If you have ever been part of a bridal party then you know that the outfit process can vary widely. Sometimes the bride makes all of the women wear the same dress and you do not get much of a say so. Other times you at least get to pick your dress, but with certain guidelines. The most loose format is when you have free reign over your entire outfit from start to finish, which is my personal favorite (of course)! In 2020 I had the incredible opportunity to be the maid of honor in my best friend’s wedding, and I had full control of my outfit. This blog post will teach you how to make a maid of honor dress stand out as I share my tips and tricks for building a superior outfit from the ground up. I am also sharing my wedding rehearsal outfit, as well as makeup details.
I have an entire wedding collection of posts and related content that serves as a companion to this post:
- Bridal Makeup Kit: My Ultimate Reviews & Picks
- Powder Foundation Makeup Routine
- How to Dress for a Black Tie Wedding
- How to Wear Makeup with a Face Mask
Maid of Honor Outfit
My sense of style is always to stand out and attract attention, rather than blend into the walls. With that being said, when we think about how to make a maid of honor dress stand out, we do not want to overshadow the bride while tending to our own taste. I am keeping this in mind while building my outfit.
When it comes to any outfit for any occasion, I let the clothing speak to me. I did not go into this with a style in mind. I started by checking out my favorite stores and making myself comb through dresses until something hits me like a ton of bricks.
The theme colors for the wedding are navy blue and tulip yellow, so those are the only guidelines I am abiding by. As I mention in my black tie wedding blog post, I like to look for dresses at stores like Macy’s, JCPenney, Dillards and their discount locations, etc. While shopping, I mainly stayed near the navy blue dresses.
I never envisioned myself in a yellow dress, and I did not figure out how to incorporate yellow into my outfit. As a really pale person, typically fashion “rules” say that you should stay away from yellow clothing. I am not someone to follow any sort of written or imaginary “fashion rules,” but I think this is good to keep in mind when you want to look your best.
Macy’s is where I found my dress. All my life I have been good at finding “the one” when shopping. When I was a kid I always picked a new backpack for the school year. I would look at so many and really consider each one until I found the one that spoke to me. That concept- or skill- can apply to any facet of shopping, and it does with this dress.
Dress: INC International Concepts from Macy’s
Shoes: Nina from Macy’s
Handbag: Ross Dress for Less
All jewelry: Lana from CVS
What makes this dress a winner to me is that it obviously conforms to the navy blue theme, but it breaks traditional convention. The dress is dip eye and ends up introducing a new shade of blue into the color palette. Of course, I got permission from the bride before making this bold purchase. My sense of style to just be “different” is absolutely put front and center with this dress.
Here is a budget shopping tip for you! Macy’s was sold out of this dress in my size, but they also sold this dress in a denim version. I was able to use the denim dress to make sure of the fit. Then, I went online and purchased the actual dress. The benefit of going online but sizing in the store is that you can take advantages of sales and coupons that are online only.
While I was online I also purchased my dress shoes. Navy blue shoes match the top half of the dress perfectly, and are a safe choice. I am always a supporter of strappy shoes because they add so much interest and are not plain at all. I prefer a short heel.
Considering this was a winter wedding, I did wear nude hose to keep my legs warm, which is optional depending on the season.
As I discuss in my black tie wedding blog post, one of my favorite places to get costume jewelry is none other than the drugstore CVS. They carry a brand called Lana, and it is only available in stores. The jewelry is super high quality and does not look cheap at all. With that being said, it is a bit pricer than the jewelry you might buy at Walmart or the like. For all of the pieces that I am wearing, it cost me about $100. I know that is crazy, but I did utilize a coupon from a printed receipt.
What made me commit to these jewelry choices is the pieces that have multiple shades of blue that match the dress perfectly. I grabbed all of the matching pieces to make a set. The jewelry is the main opportunity to add the missing bling and sparkle back into the outfit.
With an everyday outfit I might only wear one piece of jewelry total, such as a necklace. For a special occasion I will go all out. You probably do not need to be as extra as I am here. The necklace is definitely optional due to the details at the top of the dress. You can also skip the front back earrings or even the statement cuff.
This outfit works with either gold or silver details. Since the jewelry just happened to only be offered in silver, I now have to keep that theme consistent throughout.
At this point in how to make a maid of honor dress stand out, we only need a handbag. One day while shopping in Ross this silver evening bag could have jumped out and bit me. When you hold the bag in the light and rotate it, the iridescent gems actually shift colors from a blue that matches the dress to a pink. In real life the bag is super reflective like a mirror or disco ball. Naturally, it fits my “stand out” aesthetic.
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The Makeup
We cannot talk about how to make a maid of honor dress stand out on this blog without considering makeup! In the outfit pictures above that was not my hair or makeup that I did for the actual wedding. As you can imagine, there is too much hustle and bustle on the day of the wedding to worry about taking selfies for your blog. I re-shot the outfit specifically for this blog post.
