Categories: Outfits

What to Wear to a Wedding Evening Reception (Party Dress & an Updo)

Wedding Week is drawing to an end soon; in the meantime, my fourth wedding guest outfit is What To Wear To A Wedding Evening Reception – we’re talking party outfits!

I often think this can be a hard one to dress for, because you won’t be going to church or need a hat, but it’s a dressed up evening out look rather than a daytime look you’re after… anyone else ever felt unsure about “sticking out” amongst the guests that had been there all day because you want to get your dancing gear on?!

I think you need to keep the balance between going for a party look and keeping it respectful, so here are my tips for how to dress for a wedding evening reception:

An evening reception is basically a party, so avoid the floor sweeping maxis and wear a dress you can dance in (so shorter is okay)
With that in mind, keep it classy – this is someone’s wedding, not nighttime Ibiza
Think dressy: wear a fabulous piece of statement jewellery if your dress is plain, or let a pattern do the talking
It’s a good idea to wear your hair up or off your face so it doesn’t bother you when you’re on the dance floor (you’ll be cooler that way too)
Wear heels of course but make sure they’re comfortable – there’s nothing worse than having to take your shoes off for dancing and ruining your look!

My Reiss shift dress seemed the perfect combination of classy but fun (a lot shorter than my usual style!) – it’s got great detail on the sleeves and being tweed it has a certain “wedding style” feel to it (just don’t ask me to explain why I think that). It needed fabulous heels (I DIYed these ones myself, see this post from February), a sparkly necklace and an updo – I’ve learned my lesson from going to parties with my hair down. I’ve ended up with flat, sweaty hair too many times after the amount of dancing I do.

How have you got around the challenge of dressing for an evening reception? If you have any good tips do please share!