Wedding Dresses: Beyond The LBD

I just got back from a fabulous wedding weekend in New Bern, North Carolina -- Congrats Sara and Dave. Sure, we all know it’s about the bride and her beautiful white dress, but it’s also challenging for us guests to come up with our outfit(s). For this particular wedding, we had no less than five events to attend, including a post rehearsal dinner dance. Of course all of this planning sent me into a wardrobe meltdown. I stood in front of my closet and tried to sort out my clothing options and found seven black dresses. I ended up picking a David Meister one, a super-flattering black jersey dress with curve-friendly ruched sides. I wore them with my Christian Louboutin black patent leather peep-toe pumps, hoping the signature red soles would add something. It was the safest option, but one that was definitely not memorable. I would normally post a picture here, but you get the idea.

My next wedding is Friday and I’m going to apply a new set of rules. Hopefully this will guide you to look your prettiest and give you some pizzaz.

1. I’m going to accessorize better. A brightly colored scarf, a bold necklace or a fun earrings will do the trick and take my classic black dress out of its boring existence.
2. I’m pairing a black dress with lavish heels. We all have our signature black pumps but by wearing a classic dress with a more colorful, lively heel, it not only dresses it up, it helps you just look complete.
3. Dare to be different. Go for a COLOR!!!
4. But be sure not to be too outlandish and take away attention from the bride.

Here are a couple I’m eyeing for Friday’s wedding.

Wearing a bow may be hard to pull off but this pretty dress from Francis set my heart a flutter.

I love the sexy appeal in this curve-hugging black and red bandage dress from Hervé Léger.

One of the biggest trends this fall is sequins and this dress by Sass & Bide provides the right amount of drama.

This dress from David Meister exudes extravagance with its daring single shoulder.

The streamlined cut of this two-tone dress by Nicole Miller is a figure-flattering style.