I rarely have the occasion to dress up, but this weekend I had two in a row. Our annual work holiday party was Friday night, and a co-worker's wedding was Sautrday. They were both rather tricky for me to plan for, but I'm relatively happy with the outcome. I'm happier with the holiday party look...

You will have to imagine all of these photos with much better makeup and hair. I had to recreate them today, exhausted after a busy weekend...

Party (pics 1-2): I had to get to the venue a couple hours early to set up, and ended up with only a few minutes to change in the restroom. Our weather has been unusually cool, but I've found that most years, with 100 people in the room, I have been warm. This year was no exception. I was so warm after all of the set up, that even in the sleevless dress, I never felt uncomfortably cool. I don't love sleeveless dresses on me, but this one would have been ruined by any kind of topper. The sheer over layers were light and have beautiful movement to them. My favorite complement of the night was when my husband told me that I looked like an elf when I walked across the room. For some reason I like that... (Also, the dress came with a belt, but I heard Angie's voice in my head and left it off.)

Wedding (pics 3-4): This was SO hard to plan and put together. We were told by the bride that is was going to be on the beach at 2 pm, fairly causal, and be prepared to be barefoot. Then the weather turned cooler than expected. The reception was to be at a restaurant in the early evening. I tried on so many different things, but ended up with this one. I would have liked to wear a dress, but given the temperature, that would require stockings, and barefoot on the beach wouldn't do well with that. My new CAbi jacket is the dressiest type of topper that I have, and I was happy with that. It would have been more formal with a dress instead of tunic/leggings. It turns out that the wedding wasn't in the sand, but on a patio, under a white tent, overlooking the beach. The wind and shade made it all so much colder than it would have been on the sand in the sun. So it turns out that the leggings were a really good plan, and I could have done with closed toed shoes instead of sandals. The jacket wasn't even warm enough. But I was MUCH warmer than some of the other ladies who had on chiffon sleeveless dresses with sheer wraps! I also learned that if someone tells you that a wedding or a funeral will be causal DO NOT BELIEVE THEM - even if they are the ones planning it. One of my coworkers (based on how casual the bride told her it would be) came in white capris and a multi-colored top and was way more causal than 99% of the guests. And she was too cold. I was on the more casual side as well, but when I changed my shoes to black booties for the reception, and took off the jacket, I felt like it worked. And being warm enough felt just as appropriate to me as being fancy enough. In a perfect world, I would have liked a different outfit, but I really didn't want to go buy something just for this event and I honestly don't know how one could plan something that could cover all of those bases! I probably would have done better to bring a second thing to change into, as there was plenty of time (although we spent a good hour of the the reception outside waiting for the wedding party to arrive by boat) and the jacket came in handy for that!

Note to self... Next time post pictures and ask for YLF before the events...