Ask Me Anything, the wedding edition!

Erica asks:

I want to help my Mom find the perfect Mother-of-the-Bride dress. My wedding isn't for quite awhile, but I know it will take some time for us to shop around. To describe her: she just turned 50, but she acts likes she's 21; she has short, curly blond hair; she's tall (5'10" maybe?); and wears 18/20 (top) and 22/24 (bottom). We're looking for a modern, chic, and formal (but not black-tie/ballroom formal) long dress that would be worn in early October. So far, the dresses we find are frumpy, dumpy, and ugly...or just not quite right. To get to the point, do you have any suggestions of shops that would have what we're looking for?

Long dresses can be tough, especially if you're looking for modern and chic. It'll be extra hard to find one with sleeves that isn't at least a little frumpy, so I'd toss that idea out the window and find a wrap to wear if it's chilly.

I personally really love the plus size selection at Nordstrom. If you search for "Cachet plus" in the search form, it'll return several dresses that your mom might like. The wrap dress in plum pictured on the left is a gorgeous example that just so happens to be on sale for 70% off.

I'd definitely look for an A-line cut because of her top and bottom size differences. For dresses like this, check the size chart and order by the bust size. You can then have it altered to shorten the straps, nip in the waist, etc. Luckily, your mom is model height so the length shouldn't be much of an issue with a long dress.

From ChristianeF:

Two of my friends are getting married in May (one at the beginning, one at the end) and I have no idea what to wear. To make it a little more complicated, both weddings will have essentially the same group of people, so I need not one outfit, but two!

Any ideas on something a short (5 feet), chubby (20-ish, but not very chesty) girl could wear both times (perhaps with some changing of accessories?) without being laughed at? I'm thinking dress, but I'm not married to it (haha). Preferably not too expensive. (Fussy fussy.)

You know who should be the official patron saint for short, fat women everywhere? Nikki Blonsky. She works it! The dress she has on in that picture is the Maya chiffon dress from IGIGI. It's likely more formal than what you're looking for but I wanted to show you a fabulous shortie in a formal dress as inspiration.

You didn't mention what type of wedding these are, so I'm assuming they're of the basic day ceremony, evening reception variety. Since you're wearing the same dress twice (which is fine, by the way), you'll probably want to look for something simple and understated. That doesn't mean the dress itself has to be boring but it shouldn't be a bright color or print that's immediately recognizable.

Here are some options:

Mia dress from b&lu
This comes in black but the red and blue are prettier and not so gloomy for spring weddings. It looks like it'd be easy to hem. You could wear gold accessories for one wedding and silver for the other, etc. Easy.

Olivia Harper Charlotte Dress from Cherished Woman
Not inexpensive but it's pretty and I kind of just wanted to link to it.

Mossimo V-Neck Dress from Target
Hey, it's $30 and you might be surprised at how nice dresses from Target can be, especially if you're only really planning to wear it a few times. Even then, I've noticed that their plus size dresses are pretty awesome. What's even better is that there are about 9,000 Target locations so you can probably try on dresses in person. Amazing!

I hope that helps, ladies. Have fun!

Comments

[Carrie]

I didn't know about Cherished Woman, they seem to have nice things on their site! Thanks for mentioning them.

I've been curious about this dress at LB: http://lanebryant.charmingshoppes.com/pagebuilder/lane_bryant_product_page?item=1399955&pagesize=3

If you were looking to wear a bright colour, the blue looks awesome. That could be appropriate for a wedding, if it's outdoors and not too fancy.

[Sarah]

I love the Mia dress! I want it even though I don't really need a dress right now.

I'm also curious about some of the dresses at Lane Bryant, but they don't carry any of them in store here. I would love to try on the Smocked waist shirt dress and the Embroidered hem khaki dress. I'm worried that they would gap at the boobs like a lot of button up shirts. I like the royal blue dress as well.

[Rebecca]

Dillards also has a lovely selection of Mother of the Bride dresses (and actually a really good plus size selection in general...which would help with both questions!) Helpful if you live in the South, obviously, but their web site is pretty good too.

[Lucy]

I wore that Olivia Harper dress to my boyfriend's work holiday party and got tons of compliments from all of the stick figure girls there. It was awesome.

I have another one of her dresses too (electric blue with pockets) and it always makes me feel gorgeous. There's something about her dresses that just make you feel like a rockstar.

If you're here in Chicago, you can try some of them on at Vive La Femme too...

[Carrie]

The Olivia Harper dress is beautiful, I'm not surprised you received lots of compliments Lucy!

If anyone has an interest in shopping at Cherished Woman I found a discount code online, receive 15% off by entering FFP15 when checking out.

[BlonskyBabe]

great advice!

wooo I love Nikki Blonsky! She's my idol!!

[Dowdydiva]

Great advice! I'd also try Saks Off 5th outlet if you can get to one. They have gorgeous special occasion separates at decent prices. You could get an embellished long skirt, and rock the Carolina Herrera look with a white blouse

[Gracie I.]

There are not very many stores that Olivia harper sells to. Does anyone have a list???

[Victoria Carrington]

Great blog! Loved your advice about the mother-of-bride. Nordstrom has some of the loveliest evening wear in plus sizes that I have seen and they are even better if you can get them on sale (which you often can).