Wedding Guest Outfit | Vintage 1950s Dress and Novelty Paris Clutch

If you follow me on Instagram you may have seen that I attended a wedding the other weekend.

My second cousin (once removed? I don’t know how that works) got married in Surrey, and we had the most beautiful September weather with all-day sunshine and warmth. Looking back I think it may have been the last day of summer in fact…!

It was a lovely, traditional white wedding with a church ceremony and reception in a gorgeous hotel and country club. I always love getting dressed up for a properly formal wedding and it was the perfect opportunity to wear the vintage 1950s dress that I bought on eBay a year ago (or was it two?) for the very first time. As a large chunk of my family were all travelling up from the South West, we decided to hire a huge (black) executive people carrier and turned up looking like the A-Team (minus the red stripe) which myself and the husband took turns to drive (there is a point to this story – do bear with me). As we didn’t want to drive for hours in our wedding togs we hung all our clothes in the back and left the house saying to each other ten times “Do you definitely have your SHOES and your CLUTCH and your JACKET”, etc. (a vintage 1950s dress worn with sneakers isn’t a good look, and my dad once forgot to put his suit jacket in the car when we went to a funeral).

Everything was fine until I got changed in the ladies of the pub we stopped off at nearby… only to realise I’d left the black belt I’d intended to wear with the dress at home. Not as bad as the time I brought just one left and right of two different pairs of shoes to a photo shoot [see no.18], but still incredibly annoying when you’ve worked out exactly how you want your outfit to look. One vintage dress, no cinched-in waist.

So I bring you my beautiful, sheer, vintage 1950s dress with the Paris novelty book clutch that I absolutely adore, the classic black heels (similar), long red nails to go with the 50s theme, hair up in a large low chignon (created with a hair donut) – and NO BELT.

It could have been worse: I could have left the underslip at home. A sheer dress with no slip at a church wedding doesn’t even bear thinking about 😉

Have you ever had any public wardrobe malfunctions or forgotten items of clothing like me? I’d love to know what happened to you, do share in the comments…!

The family group selfie, clockwise from front left: Me – my niece – the husband – another niece – my sister – my dad – my mum. Three blondes, two silver foxes, one silver vixen, one ginger nut ♥

Catherine