Winter Wedding Wardrobe – Make New Friends and Keep the Old

My good friend Becky is getting married this week, and B and I are lucky enough to be invited to join in their celebration.  I cannot wait!  Weddings make me all mushy inside.  I would love to do mine again.  Right honey?  Wouldn’t that be fun?  Yeah, maybe this time around we shouldn’t move the Monday before our wedding.  That wasn’t so much fun…  The moving part, at least.  The living together part was and is, though.

With winter weddings, you have to take a few considerations to heart.  First, this is Maine and it’s going to be freakin’ cold.  Like hold onto your appendages and pray you don’t get stuck behind the super slow walkers going into the church because you’ll stick to the sidewalk cold.  Second, you want to look good, since, you know, some of these people haven’t seen you since you graduated from college.  Let’s pretend like our waistlines and life have been good to us, yes?  It can be hard to get both of these to work in an outfit, but I am going to give it my best shot without pulling out a cardigan.  Why no cardigan?  Because I am trying to look more sophisticated!  More adult!  More… sweater-less! I also wanted to come up with something that could appropriately reflect a semi-New Year’s celebration.  The wedding isn’t on New Year’s Eve, but it’s around it.

Digging through my closet, I decided on one of my black dresses.  With three-quarter length sleeves and a hemline that kisses the knee, it will be long enough to be (A) appropriate (this is a Catholic service) and (B) warm.  This dress was free through a SwapMaine event I attended in October.  But the dress is black, you say!  Oh no!  Not to a wedding!  Oh yes, friends, a black dress to a wedding.  Not all of my outfit is black, and I’m not wearing a black, face-covering veil.  Black is fashionable, I won’t get accused of trying to look like the bride, and it’s sophisticated.  It’s also the warmest dress I have in my closet.  Black it is.

To jazz up the dress and make it less “oh, you brought funeral wear to the wedding.  How nice,” I picked some accessories that will add some dimension and some mass appeal.  My necklace is a piece I found on super discount from Ann Taylor Loft in April ($2.93), and I typically get compliments on it.  With so many lucite gems and a chain, it’s definitely eye catching, but not in an “all eyes on me” way.  The silver is again reflected in the silver slim cuff bracelet ($0.40 eBay).  I’m experimenting with mixing metals, so I want to wear a black elastic belt with a gold clasp (eBay $4) to cinch in my waist and give the dress some shape.  To go along with the gold, I am pairing it with a gold clutch (Goodwill $7.99) and some strappy gold heels (DSW.com $29.99).  Throughout the styling process, I kept singing “Make New Friends but Keep the Old” because of the silver and gold reference.  Ohhh, I could have also sung “Silver and Gold” by Burl Ives.  Huh, didn’t think of that one…

What do you think?  Wedding wonderful?  I could also see this outfit as a good option for New Year’s Eve parties.  It’s sparkly, stylish, and polished.

I cannot wait to see some old friends and celebrate with the happy couple!  Congratulations, Becky and Brian!  Enjoy married life!

Classic Christmas

Christmas may have been a few days ago, but that’s no reason not to show and tell!

Christmas is always a busy time in my family, and B is just now getting the hang of how my crazy relatives roll.  It’s been quite a switch for both of us, celebrating holidays with each other’s families every year.  I have a large extended family; my mom is one of four and my dad is one of three.  Ten cousins, five cousins’ significant others, two boyfriends, one sister, and two baby second cousins mean lots of noise, lots of people, and lots of activity.  I associate holidays with talking, catching up, photos, laughter, and tons of food.  B, on the other hand, is accustomed to a very different family style.  B and his brother K are the only children on B’s mother’s side, and his cousins on his dad’s side are about 15-20 years older than us.  They live all over the country, and it takes an occasion like our wedding to bring most of them together.  Holidays are typically celebrated with B’s mom’s side and are very quite.  With no cousins, it’s just his parents, his grandmother, his aunt Sheila, and his uncle J.  Quiet, quiet, quiet.

