Wedding Guest Outfit Ideas ULTIMATE Guide to Wedding Guest Attire

You've got a wedding invitation in the mail. How exciting! Now what are you gonna wear? Today we're going to be talking about how you can be the best dressed wedding guest at any wedding regardless of the dress code. I'm breaking down all the various wedding dress codes and what you need to know so that you can show up correct and looking fabulous. Hello everyone! Welcome back to my channel to all my returning subscribers and if you are new here my name is Jessica. I am the blogger behind Miss More Style and here on YouTube I love to share videos about affordable fashion, beauty, lifestyle, and travel as well as fun styling tips. So if those things sound like something that you are interested in seeing more of then you definitely want to go ahead and hit that red subscribe button right down below. While you're there make sure that you ding the notification bell. That just will enable you to get a little notification every time I upload a new video so that you don't miss one. You can also find me on all the social medias but I am Miss More Style everywhere across the board. So let's talk wedding guest dress attire. I don't know about you but I have been getting a lot of wedding invitations lately after everything got kind of put on pause last year. They're really fun to get dressed for but if you don't really understand the dress code or the do's and don'ts of going to a wedding and what to wear and what not to wear then it can be a little bit nerve-wracking right? Don't you worry though I am going to walk you through all of it. So first up we're going to talk about my sort of do's and don'ts rules of just general wedding guest attire and then we're going to break down each wedding dress code and I'm going to give you some outfit ideas that I have that are already in my own wardrobe. What I would maybe wear to each of these types of weddings if I was invited to one. So the bottom line of being a stylish wedding guest is realizing that yes it's great to look fabulous and amazing but this day is not about you. It's about the bride right? Her day to just shine. So really the like golden rule I think that you should keep in mind when you are choosing something to wear to someone else's wedding is to make sure that whatever it is you choose you are not trying to outshine the bride on her big day. With that in mind let's talk the cardinal rule that you should never ever ever ever break when you are a wedding guest and that is to wear white. Unless you go to one of those weddings where the bride and groom actually request that you wear white. We'll get to that sort of type of thing like down in the video. That's a pretty rare occasion so unless the bride and groom specifically want like literally everyone to wear white which um I have heard of one of my friends actually had a wedding like this and it looked beautiful in photos. Err on the side of being a good wedding guest and don't wear white. I have seen people wear white to weddings before and it is really embarrassing for them because you know what everyone else is thinking like did you really just wear white to this girl's wedding? I would even venture to say it's good to use caution when thinking about wearing really pale colors like a very pale pink, a very pale blue, pale yellow. Like if they're very pale then I would personally say to stay away from that. In certain lights it kind of almost looked white and in some photographs it kind of photographed white. I would definitely just go for a color and just be very much on the safe side. Another question that I get asked a lot is like when people have a patterned dress like maybe they have a floral dress that they want to wear and the background of the dress is white. And I would say the rule to follow here is if the pattern is bold enough and the floral let's say if it's a floral print is like a big enough floral print where the predominant uh colors and the predominant thing on the dress is that big floral pattern and you only see the little bit of the white background then I would say that's pretty safe. But if it's a floral dress where it's a lot of white space in the pattern and the florals are smaller I would definitely say do not wear that. It's better to be safe than sorry and just skip these types of dresses altogether and pick something else. My second tip in for getting dressed for a wedding is to really consider the location or the venue of the wedding and let that sort of guide your outfit decision. If you're going to an outdoor wedding where you know you're going to be walking on grass a lot maybe don't wear really thin stiletto heels because you know that your heel might like sink into the grass it's going to be like really hard to walk in them. Opting for like a block heel if you want to wear high heels is a better way to go because it gives you a little bit more stability or maybe if you really feel uncomfortable in grass like that finding some nice flats to wear that are dressy. I actually was that person who wore stiletto heels to my own wedding and I got married in an outdoor venue at a ranch. You are that person who really just wants to wear your stiletto heels. Let me show you how I went around the issue of your heels sinking in the grass. Obviously when you got shoes like this you can't let the grass get you down. Am I right? These are my wedding shoes. They're from Badgley Mischka. This heel honestly it's skinny it's long and that was just gonna sink right into the dirt right? So I bought these little things on Amazon. They're like these little plastic pieces and the bottom of it looks like a little flower and they have different sizes for different thicknesses of stilettos but you essentially put your stiletto heel inside and then what you're left with is this plastic floral piece instead of that really small heel and this just gives you more surface area so that when you're walking on the grass you're not going to sink into it you're going to kind of stay