What to wear to a wedding?

I'm going to be attending a wedding within the next couple months. It's been years and years since I've been to one and this is the first time I've actually put a little thought into what I should wear. I realized I know nothing about wedding attire etiquette :rolleyes: It's my friend's wedding, but she's also my boyfriend's cousin and it'll mostly be just their close family there - so I want to dress nicely and appropriate. I don't want to under-dress, but I don't want to overdress either. Any suggestions?? If you have photos of yourselves at weddings feel free to post away - I like visuals ;)

Thanks for listening. I know, it's kind of a silly thread, but I honestly don't know how to dress :o

What time of the day is it?

Hmm, I really don't know for certain yet. I'm assuming it's an all-day thing. They're having the wedding ceremony first and then a reception the rest of the evening/night.

I went to a co-worker's wedding in October. I just wore a nice knee length black dress. I only have a pic of the top half of it though.
http://mediaservice.photoisland.com/...2369859232.jpg

I wore black sandals with a slight heel. Make sure that whatever you decide on is comfortable for dancing all night long :)

Wow! You look so beautiful :eek:

Thanks for the reply :)

Honestly, knowing John, we probably won't be doing much dancing :o But I'll definitely try to make him ;) :D

The time of day, and where the wedding/reception is to be held are the keys for deciding what to wear. If I am not sure what will be the exact thing to wear, I prefer to overdress....obviously, not to the exteme of wearing a gown to a bowling alley. I would rather feel I overdid the occasion, then not show significant respect to someone's occasion, or have someone feel the 'need' to comment, "look what she wore".

I think most weddings held in the late afternoon, with an evening reception would warrant a simple calf lenght dress, in any muted tone. And, cause I don't know if you wear dressy shoes regularly or not, find a pair you will be wearing, and try to wear them a little bit every once in a while....or it will be heck on your feet for the whole day!

Old-fashioned etiquette suggests not wearing white (so you don't compete with the bride) or black (bad luck, though this seems outdated nownthat everyone wears black all the time). Oher than that, it depends on how formal a wedding it is, and what time of day.

This is slightly off subject...but remember when my friend, Lee from work died of cancer? One of my co-workers actually showed up to the funeral in the bright orange work cover-alls. We couldn't believe it. lmao.

Is the wedding indoors or outdoors? What month? If it's spring and outdoors, I'd wear a sundress and cardigan. No bright colors, all white, or black.

I made a mistake one wedding and went wearing my graduation dress, and by the end of the night, I was tired and not comfortable at all (and a little too over dressed). So go for a casual look.
(note: no blue jeans)

Thanks for the replies. The ceremony will be held at their church, the reception at a house (it's not a house people live in, it's been converted into a place strictly for wedding receptions). So, everything is indoors. They wedding is in May.

Well, this is a Hawaii wedding pic...but aside from the fact that most of our dresses are strapless, this is what I'd wear to a May wedding. Casual, but dressy. You don't want to outdo the bride.

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/...0/f9d39e50.jpg

Well, I went to two weddings last year and wore the same outfit. One was summer, one was in the fall and nobody in the two weddings knew each other (hour and a half away from each place).

Anyway, the summer wedding had a purple/plum theme for the colors. Since my husband was a groomsman and I was going to be helping with the reception, I wanted something plum to kind of go with his tux. I wore a silk outfit, sleeveless sort of top with a long ankle length skirt with slits on the sides to the knee. It also had a nice floral embroidery design around the neckline and the hem of the dress. I wore some comfy black heels with it.

Then I wore the same ensemble to the second wedding in October. It was still warm enough, but back before the July wedding, I had also bought the long sleeve shirt to go with it. It all worked out wonderfully with this outfit. Best $100 I ever spent and I was neither under/over dressed for each event.

I'll post some pics in just a minute, Imagestation is being slow.

Ok, here are the pics:

The embroidery design:
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/...f/f9d38052.jpg

The a picture of the whole outfit:
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/...7/f9d38033.jpg

A slightly closer pic:
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/...2/f9d38017.jpg

It's my favorite dress now, it fits so well and it's so pretty, much better in person than in these pics.

Thanks again for the replies! I really do appreciate it :) I love the pics as well :)

My sister recently went to a Hawaiian wedding, it was so gorgeous - at least the photos that I saw from it were (she was a bridesmaid so her outfit was picked for her ;)).