In need of a 'Wedding Guest' Dress

Spring time is blossoming, lambs are being born and low and behold wedding invites are falling through the door. The poem for ode'de Spring. realisation of aging womanhood does not come any bolder than, a 'you are cordially invited' scribed ivory stationery, to yet another friends wedding. I am often found myself thinking, boy does time fly, and is this stage in life not all coming round a bit too soon? 

Well after initially having put the invite aside for a couple of weeks it finally creeps up on me that shit I realy should figure out what to wear. Wedding attire, feels me with fear... I just don't get it! at first I thought the principle was simple, Just a smart summer dress, shawl and hat, done! But oh no wedding politics like most politics is hard to fathom, all the rules of you must never wear white, must not reveal to much flesh, must not wear the same colour as the mother of the bride and under no circumstances should you out-dress the bride, bridesmaid of immediate family. Don't you just hate rules. 

I find the idea of putting the wedding guest outfit together as a challenge, one which I don't particularly enjoy. Spending out money on an assemble which often is quite frankly not usually suitable for any other event than wedding or the races, feels my heart with sadness that it will lead to a spree that will then be neglected to the back of the wardrobe collecting dust until next spring. Yet that is the thing isn't it, weddings are costly business and I am not even the one getting married. You can never duplicate your wedding outfit to another, as all the photos will reveal this fact. It also now seems that a more casual way of dressing to such weddings is now more apparent as I recently found out when I wandered into the church 'tartly' (could be a phrase to use) dressed, as all day I was self-conscious and actually felt that way. 

So here comes the dilemma all over again, a wedding approaching in less than two weeks, What to wear? arrrgh.... 

Floral- I mean nothing says spring wedding more right? And I guess floral means that the dress then becomes more adaptle to summer wearing also (money saving bonus!) So above are a few of my favourites and as much as I believe that the Nicole Fahri Peonie print dress that I saw suggested in The Sunday Times Style as the 'almost' perfect solution for s/s wedding dressing, but one thing other than the price tag I guess. But in comparison the Ted Baker dress (almost similar in print to my recent cheaper version from Miss Selfridge) and for just a £1 extra I would rather own a versatile and beautiful Fahri by Nicole Fahri classic tea dress, than dare I say it an overpriced ted baker piece (as much as I love it also). 

Money, Money, Money, crux to life for a mere student, so I think those two pieces are safely out the question, but can we forget that wonderful site I mentioned several times before. Girl Meets Dress, designer dress rental hire, for any occasion and solves all the issues of forking out on expensive garments to never be worn again. It offers admirers of designer pieces the chance to actually experience the luxury for themselves. The site has it's own 'Wedding guest' dress section and above are a few wxamples that showed up. I am considering this is the best option for myself this time, yet which one to choose??    

Hat or not to hat, that is the question? 

Do people still wear hats? I hardly see them myself any more and the opportunity of being able to wear a hat fills me with excitement. I adore hats and fascinators but they also come with shopability issues much the same as the dress. Do you match or not match? I feel so overwhelmed by choice, for a previous wedding I last minute impulsively brought a purple fascinator (similar to the one pictured above) but do I disregard this one completely or do I use this as the foundation to finding the dress? Should it be a complete purple match piece such as the Miu Miu above or would it be advisable or perhaps more suitable to just use the purple as an accent colour maybe coming through in the delicate print of the dress (such as the whistles tropical dress below). That also brings up the assumption that women must wear a dress, is not acceptable to wear separates or even a smart trouser suit? I just do not have a clue about wedding attire, hopefully this may come with more experience, as at the moment I feel lost, this is a whole new world...I am more than open to suggestions pleasssssseeeee!