above it and these actually also really made walking in these very high heels like a little bit more stable. If you really like really need to wear stilettos to an outdoor wedding get yourself some of these you can reuse them you can put them on different heels and they're freaking lifesavers. I'll link these down in the description box if you're interested in them. Likewise when you're looking at the venue of a wedding think about the setting of it. Are you going to a wedding in a really posh like loft in a city or is the wedding on a beach or is the wedding in someone's backyard or is it in a garden? I really take into account the venue and I sort of let the mood or the aesthetic of what I wear sort of match that. My third do is if you are in doubt about what you should wear the best thing to do is ask the bride or groom what the level of formality is. If their wedding invitation doesn't specify what the dress code is which most wedding invitations do but if it doesn't and you're still in the dark just ask the bride or groom if you can. If you are someone's date and you don't know the bride or groom you don't know anybody who's in the wedding or who's also going maybe ask your date to ask someone. I mean that's really the best way to go. My fourth tip is to know the color palette but do not dress in their color palette. Okay the last thing that you want is to show up to someone's wedding and get mistaken for a bridesmaid when you're not a bridesmaid. I mean that's kind of awkward right? This is my younger sister Christina's wedding invitation. I'll cover up our the address of the wedding but this is her invitation. You can see invitations usually give you a little clue as to the color scheme of the wedding and this one does. You can see it's got like this like orangey golden color and then this turquoise color on the top so usually the wedding invitation will give you some indication of what color scheme to stay away from basically. If in doubt again ask the bride groom ask somebody that you know if you really want to know. If you're finding this video to be helpful and informative make sure to give me a thumbs up really helps my channel out and if you didn't subscribe yet you know what to do. The fifth tip is to bring a layer just in case. You never really know how the temperature is going to be at any given wedding. If it's outside it might be hot during the day it was really warm during the day at my wedding but then at night it got kind of chilly. Having a layer a jacket so that when it gets cooler you're not uncomfortable is key or let's say it's at an indoor wedding you don't know maybe the venue is going to crank the AC. Bring a layer that you can take on and take off if you get on the dance floor and you start to warm up again you can take it off. Also it's really smart to bring a layer if let's say you're going to a church wedding and then leaving the church and going to the reception afterwards usually if you go to a church you want to be more covered up more modest so maybe bring in a jacket or a like a shawl to wear over your dress. My sixth tip seems really obvious but legitimately do not wear jeans. Never ever ever ever ever wear jeans to a wedding unless you're going to a wedding where the bride and groom specifically ask you to. I don't think that happens very often even when jeans are acceptable I tend to want to be a little bit more dressed up than that. My seventh tip kind of goes back to what I was talking about before and that is to not attempt to upstage the bride with your outfit. Weddings are not the time to wear like a flashy fluorescent animal print dress or like a super sequiny dress or like just a really obnoxious like style choice. Weddings are the time to sort of be a little bit more demure conservative in the way that you dress. You definitely want to look good you want to feel good but don't go overboard with your fashion choices don't try to be like grabbing people's attention because it's kind of a tacky thing to do. My ninth rule is kind of related to that and that is to not show too much skin. Again this goes into kind of like the upstaging the bride thing you don't want to have like a super cleavage dress on or like super short skirt like you don't want to be looking like overly sexy at a wedding because first of all usually they're family affairs a little cleavage yes fine but like just use your discretion and if it's a dress that you would wear to a club in Vegas or out to a bar on Saturday night trying to look like you're living your best hot girl summer life it's probably not the right dress to wear as a wedding guest. That's my eighth tip I'm getting off count this is actually my ninth tip and it talks about color so I think a lot of people think that you should not wear black or red to someone's wedding and I think those are kind of outdated rules that we can sort of ditch. For black I think black is completely appropriate to wear to a wedding if it's like a little bit more of a formal wedding and if it's happening in the evening. I would say if you're going to like a brunch wedding or like an afternoon wedding in someone's backyard stay away from a black dress keep things more light and fun. Again with red I feel like people say to not wear red because they think red is this bright color and it's distracting and like people are gonna look at you and that's like going into like one of the other rules about upstaging the bride and being too obnoxious blah blah blah. I think that if you wear a red dress that isn't like overly sexy that has that like a nice conservative type of silhouette I think that red is fine to wear to a wedding you know what I mean I personally don't I was not offended if someone wore red to my wedding. I think we can ditch those rules for the most part but just also like use your discretion when thinking of wearing either of those two shades. Now that we've gotten through all the general rules let's talk about each dress code. I'm gonna go from the most formal all the way down to