In late November, we will be special guests at a cousin's wedding. We are the "sponsors" of their wedding rings, and will have a special moment during the wedding ceremony (apparently, this is my first time serving in this role!).

DH encouraged me to get a long gown (YAY! I love to dress up, just didn't get a chance to reply to Angie's recent thread).

For some reason I have it in my head that I want a dark blue dress. The color is flattering on me and my coloring, so that's what I am leaning toward at the moment. I definitely don't want anything light colored.

Some activities will be outside while other will be inside. It will be late Nov and in an area outside of the city known to be colder than where we live.

The climate coupled with my PERSONAL hangups about my upper arms leads me to a dilemma. I definitely want arm coverage. Should I:

• try to find a dress that offers arm coverage
• or plan on wearing a bolero or jacket the entire time? (see one find that comes w/bolero)
• or a little of both?

I am adding finds of the dresses that are drawing my attention.

I also need as deep of a neckline as I can find, and some of these don't have that. In real life if I have a high neckline I find 9 times out of 10 I add a pendant necklace to draw the eye down, visually adding a vertical line for lengthening purposes. With a formal gown this won't be possible, so the neckline as well as sleeves are the top concerns.

I likely will have to order options and try on and decide immediately on my next trip to the USA (hopefully in Oct). It gives me pause bc (A) I will have a ton of money tied up in "options" hopefully one of which works and (B) the timing - if none work I will have to scurry to find something. Usually my trips are only a few days and I have to work too (ha!) so limited hours to search.

I prefer to shop for this in the USA as I have looked around here and being my size (borderline regular/plus) is a challenge, the Adriana Pappel dresses I saw here were 2x the price and not my size, I don't know where else to look, no online options even for research, blah blah blah.

I really only want to order 2-3 max bc it is a lot of money to have tied up at once. Which do you like best given my constraints?

I am open to suggestions, anecdotes, other dress options, ideas for toppers, feedback on these dresses, etc.

THANK YOU YLF !!!!