Help please- need some wedding style advice for my mum!

[RosaLuxembourg]

My mum called me today in a panic - she has been invited to my cousin's wedding - small wedding so only aunts and uncles going not all 47 cousins thank goodness - but it is 2pm and black tie. She has never been to a black tie wedding before and neither have I - also I live in a different country to her so can't go shopping with her. It is in mid-June btw so she needs to get cracking.
OK - she is 73 but in good shape, 5'3 size 10/12 - hair still salt and pepper rather than fully grey.
I want to be able to give her some pointers for when she goes shopping because she likes to look correct and I know she will be miserable if she gets there and she is wearing the wrong thing.
Sorry for the long post but if someone could explain black tie wedding etiquette I would be enormously grateful.

cocktail type dresses i think. Debenhams have some nice things in at the moment.

What about a long dress and jacket. The black tie weddings I have been to the woman wore a mixture of cocktail dresses and just normal weddingy clothes.

Can't remember about hats though...

long or cocktaily dress and jacket
cause however spry one is bare arms at 73 is not a good look.
Def no hat, but a feathery headthing could work if she fancied one.

Phase Eight is very good for this kind of thing, but best bet is to go to either Debenhams or JL and book a personal shopper.

Thanks guys. I really wish I could go shopping with her - she tends to get cold feet and play safe when she really can look fab with the right outfit.
What about headgear? She was muttering about hats but I thought maybe a fascinator type thing would be more appropriate for black tie, if indeed headgear is de rigeur these days at all.

NO HAT
hats are daywear only

fascinator if she fancies one, def not essential, and probably best feathery rather than strawy

Thanks Mrs Badger, I know you are right about the hat - I hope I can persuade her.
Wedding = hat in her book.

OK I have got

Dress - knee length cocktail dress (she won't do long in any circumstances)

Must have sleeves (she doesn't do arms either)

Possibly a jacket on top.

Ideally fitted but fairly glam.

Have looked on various websites but they seem awash with prom dresses which won't do a 73 year old any favours.

HELP!! Anyone got any ideas. Have looked at Debenhams, JL and Monsoon, also Wallis and Principles and found nothing appropriate.

Tricky - because "cocktail" and "sleeves" are nearly mutually exclusive ...

Presuming she's in UK - has she thought of booking a shopping adviser slot at JL or a House of Fraser, or somewhere like that which has lots of different lines? - should think they have lots of options which aren't on website.

Just thought - LK Bennett often has good wedding-wear, and not just for 20somethings. Website doesn't seem to show it all - it would need a visit.

jacket less essential if she's having sleeves on the dress

click Symphony and the bottom middle one

or Chantilly top second from L

or outfit on right here . On R page is also lovely little satin jacket which would look nice over all manner of things.
And black is def acceptable for black tie weddings.

or even r-hand page here

or dress and shrug

this?

grr, the coast website won't do links but I was looking at the allesandra dress and jacket.

Thanks very much Mrs Badger and Oranges.
I will send my mum those links and hope she gets some ideas from them. I love the LK Bennett stuff and also the Alessandra one from Coast, but she might need persuading that they are not too young for her. She is in Ireland btw, they have most UK high street stuff there.