My Formal Wedding Look on a Budget

One of my dear friends recently got married and invited my husband and me to her absolutely gorgeous wedding reception. We received the ‘save the date’ months ago, so I had plenty of time to freak out over the formal dress code. Because here’s the thing, over the years I have collected options for many different scenarios – working in the office, working from home (and being Team’s video ready), bridal showers, baby showers, and even semi-formal weddings and work events – but a FORMAL reception was out of my wheelhouse.

Typically, a formal event requires dark suits or tuxedos for the men and a floor-length gown for the ladies. While I have plenty of knee-length or tea-length dresses and skirts, I did NOT have a floor-length gown sitting around.

So, my first thought was to check the thrift and consignment stores as I’m out and about. And I did that for a few months. I even purchased a formal gown at the thrift, brought it home, tried it on… and immediately turned back around and returned it to the store. I struck out and was starting to get nervous.

My next thought was to try a place like ‘Rent the Runway’ and borrow a beautiful gown and then send it back when I was done with it. I looked at pretty much every single one of their gowns that were available during the timeline of my event and found one or two that I was heavily considering. However, we all know that often something that looks great online doesn’t look as great on our actual body types. So, I was nervous that I’d put all my hope in a dress, have it arrive and hate it. Or have it not fit. Even with the back-up dress option. Also, the rental rates are not cheap. I’d be spending $100 – $130ish to rent a dress that I may hate, I’m not able to alter it if it doesn’t fit well, and I don’t get to keep it if I love it. So, nope to that.

Finally, I decided to do some online shopping. My criteria: I wanted something that I absolutely LOVED on me, something pretty classic that I could wear again, and something less than $150. I also narrowed it down to something in black. I like how I look in black and it will be handy to have a formal black dress in my closet for any future events.

I ended up with three main options:

I was unsure on sizing, so I ordered all three options from Lulus, since they have a free shipping and small restocking fee for returns. I also sized up, because I could always make something a little smaller if needed. I typically wear a size 10/12/14 depending on the dress, so I ordered each dress in an XL.

This one ended up being my favorite: The Radiant Charisma Black Chiffon Runched Tie-Strap Maxi Dress for $88.

I loved the sweetheart neckline and the overall fit of the dress. It was surprisingly comfortable and there was even a little extra room in the waist area if I wanted to take it in a little. The only thing I didn’t really like was the floppy tie straps, but I had the idea to use the front two straps to tie it into a halter top and just snip off the back two straps. The length was great too with the booties I wanted to wear.

I found the dress that would work for me and $88 was a pretty good price. But, I felt like I could do better. So, I took my search to Poshmark – I searched under Lulus as the brand, and the exact name of the dress.. and found one new with tags for $39. THIRTY-NINE dollars!

I returned all three of the dresses I tried on from Lulus for just a small restocking fee of $6 total. And here is the final look:

I have high hopes that the photo the professional photographer took will turn out MUCH better than my blurry iphone pic! But, it’s not bad for a secondhand (new with tags) dress, secondhand (basically new) booties and some adorable tights from Amazon!

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