Hosted by Lauren @ Petite on a Penny, Petite Fashion Challenge #16: Summer Wedding has us creating an outfit for a summer wedding (the dress code is up to you). For bonus points, try to make your whole outfit, head to toe, come in under $100! (Or, exclude shoes and accessories to meet the $100 mark.)

Most of the summer weddings I've attended in the past featured an outdoor ceremony with an indoor reception. I kept the possibility of temperature variances in mind when selecting an appropriate outfit as a guest.

Outdoor ceremonies could very well occur on a hot and humid day, so I tend to favor dresses in lighter colors or ones with breathable fabric (or both). For this challenge, I went with the latter, a dark-colored dress in silk. The dress isn't clingy and flows nicely as I move -- great for dancing the night away.

The dress is on the casual side, so I dressed it up through accessories and strappy sandals. There's something about metallics that just scream "fancy" to me (shiny objects = bling, lol). I also brought along a shawl in case temperatures cool by nightfall. Ideally I would've preferred one with a nicer fabric, but I worked with what I had in my closet and loved the lilac pairing with navy.

Hosted by Megan @ Love live classy, Petite Fashion Challenge #15: Chic Pin-spiration has us finding a pic of an outfit we love on Pinterest, and re-creating it the best way possible!

My inspiration photo for this challenge is old-school J.Crew (surprise, surprise). I love how she wore the tie paired with a feminine color palette.

In my previous attempt at tie-wearing and tie-tying (which I've still yet to master), the size of the tie has been an issue for me. Aside from buying a skinnier tie, there's nothing I can do about the width. The length however, can be "fixed" by tucking inside the skirt. Why didn't I think of this before?!

I based my look on a similar color scheme while keeping the same key pieces (tie, shirt, sweater, and pencil skirt). This outfit is one that I may or may not have eventually figured out to wear together, but I'll take inspirations sooner rather than later.

Check out the other participants here.

Initially, I intended to wear the dress as is. After I pulled it on, the fabric sort of gathered around my hips, waiting to be smoothed out. I thought the draping nicely fell in a casual-messy-but-interesting way (I couldn't quite capture the flowy-ness in photos). The end result is certainly growing on me. What do you think -- experiment gone right or not worth repeating?

My first Bloggers Do It Better entry and... ack! Please ignore my too-short pants with heels (need to add metallic flats to my wishlist!) Otherwise, I really like this outfit. Similar to wearing all black, I find all white to be a great palette for accessorizing with colors. Though, at the same time, I also don't think you'd look under-dressed without adding color. Agree? Disagree? I chose to go with the former with this outfit because I've been loving my Amrita Singh necklace as of late.

Hosted by Curls And Pearls, Petite Fashion Challenge #4: Holiday Party has us creating a holiday party look using festive colors without looking like a greeting card.

When I think of the holidays, I picture dressing in jewel-tones. Sparkling greens, vibrant reds, shiny metallics come to mind. I picked out accessories from these colors and created an outfit that would be appropriate for my company's holiday party.

The dress is an old one I dug out and I think the shiny material fits the holiday mood, even if it's a darker color. As for the shoes, the only metallic pair I own are strappy sandals, so they'll have to do even though we are in the middle of winter :) How would you accessorize this dress? Should I have added some sparkly bracelets? My arms do seem sort of bare.

I doubt shoes would get any more inspired than this! These Lauren by Ralph Lauren Aela sandals (currently sold here) are a dead ringer for Jimmy Choo Mitsu's. The lighting of the pictures are probably different, so the gold tone looks a bit off. Unlike the rsvp Tarans and the Manolo Sedarbys counterpart, I actually saw the Ralph Lauren's first. I'm actually not even sure if the Jimmy Choos are from the current season... so I don't remember how I stumbled across the similarities. Alas, back to the review on the Aelas.

They are quite comfortable. I had known this prior to purchasing based on reviews, so I wasn't too worried. And it's only 3" :P (I can't believe I say only as if I wear heels everyday haha). But I think my above average foot arch might have something to do with it. I love the pale gold of the Aelas and feel that it would actually go well with both gold or silver jewelry. I wore these sandals for the first time at a wedding two weekends ago that lasted 5+ hours of me standing and dancing practically the whole time. I was doing pretty good until we ventured out to take photographs on hilly cobblestone roads -_- All in all though, definitely comfortable and worth it if you're going for the classic, timeless look.

*Images courtesy of Studio Saldana