How to say ‘I do’ to the perfect outfit for summer weddings
UNLESS YOU SPENT LAST WEEKEND under a rock, by now you’ll have seen footage of Pippa Middleton’s nuptials to James Spencer. Pippa married the millionaire businessman, brother of Vogue Williams’ beau Spencer Matthews, in the grand surrounds of St Marks Church on Saturday and it was just as we imagined, picture-perfect. The pageboys wore knickerbockers, the little bridesmaids wore satin, ribbon-adorned dresses with a hefty price tag of €400.
The bride arrived in a custom-made lace dress by designer Giles Deacon for a ceremony in the back garden of her parents’ country estate, complete with a glass-walled marquee and cherry blossom trees. It sounds like any girl’s fantasy wedding, right? Indeed. Until you apply all this to a modern-day wedding and realise how hedonistically over the top the day would pan out to be.
Pippa’s day signalled the start of summer wedding season and although we won’t all be attending such lavish ceremonies – with dress codes that require splashing your cash on a Temperley frock and Philip Treacy hat – we’ll still struggle.
Wedding guest dressing is tricky, not solely because you want to look nice while never, ever upstaging the bride but also because it’s always a long old day on your feet. For the wedding regular, who happily spends the summer frequenting hotels and manors around the country, a mule or a jazzy sandal is staple footwear. For those who get fewer invitations and don’t have the hard-earned experience of ceremonial dressing, heels are usually a given. Whatever you go for – towering stilettos or a slightly lower spike – a day out without the comfort of insoles or a chunky heel is always memorable, for all the wrong reasons. Dainty, pretty sandals may look pretty on your Instagram feed but you’ll be barefoot and tender by midnight. If you can’t do chunky heels – they’re not always flattering – the dressier alternative is a pointed sling-back, barely there heel. These go with dresses, jumpsuits and wide-leg trousers, and are better known as the ‘breathable’ shoe – always helpful if you like dancing.
On that note, it’s important to note that summer weddings are incredibly sweaty, even when it’s rainy. They get humid early on in the day so you need light, breezy layers that move with your shape. Floorlength, bold florals have never let me down. They are cheerful and never boring and also instinctively easy to dance in.
Lisa Marie Fernandez and Zimmerman are both jazzy dress brands that I love – both new to Brown Thomas – or if you have the budget, Preen and Erdem. If you’re not into dresses, a light silky blouse with suit trousers – either a cigarette or wide leg – work or a silky jumpsuit in a zany print from Mango, H&M Studio or ASOS.
You want to look nice while never upstaging the bride