Happy Monday everyone!
With my fourth wedding anniversary coming up later on this week (
crazy!) I thought it would be fun to do a week’s worth of wedding-inspired posts! After all, June is the most popular month to get married so I thought it would be a great way to kickoff the month! (And apparently other people have the same idea because
the Everygirl is also doing a wedding week on their site this week as well!) Plus, I wasn’t blogging when I was going through planning my own wedding, so I’m excited to talk about all things wedding!
I thought I’d start out the week talking about one topic in particular that I’ve been dealing with recently–what to wear to a summer wedding?!
This summer, Cameron and I have four different weddings will be attending. I’m being a bridesmaid in one of the weddings, so my outfit is covered there. However, I’ve definitely been having a little bit more of a difficult time than I anticipated finding a dress to wear for the other three weddings! Obviously, these are the things I’m looking to stay away from:
1. Anything white/cream: I definitely think that all wedding guests should follow tradition in this case and it’s just distasteful to wear white to a wedding.
2. Anything black: I’m not necessarily against wearing a black dress to a wedding in the winter, but I just feel that it’s kind heavy for a summer wedding? While I do think that there are probably some cute black dresses out there that would be appropriate for a summer wedding, I guess for me it’s more due to the fact that I’ve worn a black and white dress to a few summer weddings in the past and I’m just ready for some color!
3. Anything too casual: I absolutely love wearing sundresses with flip-flops all summer long, however, I think for a wedding it’s appropriate to get a little more dressed up. It’s a special day and I think it warrants wearing something a little fancier than a cotton dress that would wear to the beach. After all, my husband will be wearing a suit, so I want to wear something that’s on a similar level of formality.
4. Anything too dressy: At the same time, I’m going to someone’s wedding not going to prom. I think some more formal dresses can look really over the top for a summer wedding, and after all, it’s the bride’s day so the last thing I want to do is wear some crazy ballgown.
5. Anything too office-y: This is been a hard one for me as it seems like so many dresses that I’ve come across look much more boardroom than wedding guest.
6. Anything too pricey: While I definitely want to look my best when attending a wedding, at the same time, all the weddings we’ll be attending this summer do involve buying a plane ticket to fly across the country. And while I’m so glad we’re able to do it and can’t wait to see my friends, I don’t necessarily want to spend tons of money on a dress that I’ll probably only wear a few times.
7. Anything too short/revealing: A wedding is a special event where people often have older relatives/family in attendance, and you don’t want to be that person that shows up in some scandalous outfit. First of all, if the ceremony is in a church, it’s important to be dressed appropriately for that, but even if it’s not a church wedding, in my opinion it’s still really distasteful to wear something that shows too much skin. Because I am 5’10”, finding dresses that are long enough can be a challenge sometimes!
So there you have it, my criteria.
Surprisingly, it’s more difficult to find a cute dress for a wedding than one might think! However, here are a few fun options I’ve found recently:
{Nordstrom’s was having an awesome 40% off sale on dresses last week, so some of the prices may have changed from when I originally looked, just FYI!}
I’ve also considered trying out Rent The Runway, but am a little nervous to give it a try. They have some gorgeous dresses but 1) I’d be worried that the dress would come and I wouldn’t like the way it looks/fits and 2) Some of the rentals are pretty pricey to the point where I’d just rather purchase the dress. However, I do really like that people who have rented the dresses can post pictures of them actually wearing it so you can an idea of how it photographs/fits on different body types. Here are a few of the more reasonably-priced rentals I’ve had my eye on:
If you’ve tried out RTR, I’d love to hear your thoughts!
So there you have it, a few ideas for what to wear as a wedding guest!
What about you–do you have weddings to attend this summer? What’s your go-to store for a cute dress? I’d love to hear! Xoxo
