Little Black Dress… a little no no?

 We all either have one, need one, or are damn near starving ourselves to get into one. Yes ladies and gentlemen I am referring to the infamous little black dress. Now the question poses itself, is it appropriate to wear a black dress to a wedding? Some folks would argue that traditionally wearing black to a wedding suggests that you are in disapproval of the marriage or are wishing bad luck on the the bride and groom, but seriously if that were the case then why would you be there?

I recently bought a beautiful dress from White House Black Market to wear to a wedding to which I was invited. I bought the dress months in advance only to read some of these more traditional views two days before the wedding! So of course I ran to the mall, returned the dress and desperately searched for a replacement of a more uplifting color choice. I found a lovely dress in a nice shade of beige, went to the wedding, only to find three other women wearing black!

So to answer the age old question is it ok to wear black to a wedding? Consider these few points.

1.) Are you expecting this to be a super traditional wedding and if so, the black dress is probably a no go. So your friends may look at you and think you look great but the grandmothers of the bride and groom will give you dirty looks while your doing the electric slide. Which by the way EVERYONE should play at their reception (my two cents).

2.) How well do you know the couple? If you have a close relationship with the bride and groom you may already know that neither they nor the other attendees would have a second thought about a black dress. Also, if you are comfortable with them, it never hurts to just ask if they feel it’s appropriate, after all, they would know their guests better than you.

3.) Consider the time of day the ceremony will take place. If it will be at night then it would be a little easier to get away with wearing black. However, sitting in a botanical gardens somewhere at 12:00 noon with a black dress on in the middle of spring may not be the ideal situation.

Bottom line is yes, times are changing which makes it a little difficult to give a hard and fast answer here. Just use your common sense and don’t take unnecessary risks with someone else’s big day. If you were concerned enough about it to read up on it, you should probably just wear a different dress.

-not a bridesmaid

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