“Mastering the Art of Being a Wedding Guest with an Impressive Presence”

Help! Young people are getting married and I have a wedding to go to this weekend.

It’s late afternoon, followed by an evening party, so whatever I wear has to be glamorous, not too much daytime, something you could wear to a summer wedding, but resistant to showers and temperatures. In short, it’s a good dry spell for all weddings in the coming months.

I’d be lying if I said I found this easy. I’ve had some bad experiences with wedding dress over the years. I once had to run into a store, between the wedding and the reception, to switch a dress I was wearing for a size larger.

Wedding dress lesson number one: If it’s at church, you’ll be terribly bored in the clothes you’d feel perfectly happy in at a dimly lit party.

To my best friend’s wedding, I wore a navy blue plaid dress that was pretty casual for the day and made me feel like the nanny.

Lesson two: Weddings require dressing up—drama, structure, polish—or if it’s not all of the above, some more.

The third lesson is that your accessories matter. The hats I wore to weddings in the ’80s and ’90s made me look either crazy or old-fashioned, mainly because it was an afterthought.

If you are going to wear a hat – which is not mandatory; A good drying can suffice – then don’t just borrow it from your friend.

Likewise, my wedding shoes have failed me; This isn’t the day I spoiled my old favorites. The extra effort is everywhere is the rule of dressing for weddings.

So what is the answer at this point? Gorgeous dress, of course. Maybe they wear trousers in Cheltenham, but that’s about what’s easier and more convenient, and that’s a great dress every time.

For my purposes (from day to night), I’m looking for something semi-rough. The difference with a dress you wear in daylight and after dark is 1) the fabric needs to be fluid, not stiff and starchy; and 2) the cut should not look out of place on the dance floor.

For me, that means midi or longer, and a figure-hugging chic rather than a molded bodycon (newbie too).

And I want a bold print (going from just floral) to wear with a plain mid-thigh coat (although you might prefer to go the other way).

Plain colors can work well, but I just feel fancy in a slinky print, and the photo James Middleton posted of Carole at his 2021 wedding confirmed that you’d never look mother of the bride in a solid print.

It was Temperley London, priced at £750 to match, but the takeaway was that a bright blue and orange crochet print with a V-neckline was the way to go.

For bold floral prints in an expensive finish of the scale – around £300 – try Samantha Cameron’s Eventwear (cefinn.com) label. You’ll find lots of cool colorful dresses, too.

Or, alternatively, head to Kitri. It has a ‘coated’ floral maxi which is another good bet for weddings if you like a slight ’70s feel (£175, kitristudio.com).

Whistles has an embellished floral print midi in negligee pink and blue (£169, whistles.com) with three-quarter sleeves. I feel the need for sleeves, at least an elbow-grazer, and short sleeves, such as below-the-knee length, are the details that make the dress age now.

For clashing prints in a one-off dress, Rixo is still the place to look (rixolondon.com), while Zara makes good print dresses including a white hibiscus on red printed dress (£49.99, zara.com) that is party-appropriate and covered in the same time.

With monster prints, the less skin is often shown the better.

For shoes, black is usually appropriate, otherwise choose a color from the print or go nude.

Fascinators got a bad rep for a reason, but a tip of a hat seems like a better option to me. Phase VIII will provide a stylish headpiece for under £50, but if in doubt, my advice is to spend the money on a visit to the hair salon.