You’re invited to a posh, Black Tie Palm Beach wedding, and you want to look your best — without breaking the bank. But can you find a dress you love and that you’d love to wear again? With some smart shopping, yes you can. And the winner is…

I set a budget of under $400, which is no small amount, but reasonable for a designer gown. I started and ended my hunt at the Outnet — my absolute favorite site for high end clothing. My goal? An elegant, longer silhouette with all the Palm beach vibes.

While I thought all 3 gowns were amazing, I ultimately went with Dress #2. After some consultations, of course. Both my photog Kristin, close friend Elisa and most importantly my “date” (The Hubs)for the event all concurred. For what it’s worth, I felt Dress #1 was too similar color-wise to the Mother of the Bride’s dress (another close friend so I had a sneak peek) and Dress #3 (PomPoms!)required quite a bit of tailoring to fit correctly. While not the deciding factors, Dress #2 was the least expensive and was definitely the easiest to roll-up and pack.

I shopped my closet for everything else — favorite dress-up earrings, customized lucite clutch (by yours truly) and wear-forever Rockstud sandals (very comfortable block heel). Chanler’s girlfriend Robin created a beachy wavy hairstyle, which looks terribly windblown in the pics here. In person, the look was so fresh and feminine that I’ve vowed to teach myself how to recreate it. 

All in all, we were also able to add on some fun family time with our sons Spencer and Chanler (and Robin), which was truly the icing on our wedding weekend cake!

So if you have a Black Tie (or other dressy) event coming up, I highly recommend a spin around The Outnet. I promise it won’t disappoint.

Dress #1 Marchesa Notte, 60% off

Dress #2, Badgley Mischka, 54% off

Dress #3, Badgley Mischka, 45% off

(FYI, I sized up one size in all 3 dresses.)

Earrings, Roxanne Assoulin, old but similar here.

Bag: old but chic alternatives here (rainbow!), here and here (under $50).

Sandals: Valentino (a splurge, but I’ve honestly worn these dozens and dozens of times, they still look brand new, go with virtually everything, and always make a “fast fashion” dress look like a million bucks.) Newest Rockstud look here (on rare sale!) and more affordable here (under $200!).

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Photos by Spencer Allegaert, Robin Bouweiri and Kristin Moore-Gantz.