What to wear & what not to wear at a wedding

    This subject has been debated by everyone in the fashion industry, so of course I need to have my own saying on the matter… After all, with almost 10 years of designing wedding and evening dresses I think I’ve gathered some experience on the matter.

    First of all, a wedding is actually quite an event, especially for the bride & groom, so they are the ones who will set the tone. If you read the invitation, it should give you some clues on the kind of wedding they want, so, your outfit depends a lot on the location. If it’s a ballroom, then choose something very elegant, if it’s a summer garden wedding, opt for a light dress, in bright colors, pastels or interesting prints.

    Another very important aspect is the temperature outside. Depending on the season, you might feel different about your outfit, so you might show a lot more skin during summer and cover up in autumn, let’ say. The choice of fabrics is actually different too, but we’ll talk about this in a future article.

    What I would like to see more at weddings is that people put on a little effort for the event. If you arrive at an elegant wedding dressed very casual, it might look like you don’t really want to be there. Unless the bride and groom specified that the wedding is a casual one, they actually expect you to look at least a little more elegant than your usual look. Since we keep looking at the Oscars and wish we could wear those kind of dresses, well, if you’re not working in the movie industry, a wedding is the perfect occasion to feel like a movie star…a movie star that takes into consideration the fact that the bride is and should be the center of everybody’s attention. This leads me to a series of DONT’S at the wedding:

    1.  Don’t steal the spotlight. That is translated into don’t dress in  something that can look similar to a wedding gown. It’s rude.

    2.   Avoid whites. If it’s a long white dress, it’s out of the question. If it’s a short dress, it’s acceptable if it’s a printed one on a white base, or if it’s a mix of white and at least another color. The idea is that you must not look like the bride, so just avoid that and it’s ok.

    3.  Don’t show too much skin. This is something that I think should be applied all the time, but especially at this type of events. Unless the wedding actually takes place in a club and the theme is “party in da’ club”, then a wedding is not the place to wear that short sexy vixen dress. The wedding is like the Oscars, not MTV music awards.  🙂

    4. Don’t exaggerate with make-up and accessories. Like always, the rule is “less is more”, which means that too much of anything can ruin everything. On the other hand, a special event is the perfect occasion  to try a glam look and by glam look I don’t mean a circus kind of look.

    5. Don’t dress up like you’re going to a business meeting…so just leave home anything you might wear at the office.

    6. Forget about casual outfits and try a dress or a fancy pair of pants. There’s nothing bad in prepping for a special event.

    Now, I have to admit that I would really love to see more women wearing long dresses at weddings, as they really make you feel princess-like, and even the most simple long dress looks more elegant than any cocktail dress. If you choose a cocktail dress though, avoid those you would wear at a business cocktail.

    There are some mixed opinions about the color palette at the wedding, so some say black and white is out of the question. I’m more relaxed about it, since I believe black is really elegant at any kind of party, so why not a wedding too.

    In some future articles, I will give you some ideas of what to wear, depending on the location  and the season the wedding takes place, but for today, I will show you some outfit choices that I would like to see at a wedding.

    The elegant long dress

    A tea length dress

    Cocktail dress perfection

    For shoes, opt for elegant ones, preferably high heels. If you really can’t wear high heels, don’t start now for the sake of fashion. It’s such a sad picture to see someone struggling to walk on high heels, so if you can’t,  there’s always some other option, like kitten heels or even a fancy pair of flats.

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    Photo: Il Passo

    When it comes to bags, a clutch is the perfect choice, a metallic one even better most of the times.

    I’ll leave you with these ideas for now, but if you have any questions on the matter, don’t hesitate to send an email and I’ll give you my advice.

    Photos: Pinterest

    Kisses,

    Gia

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