay.

One winner from each of the eight Federated divisions will be flown to San Francisco where they will receive a personal consultation with Jessica McClintock. Additionally, the designer will help each winner select a free dress from the Jessica McClintock collection.

Complementing the &uot;Win the Dress of Your Dreams&uot; promotion is a series of fashion shows in the Federated stores listed below. Each show features fashions for the entire bridal party including bride, groom, attendants, mothers of the bride and groom and flower girls. The shows' grand finales will showcase designs from the Jessica McClintock collection. Special guests, John Callahan and Eve LaRue Callahan will attend the New York City Fashion Show, while Jessica McClintock will attend the show in San Francisco.

     Fashion Shows will take place on the following dates:

     February 10, Macy's, New York, NY

     February 16, Burdines, Orlando, FL

     February 17, Stern's, New York, NY

     March 1, Goldsmith's, Memphis, TN

     March 4, Lazarus, Columbus, OH

     March 11, Rich's, Atlanta, GA

     March 28, Macy's, San Francisco, CA

WeddingChannel.com and Federated will drive participation through both on and off-line marketing initiatives, including in-store displays in the following Federated divisions: Macy's, The Bon Marche, Burdines, Goldsmith's, Lazarus, Rich's and Stern's. In addition to the promotion, Federated and WeddingChannel.com will promote online gift purchasing through bridal fashion shows and a dowry sweepstakes.

In addition, each &uot;Win the Dress of Your Dreams&uot; entrant (excluding Burdines entrants) will be entered into the Dowry Sweepstakes. One grand prize winner will be chosen at random for a collection of assorted Federated gifts. The prize package features; an Honora sterling silver cultured pearl woven floater on microcord necklace, a Panasonic Genius Premier microwave, a Hoover Windtunnel Upright Vacuum; a Cusinart Pro-Custom 11 Food Processor; plus many other special gifts.

About WeddingChannel.com

With its patent-pending integrated technology, WeddingChannel.com (www.weddingchannel.com), the Web's leading bridal resource, is the first Internet business to offer consumers a complete menu of wedding-related services, including personalized web pages, planning tools, e-commerce, online travel planning, local business directories and the largest database of bridal fashions. Through exclusive relationships with the top retail brands in the world including: Bloomingdale's, Macy's, The Bon Marche, Burdines, Goldsmith's, Lazarus, Rich's, Stern's and Zales, WeddingChannel.com has created an integrated online and off-line bridal registry which services 900,000 registered brides and grooms. WeddingChannel.com has also formed a multi-million dollar content, sales and marketing partnership with Conde Nast's BRIDE'S Magazine, the number one bridal media brand. WeddingChannel.com is the only online wedding planning site to be endorsed by the Association of Bridal Consultants. The company is also the GO Network premier Wedding content provider and a premier wedding merchant on Yahoo!. Based in Los Angeles, California, WeddingChannel.com is a private company whose investors include MacAndrews &Forbes Holdings, Inc., Goldman Sachs, MSD Capital, RRE Investors, idealab!, idealab! Capital Partners and Federated Department Stores, Inc.