Hope you ran out and acquired whatever you were missing from Scenario #1 – DAYTIME and Scenario #2 – DRESSY DINNER. Yes? If you did, then you are finding you have the appropriate things to wear for day or evening. 

But an invitation to a black tie dinner or a fancy ball is going to require some thought. Firstly, black tie dinners at home are generally considered less dressy than those held in, for instance, the marbled courtyard of your local country club or the penthouse ballroom of a hotel. An invitation to any grand marble ballroom, Cotillion ball, Mardi Gras ball or wedding scheduled at 6PM or later means you will be wearing at least ¾ length (my favorite) or longer dress. Obviously, an invitation to a “ball” requires a ball gown. Normally, an invitation to a black tie dinner at home leaves you the option of a long or short dress (usually short) unless advised otherwise by your hostess. The “normally” is because you might have at least one friend who has a very elegant, spacious and possibly marble room for entertaining at home and one can assume that the hostess of that grand house would expect you to be fully “decked out” for her parties. So you must consider the venue and dress accordingly unless advised otherwise by your hostess. It is worth mentioning that you can only compliment your hostess by “over-dressing’ and you do the opposite by…..well, you get the point.

Keeping it simple, the most important place to spend your hard-earned dollars for this and future black tie evenings is on an impressive necklace and/ or bracelet or a demi-parure, if you can find one.