Well, you might need to adjust your tie, or take a… um break before going to a formal place.
If you get dressed up to go to the bathroom, then you are weird. 
Well, I sometimes go “in morning dress”, though it looks pretty informal.
My girlfriend and I once got dressed up to go out for dinner at a restaurant that, it turned out, was far more casual than we had been led to believe. We definitely felt out of place.
Everybody probably figured you were very successful and had too rich a lift to stop and dress down before the restaurant. Way I see it, you came out ahead.
Not me personally but I once had a dental emergency on a Saturday afternoon and called my dentist at the time. She called me back and told me to meet her at her office. When she got there, she was completely done up in a formal gown with diamond jewelry (her husband is a jeweler) and we went in where she did some quick work on my tooth. It was pretty surreal to be sitting under a light in a mostly dark dentist’s office, just me and a woman dressed like she was at the Oscars poking around inside my mouth.
My gf works in advertising. She was attending an event for work and was all dressed up (evening gown, diamond earrings, the works).
When she left the event she texted me, asking if I wanted to meet somewhere for drinks, since it was a Friday night. I named a bar, she chose a time.
I’d been doing yard work earlier. I was a mess, and didn’t have time to shower, so I went as is.
We got strange looks.
For my first ever date I asked a local girl to a Black Sabbath concert in town. I guess because I used the word “date” and she’d no idea who/what Black Sabbath were, she came dressed in a frock suitable for a school formal.
I never saw her again.
[exaggerated vampire accent]
“Excuuuuse me terribly, but I find that I need to, in the vernacular of the old country, top off my tank?” while eyeing the attendant’s neck.
Me. Walgreens. We went to Las Vegas to, among other entertainments, have an Elvis wedding ceremony. It was a vow renewal, not a legal marriage ceremony. I wore the same clothes I’d worn to my actual wedding ceremony a few years before - basically morning dress minus the jacket. My wife also wore her wedding dress, which wasn’t a traditional white wedding dress, but a custom dress with a bit more colour that was still quite formal. After the Elvis wedding ceremony, we had dinner booked in a fancy restaurant at our hotel, which we also wanted to do in our wedding clothes. The ceremony was a lot of fun and afterwards, we were dropped off back at the hotel, but still had some time before dinner. My wife suggested we get a bottle of champagne for the room. We’d already been at the hotel a couple of nights and knew that the closest place to buy off-the-shelf alcohol was the Walgreens across the Strip from our hotel. So we walked over there in wedding attire, went into the shop, and bought our bottle. Nobody in the store reacted to us at all.
Not me. But two incidents on the same day. A close friend was getting married, and the reception was at a country club with multiple ballrooms. There was time between the wedding and the reception. I was driving, so rather than going straight to the bar, I went for a walk. I was roaming by some gardens that were on the edge of a golf course when I saw a man in a tuxedo carrying a golf bag and walking in my direction. When he was nearby, I asked him if he was off to play a round. He explained that he was a member of a wedding party, the groom was an avid golfer, and the bridal party was having their pictures taken. The guy I was speaking to had his clubs in his car, and the groom had decided that they should have pictures of the groom’s party golfing. I chatted with the guy for a few minutes, but dropped away when he got near the rest of the groom’s party. Out of curiosity, I kept an eye on them. They had their picture taken on the tee of a par-3 hole. The groom and the guy I was talking with each hit a ball to/towards the green, and then the groom’s party moved on. So golfing in formal wedding attire.
After the reception, the bride and groom of the wedding I attended decided they wanted to go to their local pub, which was pretty downmarket, and have a drink. The groom knew I was driving and had stayed sober. The wedding party had not stayed sober, so I was asked to help with transportation. So I did end up in a pub that was on the verge of being a dive bar in a suit, but I don’t think that was all that remarkable. However, the wedding party did attract a lot of attention, and may have been a first. The bride and groom did get free drinks.
I’m guessing nobody in this thread is going to top this lot:
A gazillion years ago - 8th grade graduation dance. It was billed as semi-formal, so I got a knee-length pink dress with a lace overdress - it was pretty fancy. Showed up at the dance to see other girls there in shorts. I was mortified.
