Wedding Attire

Weddings dominated my social calendar all throughout my 20's.  Our friends and family celebrated partnerships made permanent and I somewhat slowly figured out the wedding scene.  I discerned appropriate attire for Baptist weddings and Hindu weddings, for morning weddings and afternoon weddings and evening weddings.  It should come to no surprise that, in my inexperience, I often dressed down at these functions because I often dress down, but once I finally realized the standards I firmly upheld them.  I have no desire to cause offense in this regard; a Saturday evening wedding is a formal affair and it calls for a formal dress, heels, jewelry, and for something nice done to my hair. 

I haven't been to a wedding in a while -- baby showers have dominated my 30's social calendar -- and I was overjoyed to be invited to a friend's wedding this past week.  I was thoroughly confused by the invitation, though.  Saturday, 7 p.m., Jewish temple -- all standard things.  But it specified "cocktail attire" on the invitation.  Cocktail attire?!  That's less formal than a 7 p.m. Saturday wedding should mean! 

I spent multiple days shopping for a dress that matched the cocktail attire specification.  I found a dress that I loved, but I was certain it was too casual.  I purchased it anyway and showed it off to Samantha.  She agreed "too casual," and then she delivered a damning blow.  It was the wrong color for my skin tone.  She tried it on and it looked fantastic on her.  She kept the dress and I tried on every dress Samantha owns.  Nothing was right, but I brought home one that seemed okay.  It matched cocktail attire but was predominantly black, therefore, it seemed more formal to me. 

Clearly, I agonized over this requirement.  It wasn't until Saturday that I realized why the attire was specified.  This was a younger crowd, in their early 20's, and they probably had not figured out the implied dress requirement suggested by the day and time.  The brides weren't encouraging their guests to dress down; they were afraid that their guests would arrive in jeans!  Once I determined this, I pulled out my standard Saturday evening wedding outfit and felt great about my choice. 

Krystal in her early 20's never would have wondered about the dress requirement; Krystal in her 30's spent way too much time wondering about it.  Oh well.

Here's Samantha in dress #1 for the night.  She, as always, looks lovely.  (I introduced her to the Chevre salad at the Wildflower Cafe.  Pure decadence!)


And here we are at the wedding, Samantha in dress #2.  We look fantastic and had a glorious time.  Weddings are wonderful experiences!

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