We are well in the middle of wedding season, my friends! It’s that lovely time of the summer when I’m finally getting used to the gross heat and only just starting to hate all my engaged friends. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good wedding but many consecutive weekends involving weddings can drive anyone mad. This is the time of the season that I decide to step up my wedding wear for the sake of keeping it interesting!
Photos by Sarah Knuth
Photos by Sarah Knuth
Outfit
The ultimate challenge when I’m looking for a formal outfit is mixing comfort with fashion. I have an endless amount of outfit combinations that are insanely uncomfortable, but it takes work to put together something in which I can breathe, walk, eat, and actually enjoy myself in for more than two hours. Don’t get me wrong, this is just how I like my wardrobe since I’m a big believer of the parallelism between beauty and pain, but a full night out definitely requires some thought going into the comfort of my outfit!
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I am in love with the trend of wearing a crop top with high waisted bottoms, so I chose to put together a more formal outfit with those pieces. My royal floral crop top is from Nordstrom Rack (around $15) and I adore it for its versatility! I’ve worn it with more casual pieces before, but I really enjoyed dressing it up for this occasion. The key for me to feel comfortable rocking this look is making sure there is about 1-2 inches between my top and my skirt. Anymore than that and everyone could see the food baby I’ll be hiding after nom’ing too hard…we can’t have that.
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My black tulle midi skirt ($18) was a great find from TJ Maxx this past spring! I have been on the hunt for a skirt
like this for an obscene amount of time, and I’m so glad I held out for this one! It has a satin band that is smooth in the front and ruched in the back, so no fear of me busting a zipper after cake. I love a good tea length skirt, but many swamp my stubby legs so I had resigned myself to the fact that I would need to have it altered until I tried it on with heels and I think it’s a great length after all! |
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Out of all the shoes in my admittedly expansive collection, this pair is my favorite!
They were a gift from my future parents in law to wear on our wedding day, and they were everything I’d wanted in a bridal shoe. I began the hunt for blue Kate Spade shoes early on in the wedding planning, and we ended up finding these on Zappos Couture! They are the most expensive pair of shoes I have at $328, but they are so comfortable and sturdy for a stiletto, and I was actually able to wear them my entire wedding day (after I got dressed that is) which ended up being almost 12 hours! I assure you, I will find any and every excuse to wear them again and again. They even still have “Mrs. McMullen” and “August 2, 2014” stickers on the bottom of them from our special day, so wearing these makes any outfit infinitely more meaningful!
They were a gift from my future parents in law to wear on our wedding day, and they were everything I’d wanted in a bridal shoe. I began the hunt for blue Kate Spade shoes early on in the wedding planning, and we ended up finding these on Zappos Couture! They are the most expensive pair of shoes I have at $328, but they are so comfortable and sturdy for a stiletto, and I was actually able to wear them my entire wedding day (after I got dressed that is) which ended up being almost 12 hours! I assure you, I will find any and every excuse to wear them again and again. They even still have “Mrs. McMullen” and “August 2, 2014” stickers on the bottom of them from our special day, so wearing these makes any outfit infinitely more meaningful!
Hair & Makeup
The loose curls I’ve been doing recently are very easy to achieve! I prep my hair by spraying Fekkai dry shampoo at my roots and working that through, and then I spray my current favorite heat spray which is Paul Mitchell “Hot Off the Press”. I use a 1 1/4 inch Hot Tools curling iron, wrapping 1 inch sections around the barrel as though it were a wand. I usually hold for around 10 seconds and then slide the curl off the barrel and into my palm for it to cool a little before I let it fall. I usually alternate between curling toward and away from my face so that the curls don’t all form into one massive curl! Once all of my hair is curled and cooled, I flip my hair over and spray upside down and each side before flipping it back up and arranging it to lay correctly. I spray the front of my hair and then I’m done!
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I kept my makeup pretty true to my normal makeup routine, I just added a pop of color on my lips for the special occasion!
I’ve really been loving Colour Pop’s “I Heart This” recently because it is somewhere between a pink and a red and has the best matte finish that doesn’t dry out my lips. I didn’t wan’t to go too red in fear of looking like a demented wannabe Snow White, and I’m sincerely hoping the pink color saved me from that horror show…but let me know if not. |
I hope this helps you with any wedding outfit inspo you may need! We will get through wedding season together, I promise. Let me know if you have any wedding wear secrets of your own, I can use all the help I can get!
Love,
Ashley
The Dainty Days 
this outfit is everything!!! you are an absolute doll! love your blog ❤
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