We have a very important weekend coming up.

It’s time to celebrate the fact that Jesus is alive! He didn’t stay in the grave, He rose so that we may have life and live it abundantly! Praise God for that!

It’s also a time to radiate His love in very pretty Easter dress. Or, in today’s case maybe an Easter outfit!

I can look back and tell you everything I’ve worn for Easter for…well I can go really far back with that. To give you an example I remember being a little girl and getting a flowery pink twirly dress (I had a thing for clothes that twirled for a while). I was so excited about wearing it I drew a picture on my calendar so I could count down the days till I got to sport that fancy thing!

But one of my all time favorite Easter dresses (in the “non-twirl” category) wasn’t a dress at all. It was an outfit.

I started with wanting a pencil skirt, and built the whole thing around that.
It was a white pencil skirt with a black wrap vest, underneath of which was a polka dot blouse. Then I wore it with black shoes that laced up my legs and a wide brimmed white hat. It was so sophisticated yet playful (in other words, very Elizabeth ;)

I’m telling you this because I want to emphasize that you don’t have to do an Easter dress if you don’t want to. Think about creating an outfit. Dress shopping can be hard if you have a lot requirements. That’s a lot of things for one item to live up to!

Think about what it is you want to look like, maybe what shape you’re going for and go from there.

In order to help you figure all of that out, here are 5 steps towards creating the perfect Easter outfit.

1. Start with something you love. Like I did with the skirt. Find one item you own or have found in a store and build it from there. If you don’t have a starting point it’s going to be much harder down the road.

2. Once you have that one item, if you need to buy something to go with it, try things on that you already have. And not to say you’re not going to buy something, but the better idea you have of what shape or color you’re going for, the easier your shopping will be. For example, if you have a billowy skirt and you know you want to pair it with a fitted shirt, try on the fitted shirts you have even though they may not be the color you’re going for. You’ll at least get to know if the shape is going to work before you buy something.

3. Be flexible when you shop. Have an idea of what you’re looking for, but remember there are other options that could work better. So don’t have tunnel vision when you’re looking. Keep your eyes peeled for anything within the color family or shape family that may go with what you’re looking for. This way your chances of being disappointed decrease.

4. Don’t feel as if you need to be matchy matchy. This isn’t the 90’s where the same floral pattern has to be reflected in your shoes, earrings and underwear. Remember we’re living in the fashion era of mis-match (but not in a Clarissa Explains It All way…a little more subdued than that). Download a picture of the color wheel on your phone and look at colors opposite the one you’ve picked out so that you can get things that compliment rather than tone on tone match.

5. Wear what you love. Remember, it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks. Wear something you’re going to feel good in! That’s the one thing I can say with certainty as I look back on all my Easter outfits…I loved wearing them all :) And it’s that feeling of loving what you’re in that’s going to translate beauty!

And just to prove I’m not against wearing a dress, come back tomorrow for steps towards finding the perfect one!