the most casual starting with a white tie wedding. Think about like what you would wear if you were going to like a ball or a gala this is the fanciest of fancy fancy like and I'm not gonna talk too much about men's fashion in this because I don't really know so much about that but I do know like men at a white tie affair would be wearing like long tail coats maybe even white gloves like this is very very fancy. So women you get invited to a white tie wedding what do you wear? Well a ball gown or a very formal floor length gown and I know a lot of us don't really have those lying around in our closets. I would definitely go on someplace like Rent the Runway which is a great resource for finding designer gowns they have a lot of gowns on there that you can rent and you can rent them for four days eight days reserve it in advance. If you're interested in Rent the Runway I have an older video where I did like a full like review of it I'll leave that down in the description box I don't want to talk too much about Rent the Runway here but it is an amazing resource for literally any wedding that you could go to and want something fun to wear but especially for something like a white tie wedding or a black tie which we'll get into in a second where the formality level is pretty high. This is what I would wear if I wasn't to get anything from Rent the Runway and just use my own wardrobe this is the probably the most fancy dress that I own outside of my own wedding gown and I think that this black velvet mermaid style off the shoulder dress is very elegant and beautiful for a wedding again like like I said you know this is the most formal of weddings so black is definitely appropriate put on very sparkly blingy necklace to offset the look from Italo jewelry and yes feeling very fancy someone invite me to your white tie wedding please. The second dress code is black tie this is just a step down from white tie so the men are not going to be in such formal types of suits they'll be in tuxes women would be in a long gown or a very fancy cocktail dress but if you're going to go the fancy cocktail dress route I would say don't wear anything that is shorter than midi length so I would say midi length to floor length I know I said before in like my rules of do's and don'ts that sequins are not appropriate for weddings because they're too flashy but I will say at a black tie or a white tie wedding wearing a sequin gown I think is completely appropriate just because the formality level is so high sequins are something that people are accustomed to seeing when they go to events of that caliber you definitely want to wear a nice pair of heels to a black tie wedding or maybe a nice pair of fancier wedges if heels are uncomfortable to you but I would definitely say to steer away from wearing flats of any kind because again we're really trying to have a very elegant fancy vibe of course this is a floor length dress but it's not quite doesn't quite have the formality level of the previous dress by the way this is my senior prom dress I could still fit into it I'm pretty proud of that I still think the style of it still holds up uh however many years later so good job on me for picking a timeless dress next dress we have to talk about is creative black tie which is not super common but I'm hearing that it's happening more and more and if I could have had this type of wedding I would have creative black tie is basically black tie what we just talked about but the couple is basically telling you that they want you to be really like have a lot of fun with your fashion choices so a lot of the rules that I talked about before around like don't pick bold prints don't wear crazy colors don't wear sequins this is basically the couple saying we want you to have fun with your outfit we want you to choose bold colors we want you to look stylish and fresh and um be and not take yourself too seriously basically so a lot of those rules that I talked about in the beginning don't really apply to this dress code because the couple is literally giving you permission to bring your style game yellow dress I think is so beautiful um it's really fun and vibrant and again because it's creative black tie they're telling you to be a little bit more um adventurous with your choices so at a regular black tie I probably would not wear this yellow dress because it's just so like bright and in your face but at creative black tie I definitely would likewise this is another dress that I've had sitting in my closet for forever and I've had zero opportunity to wear but this is something that I would also wear to create a black tie it is a little bit on the lower cut side but because it has that skin color mesh in the middle it kind of like hides things so it's not quite like you know cleavage in your face I love that the back is really open it's like this beautiful like flowy floral print with the slit up one side creative black tie is kind of giving you the permission to be a little bit more fun the fourth dress code is black tie optional which basically means like if you want to dress black tie you can but the couple is sort of giving you an out like if you don't have something that is black tie you have something that's a little bit less formal in your closet then they're basically saying it's fine for you to dress down slightly from black tie the fifth dress code is probably the most common one I would say and this is the dress code that I default to if I'm not 100% sure about the wedding guest attire and that is semi-formal sometimes they can be kind of vague and you're not really sure and when that's the case this is a great dress code to sort of default to for women this means to look nice you want to be dressed up but just not too dressy so wearing a cocktail dress that is elegant it doesn't have to be floor length I would say go for midi or knee length here you could go above the knee as well if it's a nice fancier dress I would go with heels but I think more flat style shoes are definitely more