With wedding season just around the corner there was bound to come through your door an invitation to a wedding. Buying a gift is not always an issue, the main hair pulling and aggravating problem a girl could come across is figuring out what to wear. As if deciding on what to wear wasn’t enough, you need to pull into the equation the unpredictable weather of England.
The etiquette for any wedding varies on the type of wedding you are going to. A wedding could either be a formal sit down meal with a classy dinner, or it could also be a registry ceremony with a hall and a buffet.
Usually the dress code is put on the invitation you receive, though it is not always stated. If you are unsure of how exactly to dress for your wedding, there a couple of ways you can usually tell what style of dress you should go for.
Key things to factor into your style of outfit:
- Style of the invitation. What does the look of the invitation say about the wedding?
- Location of the wedding venue and ceremony. Where is the wedding set? Is it at a high end hotel, or in a football club hall?
- What part of the wedding ceremony have you been invited to? The whole event or the evening party?
Ask yourself is it expensive? Classy? Formal? Outside? Inside? Casual? or a small gathering of people for a small occasion?
Dressing for the weather
England is well-known for its unpredictable weather, especially in the “summer”. Even the weather channels that have all the equipment to predict the weather get the weather wrong a lot of the time. This is the main reason why you will want to cater your outfit to suit any kind of weather that you could come across on the big day. Find below tips on keeping yourself beautiful throughout the whole day.
Make up
When it rains (or even if you cry at a wedding), it is quite common for makeup to run down the side of your face, and when a day such as this is full of photographs, you really do not want to be walking around like a big panda! Keep you makeup neutral with brightly coloured lips. This will keep you going for the whole day without smudge marks down your face. Waterproof mascara is always a good piece of makeup to use for a wedding.
Shoes
High heeled shoes look amazing if you have the stamina to walk around in them all day. If you are going to a wedding for the whole day, ask yourself, do I want to walk around all day in these shoes? High heels are also a big failure when you need to go out on grass or in sand for photographs. You will find yourself sinking into the ground, getting stuck and embarrassingly falling over. If you are keen to wear your heels, take a pair of flats in your bag to change into at night as your dancing shoes!
The weather also compromises any strappy shoes that you think may look nice, but in fact when out in bad rain weather, you could find yourself with cold and wet feet. Instead, find a small heeled shoe that closes off your toes. Closed in shoes will keep your toes from getting cold and wet!
Accessories
Style your outfit with some unusual accessories and finish your whole outfit off with a bit of bling. Accessories can really help to finish the final look of your outfit and dress it up that little bit more.
Fascinators
Fascinators look lovely when you have them in, but what always happens when it is windy? You find that a lot of fascinators slip out and ruin the rest of your hair. The best fascinator not to fall out of your hair is one that is attached to a hair band. This is also an easier type of fascinator to take out of you hair when your partying like an animal in the evening. If you do need to get a clip-in fascinator you should make sure the clips have enough grip in them to stay in, do a practice run with it and use small hair slides to keep it in.
Hair Styling
As much as you would love to think that your hair will keep the curls you spent an hour and a half putting in your hair the morning of the wedding, you are just not going to keep them in when it begins to rain. A nice hair up-do is always a favourite in the rain as there is less damage control needed to re-adjust your hair when wind or rain hits. You could always let your hair down in the evening.
Weather Cover-Ups
You can never tell if you are going to get cold, need to keep dry, or need a cover-up at any point during the day. Why not finish your outfit with a smart blazer or jacket, pashmina or shawl to throw around your shoulders. Tip for keeping your pashmina around your shoulders is to add a broach to help pin it around you and keep it on your shoulders.
Clothing to Avoid
White clothing is a must to avoid. It is bad etiquette to turn up in white on someone else’s wedding day, and you wouldn’t want to upset the bride and upstage her!
Black to a day time wedding can give out a bad message that you have negative feelings about the wedding, so avoid it where possible if you are invited during the day to a wedding.
Jeans no matter how smart they may look can actually be seen by others as too casual for a wedding. Even for a casual wedding, I wouldn’t suggest jeans to a wedding! Instead find a nice pair of smart linen trousers.
Sexy and revealing clothing conveys a bad message to others and not the right message you want to be giving out. Religious church weddings do not allow revealing and short dresses, so be aware of the length of your dress.
Clothing from a popular high-street shop. Look in an unusual online fashion shop to get something a little bit different. There is nothing worse than turning up in the same clothes as someone else.
