Crowdtap & Old Navy In-Store Beach Party

Hey everyone! I recently received the opportunity from Crowdtap to snag some new beach essentials from Old Navy!

The really awesome thing? It wasn't just for me! I could bring 3 friends!

The coupons were for one swimsuit, a pair of flip-flops, a beach bag, and a towel for each of us. All the things you need for a day at the beach!!

I took my mom, my sister, and my niece. We arrived at the store and after informing the manager we headed right for the swim section ... and found ourselves pretty disappointed. I had 'window shopped' ahead of time at OldNavy.com. I had picked out a few suits I wanted to try and could find none of them in store. There were three of their control max one-piece suits that my mom and I prefer and one of them only had two sizes left (a medium and an x-large). Checking the other one-piece suits, the non-control suits, found about 3-4 of them.

I grabbed two of the control suits and two of their regular one-piece suits. I also picked up one of their tankinis. Everyone else grabbed their favorites and we headed to the dressing room.

Trying on the swimsuits presented problems immediately. I'm 5'3, my mom and sister are slightly shorter than me. We found that we were slightly too short in the torso to fill out most of the suits. The bottoms were saggy in ... well, in the bottom. If pulled up the bra part was slightly too high.

However, I did find these two beauties!! They are both control max. The black and white one had soft padding in the bra and side boning to help it stay up (which is really a must if you want to wear it into the ocean). The all black one even has a padded bra and underwire! While I preferred the all black one, I picked the black and white one simply because it fit the best from top to bottom.

While my mom and niece refused to be on camera my sister was ham enough to make up for them. She walked the 'runway' of the try on room! This is the suit she decided on for herself.

We were also allowed to pick up some classic flip-flops, a beach towel, and a really awesome straw bag. I LOVE this bag and plan to use it all summer long - not just take it to the beach! I would have been happy if the coupon just covered the bag honestly, but to get everything else free as well was so generous of Old Navy and Crowdtap!

Our cashier, Andrew, was great! He had never seen coupons like ours, but was more than willing to read through them and help us. He was really nice, and I'm not just saying that because he was cute ... which is always a plus on a girl's shopping trip. ;)

Sadly, he explained that my swimsuit was on clearance that day and  the coupon only covered items that were full price. I quickly ran back and grabbed the all black suit from the try on pictures ... only to find out it was on clearance too. What was I going to do?? I hadn't tried on anything else that I had like. I did the only thing I could do in a situation like this. I went back and picked a cute one at random, making sure to check the price tag this time, hoping all the while that it would fit once I got it home.

This is what I came home with. I'm not too terribly pleased with the stripes, but striped suits in different styles were all they had in full priced one-piece suits.

I don't know. I think it might just be the one that fit the best of all those I tried on. The bottom isn't saggy, the top isn't too high, and everything else sits comfortably. I do wish it was a control max, especially with the stripes, but that's mostly just to make myself feel comfortable and confident in all situations (like sitting down). But I feel no shame wearing this. And getting it free? Well that just makes it all the better!

So, many thanks to Crowdtap and Old Navy for upgrading my beach style!!!