Please allow me to clarify one thing: I don’t believe that any wedding guest outfit (especially those you’re considering spending a little more on) should be bought on the sole instance that it is “trendy.” When it comes to selecting items to add to my own wardrobe as well as the garments I introduce you to via my articles, I choose them based on their longevity—on whether they’ll still hold their appeal in a week, a month, a year… heck, even 10 years down the line. And when it comes to wedding guest outfits, this is just as important.
Over the past few years, I’ve made a conscious effort to get more wear out of the pieces I buy for special occasions, weddings being one of them. And the first step in doing so was to stop buying—for the lack of a better word—”traditional” wedding guest outfits. Even though I’m a fashion editor, I used to find it all too easy to default to a pretty lace midi dress with an A-line skirt and a fitted bodice for the next wedding I was fortunate enough to be invited to. Inevitably, however, these dresses never really felt like “me” and ultimately didn’t represent my sense of style. Of course, this mightn’t be the case for you. If you love pretty lace dresses, then, by all means, wear a pretty lace dress! However, without the urge or desire to wear my lace dresses again, many of them have been donated or sold to another wedding-goer. Not only is this not sustainable, but I found I was also spending a fortune. I needed to break the habit.
Thankfully, there is so much more on offer these days in terms of occasionwear. The outdated wedding-guest-dressing rules? They’re out the window! Now, I tend to buy wedding guest outfits that feel more timely and match my aesthetic more accurately. And I get so much more wear out of them because of this. But just because they feel current, that doesn’t mean they can’t be timeless pieces you’ll love wearing for years to come. Below, I’ve picked a selection of summer 2022 wedding guest trends that feel fashion-forward without being too of-the-moment. Scroll on to see them. I hope you’ll find something fun that feels more intrinsic to you.
