A Guide To Getting Fancy
“What Do You Like Better, Christmas or Wedding Season?” – Wedding Crashers
It’s wedding season, ladies and gents!! Put your party hat on, stuff your face with cake and dance your butt off. One question people ask me fairly often is what to wear to a wedding! Since my passion is wedding planning, this is one of my favorite questions to answer!! There are a few different things to consider when choosing the proper attire as a guest at a wedding. I’ve brought along a few of my really attractive friends (I wish) to model for us. 😉
1. What is their dress code? You should be able to find out this information either on your formal invitation or on the Bride & Groom’s wedding website. If you can’t find it there, ask someone in the bridal party. To give you a quick run down of the most common wedding attire terms…
– Black Tie: Men are required to wear tuxes and women to wear formal gowns (long preferably, but the right short dress works too). What girl doesn’t want an excuse to wear a floor length gown? My suggestion, if you have the opportunity, always go floor length. Unless you’re Angelina Jolie, there are only so many times in your life you get to rock a beautiful super fancy dress.
– Black Tie Optional: The previous attire is acceptable but not required, and can be slightly less fancy. If men don’t choose to wear tuxes, suits & ties are required (they’ll be on their suit and tie) and if women don’t wear formal gowns, fancy cocktail dresses are required.
– Cocktail Attire: Suits for guys and cocktail dresses for women.
2. Next, keep it classy. Not too much cleavage showing, not too short, proper undergarments, shaven legs and armpits! Sorry about that last part, but you’d be shocked by the number of people who overlook that little personal detail! Gross… moving on…
3. Color: Take into consideration the time of year and time of day. If it’s a daytime wedding, light colors (NOT WHITE!!) are completely acceptable for spring/summer, and in some rare cases, fall or winter weddings. For evening weddings in spring/summer, I would tend to go for a jewel tone or muted but rich color. It’s not a bad idea to get a dress that coordinates with one or more of the wedding colors. You don’t want to match the bridesmaids and confuse people, but getting something that meshes well will show up nicely in photos. For fall weddings, fall colors are great; just make sure the color looks good with your skin tone.
4. Hair & Makeup: This is a great excuse to get fancy. Do something classy and put together with your hair and makeup. If you want the full experience, or if you’re in the wedding, get your hair and makeup done! It’s fun… why not go all out?
5. Relation to the Couple: If you’re an immediate family member of the bride or groom, you will, most likely, be required to be in some professional photos, so you may want to keep in mind what the bridal party is wearing so as to not clash with the wedding colors. For example, Mothers of the bride and groom sometimes will match bridesmaids or wear a coordinating color. Let’s say you’re the sister of the groom and the wedding colors are yellow and ivory with pops of charcoal grey and the bridesmaids are wearing floor length yellow gowns, while the groomsmen are wearing charcoal suits with yellow ties. It would look nice to wear a grey or silver dress so you match but aren’t confused with the bridesmaids.
So there you have it, lovely people. Now, go forth and celebrate love.