In 1992, I was in grade 7. I sang in the school choir, and so attended that year’s 8th grade graduation, which would be followed by a dance for the graduates. I had expected the latter to come in semi-formal attire. Imagine my surprise when the ceremony started, and the graduates came into the gym decked out as for a senior prom. The boys in tuxedos, often with cummerbunds as was the fashion at the time; the girls in evening gowns and fancy makeup/hair. I was impressed. I started to look forward to the tuxedo I would wear to my 8th grade graduation the next year. When the time came, my mother thought a full-on tux was excessive. I was however allowed to approximate one, with a dark blazer and a bow tie.
To my surprise, when I got to my graduation, almost no one was wearing a tuxedo, maybe only one boy, a few girls had something like an evening or cocktail dress, but in other cases it was just a summer dress or similar garment. Some of the boys just had a nice shirt and tie. My dress was not excessive, but actually among the most formal there. I have found at least one media report from the time mentioning that parents had been told by the schools that the full-out prom trend for middle schoolers was excessive, so the other adults basically would have had the same idea as my mother did; that was likely behind it.
I received another surprise a few years later in 1998, when a middle schooler I knew showed me what he would wear to his graduation / dance. By now it was down to like a fashion polo.
I played laser tag wearing a suit once. It was a meetup type event but only half the people who showed up to play laser tag wore suits. It does inhibit movement a bit but you feel kinda badass.
Wore a suit to my first job interview with Boeing back in 1980. There was about 20 of us waiting, I was the only person wearing a suit. After this interview, they sent 8 of us over to the Renton plant and we had a group interview with a couple managers. By then I had removed the tie but still looked way out of place. Found out later the letter sent to me about the interviews stated that work clothes were recommended the interviews.
Bless you for that.
In a seriously dodgy dive bar in Wellington, near Cape town, after it turned out the only slightly less dodgy bar in Hermon was not open on that day.
Full 3 piece suit (hired tailcoat, though) in blistering 38° heat of Malmesbury area, just prior to my wedding.
Nice!
That sounds like the dress I bought for our formal ball when I was a California state representative (youth legislature version). Mine had a low-ish back with a pink satin ribbon. I thought I was all that and a bag of chips.
Your story reminds me of a movie I saw on TV a gazillion years ago that was made either in the late 40s or very early 50s. An awkward girl hears the big dance is “informal,” but it was really “in formal.” She shows up in dungarees rolled up and a loose white shirt. Everybody laughs, and she’s mortified. But a teacher catches up to the girl after she’d run out of the ballroom in tears. Got the girl dolled up in one of the teacher’s formal dresses and got her boyfriend to take the girl out. They were eating in a local restaurant when some of the kids from the dance show up, and they’re all agog at her and her handsome date. The best part is when the couple left the restaurant it started to rain. The nasty kids think the girl will get her hair and dress ruined, but the guy picks her up and carries her to the car. Total killer move. Such a great wish fulfillment scene! No wonder I’ve remembered it all these years.
I always scrutinize myself in the bathroom mirror before going to a dress-up occasion. I would think that’s normal.
For me it was at a campground. I had packed my car before I went to work because the workplace was 30 minutes closer to where I was heading. We were told to look good for client visitors that day, so I was suitably dressed for that. Then I just switched to driving shoes, hopped in the car and drove 5 hours to my event. When I arrived, it was nearing sunset, which means mosquitoes, so without stopping to change clothes, I started setting up my tent.
A few strangers clocked me as I started setting up and one just could not get over my attire. “Dude, there’s a woman wearing a dress over there, setting up her tent!” He was plainly confounded. His smarter companion said, “So?” “I mean she’s wearing a dress and setting up her tent!” sez guy one. Guy two, “Maybe she wants to get her tent up before sundown.” “But she’s wearing a dress!” “It happens.” Guy two was not ruffled.
About 15 minutes later, I appeared at their campfire, more suitably attired. “Hi, I’m the chick in the dress and I had to get my tent up before I could change clothes because mosquitoes. I just thought I’d let you know.” I then wandered away with a beer in hand, searching for my fellow volunteers. I heard Guy two say, “See? She had priorities.” 
Whoa. I’d have married you just on the strength of that hat.
I commissioned it and had it hand made… its a great hat.
Perhaps a little battered now as I took it to Afrika Burn, the local offshoot of Burning Man, but still, a great hat.