I’m invited to a wedding next month in Miami Beach, Florida. The bride advises that the wedding is not formal or traditional, held in the “spirituality center” that she and the groom attend. The wedding is at 4 p.m. The bride is wearing a sapphire blue dress, originally intended by the designer to be a bridesmaid gown. She is having only one attendant who is wearing a ladies’ dinner suit.
No word on whether or not the groom and his attendant are wearing suits or tuxes.
The reception is being held at the bride’s family club which is right on the beach. Cocktail hour is on the sand. The dinner is sit down in the club’s oceanview dining room which is apparently westward oriented as we’re advised that we will be able to watch the sunset.
The bride notes that dress at the club, and therefore for the wedding and reception, is “beach formal” and notes that this means informal skirts and dresses for women. Formal means informal? Could I wear business attire? Could I wear the sort of thing I wear to church on a summer Sunday? I’m stumped.
I’m from the northeast. A formal wedding up here, I think even a semi-formal wedding up here, especially in November, is an entirely different beast than this is going to be and I need ideas.
What sort of thing would you wear to this occasion? Do I need to prowl the clearance sections of my favorite clothing websites to try to find a pretty summer dress? (In which case I guess I should act quickly.) Can I honestly wear a pretty long skirt and blouse?
I think as long as you’re dressed fairly nicely you’ll be fine. A summer skirt or dress would be good. I wouldn’t wear business attire though, since it’s a beach wedding.
Either a pretty summer dress or a long skirt would be fine. As opposed to a blouse, I would suggest a dressy tank top or summer weight sweater and a light shoulder wrap. Or, sometimes summer dresses come with a light jacket/sweater. That would be ideal.
To be on the safe side, I’d go with the first dress. Personally, you’re not going to be overdressed in that outfit for a beach wedding, and there’s likely to be someone who dresses more formally than you will in that.
I’d say “beach formal” means “nice linen”, personally, in a “structured summer dress” sense. But then I’d shoot anybody who sent me an invitation that said “beach formal” - that has got to win the prize of murky dress codes.
Think the sort of thing you’d wear to a fairly nice dinner when you go on vacation to the beach. A dressy sundress with a little wrap, maybe, or a flowy skirt with a shell top. Something you wear to church in the summer would be fine. Business casual would probably be fine. That black dress would probably be fine, although some people don’t like folks wearing black to a wedding. (I personally would have more issues with the lack of waistline than the color, but that’s just my figure-related insecurities coming out.)
I think Vix has nailed it. I’d maybe go for more of a fall-type color–oranges, deep reds, darkish yellows, browns, etc.–but I think that dress is just about right.
Hence my difficulty. I don’t go on vacations to the beach. I hate the beach with the fury of a thousand white hot suns. I don’t like large bodies of water. I’m not even all that jazzed about pools. Even indoor pools.
If you haven’t guessed by now, I don’t swim. I also have no need for a tan, given my natural glorious brownness. I vacation in the mountains.
See, I wear summer suits – linen, usually – to church in the summer. I don’t own a sundress. I don’t do bare arms. I have great arms, I just don’t do bare arms.
Ha! I think a wedding in which the bride wears sapphire blue and her attendant wears dove grey might be a wedding to which a guest could wear patterned black. I’d like to think so, in any case. Lack of waistline isn’t so bad – I don’t have a waistline, so my clothes don’t need them either.
This is just a few dresses that might suit your taste…granted, I know this is a wedding in Florida and not in Hawaii, but I think you can get away with some of these patterns. Good Luck.
How “suity” are your summer suits? If they’re not particularly schmancy-looking suits, you could probably get by with it. If nothing else, you could just wear one of the skirts with a little shell top and ditch the jacket.
YeticusRex, I wish I words to explain how not me those dresses are. The pattern on the black dress I linked to is about as patterned as I get. I don’t do big florals. Living in Hawaii might be the bane of my existence. But thank you, just the same, for the effort!
They’re shmancy. They’re suity. They’re all linen or crisp cotton, with lots of sharp tailoring and flincy little details. I’m a very very tailored kind of gal. I mean this (in a slightly lighter pink) was my wedding dress.
Really? You think so? That would feel really underdressed to me.
I should’ve sent my regrets and a big gift. This is so stressful.
I think if you remember that beach casual is shorts and a tank, beach formal isn’t going to be that tough. I’m not a big fan of black, especially at the beach. I think you’ll feel overdressed.
Your wedding dress wouldn’t be too far off the mark, really. Except, of course, that mutual friends would probably recognize it as your wedding dress. Maybe something a touch less fancy.
Basically, all you need is something with a skirt that you won’t worry too much about getting sand and maybe saltwater on. Something cut like Yeticus’s #4, in a solid, shouldn’t be too hard to find and would be entirely appropriate. (And the princess cut would be rather flattering.)
And definitely skip the suit jacket. The jacket would be more than a bit much at a beach wedding.
Yikes, I’m not going to be on the beach that long! Just for the cocktail hour and I’ll probably take my time in getting to the reception, since cocktail hours are meaningless to me. (I don’t drink. And I’m actually not going to know anyone at the wedding except the bride, and I’ve never actually met her. She’s a 'net friend.) This is getting more and more complex by the day.
I’m this close || to cancelling my RSVP entirely. What a pain.
