FOR DOMESTIC ORDERS – Get Free Ground shipping on all orders of $50 or more! Simply type code XMAS09 if you are shipping within the U.S. to get this deal. All Ground orders ship via Fedex Ground. If you order by 3pm EST, your order ships out on the same day you place it. You must type in the code to receive the discount.

FOR INTERNATIONAL ORDERS –  If you are shipping outside of the U.S., we have great news! As part of our promotion we have significantly lowered our shipping rates for locations such as Australia and the Pacific Rim, Canada, and Europe. No promotion code is needed, simply visit our Shipping page to view revised rates. Fedex Economy is recommended if you are shipping internationally as it is a fast and reliable method.

So there you have it ! Start shopping FOR YOUR SWIMSUIT now

* Only applies for order of $50 or more. Offer subject to adjustments due to returns. Starts Dec 24th. Valid until Dec 31^st, 2009.

Matte Alysun by Maaji Swimwear

We told you we’d give away a brand new 2010 designer swimsuit to the person who commented the most on our blog over a two week period, didn’t we? We’re making good on that promise and crowning the lovely Alexa as our winner with an astounding 2720 comments! We laughed, we cried… we read and moderated over 6000 total comments during this contest!

The winner, Alexa Apestegui, is a 32 year-old interior designer from Costa Rica. She chose the Matte Alysun from Maaji Swimwear as her free suit. This is what she told us about her choice: ”I chose this suit because I wanted a yellow one and what better than Maaji since it’s two swimsuits in one!! I loved this contest because it was very competitive and it gave me an insight to a lot of different opinions and some great advice as well. I think it’s great the Orchid Boutique rewards their customers and keeps them interested in the products and happy! Also the suits and brands you carry are great, you have an excelent way to keep us informed about the collections and the new trends in the fashion industry. Thank you for the articles and specially for the opportunity to win this suit!!”

Congrats, Alexa! And don’t worry if you didn’t win – there will be new sales and specials in the future, and we’ll announce them right here on the Swim Couture blog! And you won’t miss a thing if you sign up to have our blog posts delivered to you by email – for free!

The Prize: You’ll get to pick any swimsuit or coverup from our 2010 collections, any designer, any style, ANY PRICE. Choose from a wide array of swimwear brands such as Badgley Mischka, True Religion, Betsey Johnson, OndadeMar, the coveted Agua Bendita Swimwear, Maaji, Despi, and more. Yep, including the ones we haven’t announced yet – you can wait a bit and pick the newest of the new, if you win!

How to Win: Just leave the most comments on our blog (any post, old or new) between now and 11:59pm ET November 16th, 2009. There’s even a helpful little tracker in the sidebar of the blog that will tell you who the current leader is!

Rules: Just a few things to keep the contest and the blog from turning into the Wild West!

1. The contest is open to anyone in any country that The Orchid Boutique ships to, but if the winner is located outside of the United States, shipping charges of your choice will apply. If the winner is located within the U.S., we will ship your free item via USPS Priority at no charge.
2. You may not reply to yourself in the comments on any individual post. If you were the last person to comment, you have to wait until someone else leaves a comment. And don’t try commenting under two names just to reply to yourself – our super-smart blog robot will know!
3. Comments must be relevant to the post and must have some meat to them! Don’t just write “Great post!” Add to the conversation, or we may delete the comment and it will not count.
4. All comments left on any post on Swim Couture (old or new) count for this contest. So go ahead: dig through our archives and comment away!
5. The owners and bloggers of The Orchid Boutique and Swim Couture are the sole deciders of what constitutes a legitimate comment for the purposes of this contest. Spam, hate speech, and duplicate comments will not be approved for posting on the site and will not count for the contest.
6. The winner will receive one free swimsuit or coverup of their choice from any 2010 collection, as soon as the item debuts in our store. No exchanges granted.

This post is also open for comments, so feel free to start here! To get the conversation rolling, why don’t you check out the 2010 collections at The Orchid Boutique and let us know which suit you have your eye on for the contest?