This year was a classic “run until your head falls off” celebration situation.  I think I now get what it feels like to have a divorced family.  Everyone wants to see you, and there isn’t enough time in a day to make everyone happy with how long you spend with them.  I get it.  I want to spend a ton of time with all of them, too (yes, I love my in-laws.  They’re great!).  We figured out a schedule that allowed us to have a little bit of “us” time, celebrate with paternal my grandmother, my immediate and extended family on my mom’s side, and his immediate and (abbreviated) extended family. Our parents live about 15 minutes away from each other, which is helpful, and my aunt (who hosts my extended family’s holidays) lives 15 minutes away from my parents.  My grandmother is about an hour and 15 minutes from my parents, so it’s a bit more travel to get there.

Keeping all of that running and travel in mind, I wanted to pick out outfits that would be both stylish, holiday-esque, and comfortable.  B’s parents’ house tends to be on the colder side (and I am always cold in the winter, so it’s bad), so I picked pieces that would be stylish and warm without all of the bulk.

CHRISTMAS EVE

Christmas Eve day started with B and I getting up early to open some of our gifts we got each other.  It’s important for us to have our own Christmas as we begin our own little family unit. (Please note that that sentence does NOT mean we are having a baby.  Two people can be a family unit.  Thank you.  Please carry on.)  Outfit of choice?  Classic red and pink striped pajamas.  (Also, my grandmother made that quilt.  MADE IT.  Is she amazing or what?)We then showered and changed for the rest of our day, which meant traveling to my grandmother’s house with my parents.  We would be leaving my grandmother’s house in the early evening and going straight to church in my hometown after, which meant no time to full change outfits.  Solution?  Pack it all in advance and simply change bottoms.  For the Christmas at Gram’s, I paired a goldeny-tan dolman sweater from Goodwill ($5) with a pair of dark wash jeans from Target ($8).  To play up the goldeny factor of the sweater and be a little more festive, I added in a silver and rose gold waterfall necklace from Kohl’s ($4.80), a silver cuff bracelet from eBay ($0.40), a ruby ring my grandfather made (I come from a long line of creative people) and a pair of classic black heels.

To change for church, I kept everything but the jeans the same.  To me, Christmas Eve service needs a bit more than just jeans, so I threw in a pair of opaque black tights ($6 Kohl’s) and a high-waisted black skirt ($5 Goodwill).

To wrap everything up, I threw on my cream wool dress coat from Moda International ($19.99 Goodwill).

CHRISTMAS DAY

Christmas morning almost always starts off with the same outfit:  my Christmas Eve pajamas.  My parents started a tradition with me and my sister when we were younger where they always give us pajamas to wear on Christmas Eve.  I now have the biggest collection of pajamas.  Ever.  I’m not kidding.  B and my sister’s boyfriend Jeff are now in on the tradition as well.  I didn’t get a top with the bottoms this time around, though, so I had to supplement with the top I brought.  What?  It totally goes.  Be nice, it’s Christmas.After opening presents and eating breakfast with my family, we headed over to B’s parents’ to have Christmas lunch and gifts with them.  I didn’t want to keep changing clothes with each location change (I don’t have unlimited access to free laundry here, people), so I picked something that would be comfy and appropriate for all of our family events.  The first piece was a long sequin tank I found at Kohl’s a few days before.  I had $15 in Kohl’s cash I needed to spend, so I found this shirt for $12… which means FREE!  I then pulled a cranberry cardigan from American Eagle that I have had for eight years (HOLY MOLY!) from my closet to add some color and some warmth.  I then put it together with the same jeans from the night before (what?  Kate Middleton did it.).  For shoes, I wore my tall brown boots for warmth and a more casual appeal ($29 from Amazon.com).  These boots also allowed me to wear fuzzy, warm socks to keep my frozen feet warm!  For accessories, I wore a silver sparkle headband ($0.75 from Joann Fabrics), three clear bangles, a leopard infinity scarf I made two days before (look for the tutorial!) and a pair of purple wrapped earrings from my parents.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So there you have it!  How did you style your Christmas look?  Honestly, if I stayed in one place, I would have stayed in those Christmas jammies.  I would live in them all day if I could!