Wedding invitations love vague dress codes. "Smart casual," "dressy casual," "festive attire" — none of these mean the same thing to two different couples, and getting it wrong is one of the few times what you're wearing genuinely gets noticed for the wrong reasons.
The venue tells you more than the dress code line does. A registry office in the afternoon and a countryside marquee in the evening are both "weddings," but they call for completely different levels of formality. If in doubt, the safe move is matching slightly above what you'd wear to a nice dinner, not below.
White, ivory, and anything that could be mistaken for it from across a room is still the bride's territory, regardless of how casual the wedding is. Beyond that, colour is genuinely open — jewel tones and florals both work across a wide range of wedding formalities.
Most people don't shop for wedding outfits months in advance — they end up doing it in the final week, which is exactly when panic-buying the wrong thing happens. A midi dress in a considered print, paired with heeled sandals or block heels, is a combination that works across a genuinely wide range of wedding formalities if you're shopping under time pressure.
Heels that look right in the shop but can't survive a few hours on grass or cobblestones, an outfit that photographs well but isn't actually comfortable to sit and dance in, and skipping a proper look at the dress code line on the invitation entirely.
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