Summer Wedding Day Outfit

 Summer wedding day. 

Hello my lovelies. 

 I recently attended a lovely family wedding.  

In a new dress!

The happy event was held at Les Cotils on a sunny summer’s day, with the ceremony held in a wildflower meadow with an amazing seascape backdrop.

Photos credit: Les Cotils

You can also catch up on a few of my previous visits to the location By clicking HERE and HERE

Anyway, back to the dress.  Yes, I treated myself to a brand spanking new dress.  

Well, we do that for weddings eh.  

It’s worth noting for the record that The Photographer encouraged me to buy this dress.  

Yup you read right, HE ENCOURAGED ME TO BUY CLOTHES!!!

 

This floral mix is from Monsoon and is an easy to wear and rather cheerful dress. 

(I’ve been wearing straw hats on repeat this summer - you too?)

 It was a monumental struggle to find as this year’s store stock seems to be mostly gathered waists, smocking and tiers. Fine for 20 year old me back in the day, but this combo on now-me made me look like a sad and fat old milkmaid.  Not a good look at a wedding. 

But Monsoon saved the day, yet AGAIN, by coming up with something freshly floral and more suited to Mary version 2022.  Well done @monsoon !

The dress has a cooling cut out at the back.  

In the shop the ties had been tied loosely creating a square cut out.  My bra line showed over the baseline of the cut out.  

At first I was deterred from buying the dress as I thought I’d be faced with bra challenges, that I’d have to go through a series of bra try ons to find the right bra and may even have to opt for the dreaded strapless bra option.  Urgghhh!  

But undeterred I soldiered on and discovered that with the ties tied as tight as possible, it lifted the dress and a normal bra doesn’t peek through.  It also lifted the dress around the shoulders and bustline giving a nicer line, IMHO. 

And I think the triangular cut out is far prettier. 

So that is my top tip with the dress.  Tie tight. 

The dress is rather long on my 5’3” frame.  I thought to take it up and use some surplus fabric for the straw hat.

But the dress hem is cut on the bias and time, new sewing machine challenges and sheer laziness meant I kept with the midaxi length.

And actually the length is of huge benefit as it covers ALL leg varicose veins and . as TP kindly pointed out, it negated the need to shave my legs! 

I styled the dress simply with sparkly espadrille wedges, 

(Good for meadow walking)

and a capacious old Jones The Bootmaker bag (for sunglasses storage etc) and a straw hat (for the outdoor ceremony).

Oh and a jacket (for nothing, it turns out!)  

Yup, it was July, the epicentre of summer, and I took a jacket.  Hmmnnn. 

Of course, I didn’t need it. 

It hung in the cloakroom the entire day.  But at least it had an outing. 

Now let me tell you 

The Saga of The Ruched Sleeved Jacket.  

The jacket is from Marks and Spencer.  I’d been stalking this jacket for some time.  In fact a year or two ago I ordered it but returned it as I felt I couldn’t justify wear versus the £50 price tag in most more casual post-Covid world. 

So I returned it. 

Well, chance changed things.  

I overnighted in the Holiday Inn Express - Portsmouth Gunwharf Quay on my trip back to Guernsey.  It’s essentially a shopping and dining precinct (ans so much more!); I only discovered this once there, honest guv!  This hotel was the closest to our ferry terminal and as we had an 8am check in next day, close was a priority.

After a lovely lunch in one of the quay’s restaurants, @lochfyne, we wandered around the hotel vicinity and hey presto, around the corner from the hotel was an M&S outlet - well it would have been rude not to pop in.  So pop in I did.  

And the jacket was hanging there, in my size, ready to snap up and at a much reduced price.  So snap it up I did!  

Me and this jacket were meant to be.  MFEO. 

Pure serendipity. 

I look forward to styling my new dress, but even more so I’m excited to start styling this jacket; its shape and neutral colour creates a whole potpourri of ways to wear it - first stop with jeans obvs and in a post to come soon. 

So it’s been buy and more buy for me lately.  

Need, encouragement from TP, and serendipity have “forced” (😉) my hand.  

Have you made any summer purchase lately and if so, was your hand “forced”  😉?!!!

A la perchoine,

Mary xxx.