What the Heck is "Mountain Casual" and Other Wedding Dress Codes

What I'm wearing today, natural fiber dyeing, and LOTS of affordable wedding guest dress recommendations

Hello readers!

Here’s what I’m wearing today:

Sweater- Finistere, Shorts- Vintage Gramicci, Boots- Xtratuf, Bag- Jagged Edge

Rainy functional farmer’s market look with my girl.

I’m planning some upcoming trips. One of them being ….drumroll please…

Copenhagen Fashion Week!

If you’ve been following along for a bit, you know that this is my fashion mecca. And still, I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing.. I’m going alone, I don’t know if I’ll get into any shows or how to play it cool if I do get in. But I’ll take you guys along for the ride and you can see the ups and downs!

(However, if you happen to have a friend of a friend that might know anything about something, I’m open to any advice or connections. I can use all the help I can get!)

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This past week I took a class on natural dyeing techniques from Navajo artist Venancio Aragon here in Telluride. It was phenomenal. All of the natural dyes we used were responsibly foraged in our region and turned into an entire spectrum of color with traditional Navajo methods for dyeing. I went home with 14 skeins of wool and a wealth of knowledge on how to continue this practice!

We used Big Sage, Utah Juniper Bark, Onion skins, Navajo Tea, Dockroot, and one of the most interesting things that I had not previously heard of- Cochineal, which is responsible for the pink/purple/red hues. I can’t believe I hadn’t previously known about this little bug that completely changed the world and was at one point in time worth more than gold. And that we probably all consume on a daily basis! Meat, marinades, jams, candies, jello, juice, soft-drinks, baked goods, confections, icings, dairy products, all often contain cochineal. And so did frappucinos and that pink drink from Starbucks before people freaked out and got them to add the good old regular carcinogenic red dye back in. Phew.

What do I knit?!

TGFTA! (thank god for the arts)

I can’t wait to transform more things and share more natural dye knowledge with TOGS readers so we can give new life to some old clothes.

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It’s mid June somehow.

If you’re around my age, you’re probably in the midst of a stacked wedding season. It’s a blast watching your friends get married. I love getting dressed up and talking about life and jobs and grown up things with people you last saw passed out at tailgates on a bed of natty ices and foam fingers. Go buffs.

This summer and fall in wedding guest fashion, I’m loving the drop waist shape, fuller skirts, asymmetry, and I love an Indian-inspired sheer shawl. I am a little sick of a the satin draped neck dress that has been around for the past few seasons. And always sick of boring shoes.

And as a rule of thumb, never wear white, and stay away from pale yellow or pale blue that can look white in different light. I just always play it safe in this regard.

I also hate spending a lot of money on wedding guest dresses because I likely will only wear them once. I know I could and should rewear them, but I rarely do. So I always look around on second hand sites first and usually sell mine there as well. Or swap with my friends to wear! But I tried to include as many affordable options here as I could find.

Sometimes it’s hard to plan what to wear for the inclement weather of mountain weddings, sometimes the dress code is a real thinker, and sometimes you’re drowning in open browser tabs trying to find a dress that’s both black-tie and appropriate for an outdoorsy setting.

So lets decipher some dress codes together.

I often look at the material of the clothes before the style or silhouette when trying to get the dress code right. So I’m going to list some generally appropriate materials that fall into the categories, but as always this is not a hard and fast rule, just a general starting point.