In March when I was presented with the Female Plumbing Ambassadorship for QLD from the Master Plumbers Association of QLD, we worked out a list of events that I was to attend to. One of the events was to present the Andrea Vogler Award for a Woman in Business at the Plumbing and Gas Awards. The event was to be black tie and lounge suit for the guys.

Black tie typically means a formal dress but not a ball gown. I slightly panicked about finding the right dress because I really wanted to look professional but also stunning. But I didn’t want to spend a fortune either.

So I trawled the internet and found a gorgeous Leona Edmiston dress with sleeves. I figured the awards night would be in the middle of winter so it would be a cold night and the sleeves would mean I wouldn’t have to find a jacket or shrug to keep me warm.

I bought the dress online for around $227, reduced from $500 (It’s now down to $100 but in XXS). When I put the dress on, it fit fairly well, although it was a little big in the bust and the dress length was quite long. I also worried the dress wasn’t my style. This was the dress I bought. I think it looks much better on the model that me!

But when I put the dress on for my mum and Jacob, they agreed it was a good pick. So I happily put the dress away in anticipation for wearing it to the awards night.

Last week I showed my dad the dress and he told me he thought it was old fashioned and a colour his mother (my grandma) would wear. But he then tried to reassure me that he didn’t know much about fashion.

The thing is, I suspected the same thing. And usually my dad has a good eye for what does and doesn’t suit me. The same thing happened when I bought my formal dress 15 years ago. I had two dresses purchased and my dad didn’t like either of them, so he took me into the city to a tenancy he did the plumbing in (which happened to be an exclusive Brisbane fashion designer). A new red fabric had come in from Milan and the material was picked and the dress was made. I loved that formal dress and my dad has always took pride that he bought me my formal dress. I have still kept that dress in case I ever fit back into it. #stilldreaming
Anyway, I was a little worried about my dress and then I read the weather forecast and saw it was going to be a hot day on Friday. The last thing I wanted was to get sweat patches under my arms from being too hot in a dress.

But I didn’t have time (nor much money) to do anything about the dress and just decided to wear it. I had to get a necklace so headed to Mt Ommaney shopping centre on the Thursday and bought two necklaces from Lovisa that could be layered over each other.

Unfortunately when I put the necklaces on with the dress, they didn’t sit nicely on each other. The line on my bra could also be seen through the fabric of my dress. I resigned to going back to Mt Ommaney the next day to get a refund on one of the necklaces and find a smooth bra that didn’t have any seams or lace on the cups.

Thankfully Jacob was home so I raced to the shops to do my errands before my hair appointment at 11am. For some random reason I decided to head to City Chic as I remembered reading somewhere on the internet they sold bras.

When I went in, I saw they had a sales rack with a whole heap of formal dresses. And there was this XS black and white dress that I really liked.

City Chic Dress – One Left in XS

I whisked it to the change room and asked the shop assistant what size an XS would be. She told me it would fit a size 14. I slumped a bit because I’m usually a 16 because of my broad shoulders and I’m still little curvy in the middle.

I still tried the dress on and I’m glad I did. A few pics were sent to my dad and mum and of course Jacob, who was questioning why I was buying another dress because he really loved the green one. But I loved the black and white one more and for $50, I couldn’t put the dress back on the rack.

So I bought the dress and a strapless bra. Headed to get my hair done and put the dress on for my hairdresser who told me she loved it and we had to change my hairstyle plans. I was going to have my hair up, but because the dress was strapless, we opted to have my hair down.

My hair was put in Velcro rollers and I was given strict instructions NOT to take the rollers out until right before I headed to the event. This meant I would have to pick Esther from school with rollers in my hair and walk like this into Myer to get my makeup done.

I put my sunglasses firmly on my face and walked through the Myer Centre to the Benefit bar to get my makeup done. Benefit did my makeup when I went to the Kidspot Awards in 2014 so I knew they would do a good job. Plus the $75 paid to get your makeup is reimbursed with product.

Walking through Myer…

Kalani from Benefit did a fabulous job of covering over two pimples that decided to pop up that week. My makeup looked fabulous. We took a quick selfie in front of the Myer mannequin that had the same hairstyle as me!

Thanks Kalani for doing my makeup!

Jacob then whisked me to our hotel at the Ridges where we got ready for the 6pm VIP drinks.

As promised, I took my rollers out right before we left to attend the drinks and my hair was PERFECT!

This is how I scrubbed up in the end!

I was so glad I wore this dress because I was very hot at the awards, mingling and talking.

I knew I’d made the right decision to get a different dress. Or maybe the dress was heaven ordained just for me.

I will keep the other dress for another occasion – providing the weather allows me to wear it!

With my love

Have you ever made a last minute change to an important outfit? Do you have a dedicated Black Tie dress for special occasions?

I’m linking up for IBOT with Kylie Purtell.