How formal should this dress be?

Hobie625

I'm looking for advice on what to wear to my fiance's cousin's wedding next month.  One issue is that I've never met any members of this family other than said cousin and her sister (my fiance's father does not talk to this sister/fiance's aunt), and since it's the first meeting I don't want them to think he's marrying a moron (me).  Normally I would find a cute party dress and be fine, but that's for weddings I've been to for my friends and family.  The part that threw me off was that a couple months ago, his cousin said the wedding was going to be super elaborate (her words were something like "wait til you see everything"), so this led me to think formal attire, but when the invite came yesterday, it said the ceremony was at 430 in the afternoon.  I know this is a long background and probably totally ridiculous sounding, but I'm looking for advice on style/formality of the dress and I don't want to drop a bunch of cash since we are getting married ourselves in June. Thank you, thank you, thank you in advance.

pgcp

A longer LBD, knee length or slightly below, in a good fabric, with awesome accessories.  Channel your inner Audrey Hepburn. 

LoveMuffins

4:30 in the afternoon can still be considered an evening wedding since it will involve dinner and most of the reception will be at night.

Tbh, "super elaborate" does not necessarily equate to "super formal" to me. Maybe she just meant that she has really unique decorations, etc. If they have a wedding website the attire might be listed on there. Or you can try to get a clue from the wedding invitations, as PP suggested.

Going to my DH's cousin's wedding last year they didn't have anything about it on the website, I thought the invitations looked ambiguous, so I sent her a facebook message saying that we'd gotten the invitation and it was so pretty and we were so excited... and asked if a cocktail dress would be appropriate attire. She immediately responded with gracious thanks for the compliments and the answer to my question. No one's going to judge you for asking

Hobie625

All of those questions went through my mind last night as I read the invite and then I forgot to actually follow up on them!  The invite is nice and simple, just an ivory  card with black script, but printed, not pressed.  I did look up the event location, and it is really, really fancy.  Ridiculously so (to me anyway!). 

http://www.lewindsormontreal.com/ballrooms

She had said they were spending a lot of money on this wedding, and while that might mean different things to different people, this is Montreal and they are Lebanese, so culturally that's how it is.  I think it will be elaborate.

Oh and my SO is not much help.  I asked him about a few things in regards to this wedding, the main issue being that she mailed the invite on the ~10th, I received it on the 16th, and it asked for an RSVP by the 15th. I was worried that we missed our deadline, even though it was not our fault.  His response was "Well you know Renee is a stoner.  What did you expect?"  Anyway, he'll be of no help in this situation.  Renee and I aren't FB friends and I don't see her much when I'm there visiting to ask her. 

I appreciate all your suggestions and will shoot for something knee length, great heels, and some bitchin jewlery.

CatLikeRawr

I always think its better to be over dressed than under dressed, but thats just me

If you want to be safe, get a black cocktail dress and dress it up with jewlery.  If you show up and feel that its too much, take off the jewlery. 

Hobie625

Cat I like that idea too.  I don't usually wear jewelry, so I'll have to see what I can do in that department to dress it up.  And I was born and raised in Laguna Niguel...yay Orange County!

kekr0202

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_attire-accessories_how-formal-should-this-dress-be?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding BoardsForum:15Discussion:676e8c42-9fae-46bf-812b-22aaecbc1debPost:639a8fb4-5cf6-431b-99ef-18a573efccdd">Re: How formal should this dress be?</a>:
[QUOTE]All of those questions went through my mind last night as I read the invite and then I forgot to actually follow up on them!  The invite is nice and simple, just an ivory  card with black script, but printed, not pressed.  I did look up the event location, and it is really, really fancy.  Ridiculously so (to me anyway!).  <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.lewindsormontreal.com/ballrooms"><strong>http://www.lewindsormontreal.com/ballrooms</strong></a> She had said they were spending a lot of money on this wedding, and while that might mean different things to different people, this is Montreal and they are Lebanese, so culturally that's how it is.  I think it will be elaborate. Oh and my SO is not much help.  I asked him about a few things in regards to this wedding, the main issue being that she mailed the invite on the ~10th, I received it on the 16th, and it asked for an RSVP by the 15th. I was worried that we missed our deadline, even though it was not our fault.  His response was "Well you know Renee is a stoner.  What did you expect?"  Anyway, he'll be of no help in this situation.  Renee and I aren't FB friends and I don't see her much when I'm there visiting to ask her.  I appreciate all your suggestions and will shoot for something knee length, great heels, and some bitchin jewlery.
Posted by Hobie625[/QUOTE]

Wowsa.  Pretty venue.  Looks quite formal.  What's your guy planning on wearing?

Hobie625

um.....some form of suit?  he has like one suit that he wears to everything, and it doesn't fit terribly well (it's a a little large/loose), so maybe he'll get a new suit and then he's got that done for our wedding too?  otherwise, he's a big boy and should dress himself and i can't be responsible for his potentially bad clothing choices.  no amount of nagging from me will get him to change what he wears. 

yeah this places looks crazy nice, so i'm leaning more towards formal wear. and like Cat said, you can never be over dressed.

SRRL18

I've been to the Windsor before. It's GORGEOUS! I wore as close to a formal dress as I could without it being long.