WEIRD NEWS: Groom Sees Bride Before Wedding Day

NEW YORK -- Chaos ensued early Saturday evening when a groom busted through a "No Gentlemen Beyond This Point" sign at Macy's bridal salon in Herald Square to check out the dress that his fiancee will wear to their wedding.

Saleswomen, other brides and various family members expressed shock, then horror, then curiosity after the groom, Matt Katz, 29, spit in the face of tradition and odd superstition by viewing the white garment before the appropriate time.

Katz said he was invited by the bride herself to view the dress, which, he added, "looked fucking awesome."

"I just like to involve him in decisions," said Deborah Hurwitz, the bride, matter-of-factly.

Katz agreed with Hurwitz's top pick for a dress -- a classy neo-Grecian number with a hot neckline -- and the purchase was made at approximately 8:41 p.m.

The couple was told that it will take a four months for the dress to arrive, and then another few weeks for alterations, which shocked the shit out of the groom.

Spry 74-year-old saleswoman Sylvia -- a part-time historical romance novelist -- agreed with the groom and assorted onlookers when she said Hurwitz looked "breathtaking."

Among the onlookers was a 21-year-old Macy's employee who was neither engaged nor dating anyone but had come to the Macy's bridal salon to "live in the moment."

The employee, who asked not to be named, tried on a flowing white gown with an even longer veil, stared at herself in the mirror, and repeated this -- "damn, wow, damn, wow" -- for a disturbingly long period of time.

She then turned to those staring at her, which is what happens in the bridal salon when anyone tries on a dress. "You're living in my moment," the employee said, smiling.

"Wow this is weird," Katz said. "How come women are allowed to play out their wedding fantasies in here, but 'gentlemen' aren't allowed to check out their fiancees' dresses?"

Still, he said he was thrilled that his fiancee found a dress she looks and feels gorgeous in, and he rejected the idea that seeing the dress before the wedding will cause bad luck.

"And I'm also glad I never have to go back to a bridal salon," he said.

Apparently that wouldn't be possible anyway. A Macy's spokesman said Monday that the store would not tolerate another intrusion past the "no gentlemen allowed" sign, and at the first sight of Katz the police will be called.