Chic, appropriate, and cool. From Trina Turk.

That’s right, it’s May, and you know what that means — wedding season is here.  If you’re between about 23 and 33, there’s a good chance that you are going to spend every other weekend this summer at a friend’s wedding.  If you’ve been through a few years of this, you probably have a couple of stand-by dresses that you whip out if you need them, but the chances are you still sometimes get invitations to events for which you just don’t have anything appropriate. I’m a big advocate of making an effort to find wedding-appropriate clothes out of respect for both the couple getting married and the venue.  (Even if you think some of the rules are old-fashioned, is it worth the risk of offending the bride or the groom’s mother on their big day?)  What’s wedding appropriate, though, definitely varies depending on the venue, the time of year, the time of day, and the couple.

The Femmeiniste style advisors have received a request for fashion assistance for attending an outdoor wedding in Cincinnati this August.  The extra twist?  She’s the sister of the groom. While she has wedding-appropriate dresses, well, you can’t wear the same dress you’ve worn to the weddings of several cousins to your brother’s wedding too.  (The earful from the family about that might last the rest of your life!)

If you’re not setting foot inside a church, sleeveless dresses become fair game.  Of course you still need to look like you’re going to a wedding and not a picnic unless the event is pretty informal, but if there’s not going to be a mass, the standards change a little. For an outdoor wedding, comfort becomes more important. Cincinnati may not officially be the south, but it’s not Churchill, Manitoba, either.  Heavy satins will look silly and cause you to poach in your dress, and anything that’s going to show the sweat the second you start to “glow” is a disaster waiting to happen. Don’t forget the wedding pictures!

So, our girl is blonde and divinely fair (may we recommend sunblock for this occasion?), tall, and although she’s slender, does have hips.  Here are our picks for outdoor wedding dresses for her this summer.

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I’ve been running wild with the flowy and the flouncy lately, but really, I love the other side of things just as much — tailored, elegant, ladylike.  Just in time for Easter, the stores are full of body-conscious sheaths and tailored dresses in dainty prints and Easter egg pastels.  I admittedly won’t be going to mass this Sunday, but I’m still feeling the pull of a look that’s a little more refined. You might never wear these dresses to the beach, but they dinner with the parents at the Central Park Boathouse restaurant.  Here are some of my picks for the holiday weekend and spring’s more reserved moments. I don’t promise that these are all completely appropriate for church, but I guarantee they’re perfect for Easter brunch.

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Great painterly graphic with just enough color and black accents from Vince

I posted a few days ago about this season’s bold prints in dresses, but I left out one of the season’s other big trends: the graphic print.  Far be it from me to leave you all in the lurch, and since I need a few more dresses if I’m going to make it all summer without donning pants, some of the spring’s great graphic-print dresses.

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A perky print in spring green and grey from BCBG Max Azria

You didn’t really think I was done with spring fashion, did you?  I didn’t think so.  Now that we’re getting flashes of actual warm weather (I saw 60 the other day!), my itch has moved on from just shedding my down jacket to something way better: ditching my pants.

I know, I know, that sounds bad.  Jokes about the collective Femmeiniste anti-pants sentiment aside (we seriously alarmed one of my cousin’s friends who Lily and AJ had not yet met last year by declaring one of our gatherings to be a “pants-free brunch” over e-mail), there’s no better part of warm weather than the opportunity to ditch my jeans and cords and put on a skirt or a dress.

Bold prints are on-trend for the season, and there’s a whole collection of great spring/summer dresses that are an easy way to brighten up your wardrobe.  Here are some favorites.

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