Over the course of 2020 the way that I blog has changed 200%. Back during the wedding my blogging style did not include keeping tracked lists of the makeup that I used, taking high-quality makeup selfies, etc. Here I am sharing the selfies that I did take, and I am trying my best to remember the makeup that I used in order to make a list. It is pretty easy recalling these makeup products because they are the usual suspects that I travel with, and conform closely to my bridal makeup and powder foundation routine blog posts. Here are my best guesses:
- Smashbox Photo Finish Primer
- Revlon Pore Reducing Primer
- CoverGirl Lid Lock Up Eyeshadow Primer
- wet n wild photofocus Color Corrector in Peach
- Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Concealer
- Sephora Collection Matte Perfection Powder Foundation
- Maybelline Fit Me Loose Finishing Powder
- Benefit Hoola Matte Bronzer
- Anastasia Beverly Hills Blush Trio (not sure which one)
- elf Lock On Liner and Brow Cream
- Anastasia Beverly Hills Moonchild Glow Kit
- Kat Von D Shade and Light Contour Palette
- Urban Decay All Nighter Setting Spray
- Anastasia Beverly Hills Norvina Pro Pigment Palette Vol. 1
- wet n wild megalast Liquid Creme Eyeshadow in Vein-illa I Scream
- Maybelline Master Precise Liquid Eyeliner
- Loreal Voluminous Primer
- Maybelline The Falsies Lash Lift Mascara
- Ioni lashes
- I am not sure what lip liner I used, but a suitable choice is the NYX Retractable Lip Liner in Sand Beige
- Physicians Formula The Healthy Lip Velvet Liquid Lipstick in All Natural Nude
My goal for any special occasion is makeup that is bullet-proof, yet looks gorgeous. I always use as much high-end as I can, while also using my holy grails and favorites. I wanted my eyes to match my overall outfit, which holds true for any makeup look that I do.
Rehearsal/Dinner Outfit
As a “bonus” for this how to make a maid of honor dress stand out blog post, I am also taking you through building my wedding rehearsal outfit. Depending on the actual wedding that you are in, you may not really need to invest in a special outfit. I was the most dressed up person by far, and people probably thought I had quite a few screws loose. This particular rehearsal was a shirt and jeans event with no dinner. But, you know how extra I am, and I was not skipping the chance to make another special outfit. That is what I do, so let them stare.
For this rehearsal outfit I had no intention of sticking with the wedding theme colors. If your bride requires a certain attire and/or color scheme, then so be it. Remember, I am totally in charge here. My goal for this outfit was to let the dress speak to me, then let the other pieces fall into place.
A maxi dress is an incredibly unusual selection for me, and one that you will probably never see again. I am five foot tall, so I run far and fast from maxi dresses. But, something about this silver crushed velvet dress called out to me. I purchased it from Madison and Mallory, which is not a typical place where I find evening wear. Since I am so tiny I did tie a knot on the one side of the dress to make it shorter. You can find more details about that in my style hacks blog post.
Related Post: Style Hacks for the Effortless Fashionista
Once I bought this silver dress, it was really a snowball effect with the rest of the outfit. I felt compelled to go all silver. Which is actually ok since the rehearsal was on January second. Your brain is still in New Years mode, so you are thinking about silver, sequins, the ball drop, so on and so forth. The next step was to look for shoes. A quick Google search for silver dress shoes presented me with these gorgeous sequined short heels from Betsey Johnson. Instead of buying a new handbag, I used one that I already had that used to belong to my grandmother.
Dress: Peach Love from Madison and Mallory
Shoes: Betsey Johnson
Handbag: unknown
All jewelry: Lana from CVS
Since I am now committed to the silver New Years theme, I have to continue that with the jewelry. Lana again to the rescue! This time around I only bought three sets of items. I do not feel that I need as much bling for the rehearsal. Check out those New Years ball earrings and matching ring!
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The Makeup
Like I say for the maid of honor outfit, I re-shot the outfit pictures for this blog post. Below I have a selfie to you can see my actual hair and makeup from that night. Please note I did not have my lip color on in the picture.
Also like I discuss for the maid of honor outfit, back then I did not track the makeup that I used or take quality photos. It is harder for me to remember everything that I used to make this look because of that. Rather than create a list of a bunch of maybes, I will only talk about the stand outs that I know that I used for sure.
For the lips I used a shade of Physicians Formula The Healthy Lip, probably something more mauve. My foundation is Physicians Formula The Healthy Foundation. The primer is Bobbi Brown’s Vitamin Enriched Face Base only because I was trying to use the sample up. I used the Vibrant shade from elf’s 18 Hit Wonders Eyeshadow Palette on the eyelid because it is the most stunning silver that I own, both wet or dry.
My goal here is simply to use beautiful makeup that will hold up for an evening, yet match my dress. Working on finishing up some samples is not a bad thing, either.
Conclusion
Now that we are at the end of my how to make a maid of honor dress stand out post, you should be well informed on my process of building an outfit from start to finish. With my tips and tricks, you can now go out and build a unique outfit that speaks to your sense of style and desired level of bling and color. This post contains shoppable pieces to help you not only replicate my outfits, but to get you going with your own. If you need an awesome look to dress up for a rehearsal and/or dinner, I have your back, too. It is time that us maid of honors step out of the shadow and safely grab attention, while keeping the bride front and center. Until next time, continue to let your true beauty shine.
Have you ever been in a wedding party?
