Wedding Season – What Do I Wear?

Now that the royal wedding is over, it’s on to regular wedding season.  According to Brides, peak wedding season begins in late spring aka, now, and continues through September.  What does this mean to you?  It means a ton of invites with weird dress codes.  Never fear, I’ve rounded up some ideas for dresses for weddings… and if you’re not going to a wedding, lucky you.  You can grab these dresses because you like them and find an occasion to wear them.

Cocktail Attire

When the wedding invite arrived in the mail and said cocktail attire, you thought, I’ll wait to find a dress.  Now that we’re deep into the season, your choices are getting a little slimmer.  Not to mention, how the heck do you know what cocktail attire really means?  Everyone thinks they know, but do they really?  According to style caster:

…short dresses that are party-ready.”

1. BHLDN – Goldie Dress | 2. BHLDN – Danica Dress | 3. Gal Meets Glam – Tyler Off the Shoulder Scuba Crepe Dress | 4. Keepsake The Label – No Love One-Shoulder Crop Jumpsuit |
5. BHLDN – Lena Dress

So my choices aren’t exactly all short LBD’s (Little Black Dresses), but I think they’re definitely all party ready.  I love the idea of number 5 swirling around as you dance the night away at the reception.  The idea of a jumpsuit (number 4) is rather new, but I think it’s quite acceptable to wear to party all night.  You don’t even have to worry about getting so excited your skirt flies over your head.  The only thing you do have to worry about is getting to the bathroom in time since you have to take it all off at once.  Number 3 is a midi, so it’s perfect for this season when you’re not sure if the venue will be too cold with the air conditioning on in the middle of summer.  The first two dresses, numbers 1 and 2, are the perfect fun, short, party all night type of dresses.

Formal/Black Tie

1. Lulu’s – Moment for Life Halter Jumpsuit | 2. Self Portrait – Asymmetric Stripe Midi Dress |
3. Xscape – Floral-Print Brocade Strapless Gown |
4. Dress the Population – Sandra Plunge Crepe Trumpet Gown |
5. Self Portrait – One Shoulder Plumetis Maxi Dress

According to Town and Country, the oldest continually published general interest magazine in the United States:

Wear a long formal gown (if you have the opportunity to wear one, my attitude is why not?) or a shorter fancy cocktail dress that is black tie appropriate. Colors to keep in mind for winter: jewel tones, emerald, ruby, amethyst and, of course, black. Bring out your best jewels and high heels and jazz it up!”

Of course the price for these dresses will be higher than the others.  I hope you really like this friend who’s getting married!  I love the idea of going with a long dress.  I rarely get to wear one because I’m so short, but if you get it hemmed to the perfect length, this will be the best time to take it for a spin.

Garden/Beach/Summer Formal

This season is a boho bride’s dream.  Weddings on the beach are all the rage during this time of year.  I literally just heard the other day of a wedding calling for garden formal attire.  That was a new one to me as is summer formal.  However, I think they are all similar.  I will go into more detail below this picture of what I think should be worn to what wedding.

1. H&M – Long Dress | 2. BB Dakota – Kirsten Dress | 3. ale by alessandra X Revolve – Betina Maxi Dress | 4. BCBG – Mabel Floral Dress | 5. Amuse Society – Summer Safari Dress |
6. Alice + Olivia – Delora Midi Dress | 7. Rebecca Minkoff – Lynne Dress | 8. H&M – Short Dress

All these outfits would be good for the beach, a garden formal or summer formal occasion.  I find numbers 1 and 8 would be perfect for a beach wedding due to their Grecian influences around the collar.  I would follow the advice of Invitations by Dawn, who says:

Beach inherently indicates casual, which is why formal is tacked on to the end — it’s still a classy affair. We recommend a formal summer sundress (tea-length or knee-length) with flats for the ladies…”

Garden formal is another one that I had to look up the first time I heard of it.  On Mental Floss, they define this genre as:

For women, this is a great time to wear a lightweight, light-colored day dress or tea dress—and if the invite says “garden,” then consider it an invitation to break out your finest floral prints.”

Thus, numbers 2 through 7 are perfect for the garden wedding.  I especially love number 3 because it’s the classiest short/maxi dress combo I’ve ever seen.  I would wear that in a heartbeat!

Honestly, I wouldn’t be that hung up on whether you have the right dress for the wedding.  As long as you look nice, are not wearing jeans, or full on white, you will be okay.  Let’s remember, this isn’t your day… it’s the bride’s.  All eyes are going to be on her anyway.  Just like they were on my sister on her big day…