acceptable in this dress code this is a dress that I would wear to a semi-formal wedding let's say maybe if it was in like a garden somewhere a little bit more like a romantic setting this one you could actually buy if you're interested I will link it in the description box it is from chic wish and then this is a dress that I would wear to something that's a semi-formal wedding maybe at like more urban like sleek type of modern setting the asymmetrical hem and it's just like very like structural but like the back is really low but it's like drapey in the front it would look really really beautiful in a setting like that it's a slip dress from express that's also current which I will link in the description box but I'm actually wearing this as a bridesmaid at my sister's wedding in a couple months but I also think it would be a great dress to wear as a wedding guest so the sixth dress code is casual usually casual weddings are daytime weddings they are super informal for these situations I would say a safer bet is to wear something like a sun dress like a more casual style dress you could also wear like a dressy like separate situations you could wear like a skirt with like a nice top if you wanted or you could wear like a nice pantsuit maybe you can definitely go for more casual shoe styles I'm not saying to wear sneakers but I'm saying sandals could be appropriate here not flip-flops cute sandals ballet flats maybe loafers whatever you feel more comfortable in so you don't have to go for like crazy high heels at a casual setting and you might be a little bit out of place if you did seventh wedding dress code I the traditional dress code you may get invited to an Indian wedding where they might ask you to wear a sari and in cases like that I would say and I'm using an Indian wedding for an example because that's all I can really think about at the moment but in these cases like for me if I was to be invited to a wedding like this I would absolutely ask either the bride or the groom whichever one I was close to what is appropriate for me to wear where I can get you know the clothing that I need to wear and just asking for their guidance so that you make sure that you get it right because you don't want to show up and be disrespectful to another person's heritage or culture on their wedding day maybe you don't get invited to like an Indian wedding where you have to wear a sari maybe you got invited to a Jewish wedding or a Muslim wedding where you may have to go into a temple or a mosque and you might have to cover your head in some shape or form so just make sure that you ask people who invited you what is appropriate for you to wear and how to dress in these situations I know for some Catholic weddings at some cathedrals you definitely have to be quite a bit more covered up so just making sure that you're not being disrespectful eighth dress code it's not really a dress code but let's talk about destination weddings if you get lucky enough to be invited to a destination wedding there's definitely a different way to dress for that especially a lot of destination weddings happen in very tropical places people go to Mexico they go to the Bahamas they go to Hawaii it might be on the beach so it's appropriate in these weddings to wear something a little bit more breezy maybe going for like fabrics that will be breathable like linen or cotton want to wear something too like stuffy because you don't want to be uncomfortable if it's hot outside and likewise if you're going to be on the sand you definitely want to wear something that you're fine with wearing in the sand definitely wearing appropriate shoes like high heels would not be great at a destination wedding wearing some nice sandals that have some elegant touch to them would be a great choice to wear this is an older dress that I've had in my wardrobe for many years and it just every time I look at it in my closet I'm like that is such a beach wedding guest dress just like the colors of it look like the ocean it's very flowy it's just like you know I feel like kind of a mermaid when I wear it so that is kind of my designated beach wedding guest dress to wear the last dress code I want to talk about is like custom I guess some weddings you may get invited to the bride and groom have a very specific vision for how they want their wedding to be a style for instance when we talked about earlier having an all-white wedding where the bride and groom literally want everyone to wear white sometimes you'll get a wedding invitation where the bride and groom like send you like a color palette that they want you to stay within yes they want for their pictures to everything to look like very nice and meshing together so respecting their request if they make a specific request of you is the right thing to do but then there's weddings sometimes too the vibe is going to be like a very specific vibe and I don't know how else to give a example of this except for our friend's wedding that was a couple years ago him and his fiance they love country music they had their wedding at a ranch and they encouraged everyone to wear like their best like western wear groomsmen nate was one of them they all wore stetson cowboy hats and they had like western style suit jackets and cowboy boots so everybody showed up in like the most fun I wore cowboy boots I wore like a fringy suede dress I piled on all the turquoise jewelry that I own and it was really fun if you get a wedding that's themed like that really go for it because the couple wants you to and um you'll enjoy your time at their wedding much more if you really embrace the theme that they're going with that was a lot of information I really packed in there so please give this a thumbs up if you found this video helpful make sure before you leave that you subscribe and I've got a couple more videos for you right here that I think you're going to really enjoy definitely check out a couple more videos stick around hang out with me and I will see you all on my next video bye