Victorian themed wedding... guests need Victorian themed clothes

[LiesDoNotBecomeUs]

I'm not sure if this is the right place (I might be 150 years too late for this style advice).

I'm invited to a September wedding with a Victorian theme. (The family celebrating are Victorian society members in a city with proud Victorian-heritage.)

I need a 'Victorian-ish' outfit for the occasion but am mature, apple-shaped (tall -but size 16 and mostly belly).

I can improvise for children's book day events and things like that but this is a serious adult occasion - in a church - and my sewing skills are poor to appalling. (I'm known for messy injuries with sissors and stitching my -several years in the making- apron to my own skirt.)

Worst of all, I've a horrible idea that Victorian-ish means tight waist (I've never seen mine) and ballooning skirts.

I'm going to look like an appropriately themed traditional boiled pudding aren't I?

Can anyone help on how I can go about this? What style could pass for Victorian and not get me placed on the desserts table with custard?
(I've even considered arriving as a ghost.)

My immediate thoughts was to wonder what food is being served, sorry 😁

The RSC does costume hire - if all else fails, you could just hire a massive Scottish Widows cloak and go as a Woman Who Has to Hide Her Identity in Polite Society On Account of Her Troubling Ideas?

😂It won't be miserable. I might be providing the laughter.

I love some of the suggestions here. (Night-dresses and bathing costumes... would I be allowed in - a proper Victorian- church?)

Just hoping they don't go as authentic as colouring the green jellies with arsenic!

It doesn’t need to be a costume, right, you could just be themed. I’d wear a long skirt, a lace top of some sort and a hat

I like this idea.

Very Meryl Streep standing on Lyme Cobb looking out for her French Lieutenant.
She was very willowy though. I'm more solid oak.

This is bananas 😂 Reminds me of having to stress as an urchin and take a brass ornament to clean on a school trip to Shugborough! Best of luck, OP.

I know not everyone likes them, but it is an ideal chance to create a waist by wearing a corset. They don't have to be tight laced, but if you are apple shaped they are amazing. Then you could do a fishtail skirt and high necked blouse - have a look on ebay

Thank-you all. I am following all the leads above and hoping to find one that doesn't require a waist in the middle.

The night-dresses (with just-out-of-bed hair) would hang well but I suspect I'd be barred at the church door for the suggestive nature of my outfit.

Not the stages I appear on!

One idea might be to find a supplier or group who do Gilbert and Sullivan productions.They were written in Victorian times and it’s a standard trope that the leading contralto is large +/- wide.

Just google “”Gilbert and Sullivan costume hire near (wherever you live)”

The thing about Victorian dress is you didn't need to have a small waist you just make above and below look more full and the illusion is there. Big full skirts enormous and a ruffly bodice or HUGE sleeves make your waist look relatively small. There is zero need to constrict your waist.

Depending on which bit of 63 year period the style changes a LOT too so there's a lot to pick from but I'd mind veering into Edwardian because I bet someone will poo poo it 😅

I found this on my La Redoute app! https://lr.app.link/c7QLXVRfOGb
This is available in a 16 and it's half price and this on vinted https://www.vinted.co.uk/items/4044858708-victorian-style-floral-skirt-with-bustle

With some boots @LiesDoNotBecomeUs you'll look gorgeous!

Why are my mates all fucking chavs who get married dressed like they're on mafs ffs.
I'm so jealous!

Unless they feed you gruel, less so then 😂

Might be more suited to a Victoria funeral than a wedding!

Right [cracks knuckles] on the principle that if you're doing this, you go large...

Have you got a budget for this? What about investing in an actual corset? Because as a fellow unfit apple, it is quite fun to try out having a waist for a day.

Whether you do that or not, what about just hiring something? There are costume hire places everywhere. Googling brought up Masquerade in Suffolk for example. I dressed up as Anne Boleyn a few years ago and I was certainly a 20 then. It was a great party.

Etsy is your friend for this! Search Victorian costume on there.

If it was me I’d wear a dark high waisted long skirt in wool or linen (as you can reuse it), with a white silk or cotton high collar wide sleeved blouse buttoned all the way up, you could reuse that too. Then to make it more Victorian you can have a shawl, some kind of necktie and a Victorian hairstyle.

This eplains the waist thing I think (can't preview as doing nap time)

whitenightie.co.uk/product/white-cotton-nightie/

Like this!

Well, we've just found my wedding dress if nothing else!

You could go for something like this https://www.amazon.co.uk/Scarlet-Darkness-Double-Layer-Victorian-Renaissance/dp/B09VP4WBTC/ref=pd_lpo_sccl_3/258-7258142-1357137?pd_rd_w=I6OLb&content-id=amzn1.sym.f14cd7aa-64d8-4850-b7cf-d8f54dcd1a3d&pf_rd_p=f14cd7aa-64d8-4850-b7cf-d8f54dcd1a3d&pf_rd_r=8Y8WF7X1AEB8Q2E61DQT&pd_rd_wg=qEVgb&pd_rd_r=e63973b1-4508-46e8-9341-c92bf2d4ae89&pd_rd_i=B09VP4WBTC&psc=1

with a frilly blouse and a hat.

not all Victorian costumes are tight waist and hoops, look into walking skirts, these were high waisted and pleated again with a pretty blouse. You will need underskirts, a trick here is to go fitted to just below the knee then add a frill to give the impression of a full underskirt

Go as a Dick van Dyke style chimney sweep - very good luck for a wedding, dontcha know? ;)

Men's formal dress (with a lovely waistcoat) and if challenged you're Vesta Tilley rushing from a matinee to see your friends get married.

But this is Edwardian, 10 years after the victims era ended. Nit picking I know

More here

@BudgetKardashians I'm sorry, I refuse to believe Dick Van Dyke isn't an actual victorian.

Could you find a beautiful shawl and long full skirt so you look Victoria for the photos, but don’t have to go full Victorian?
Or

There are some good larger sizes costumes here - https://complete-costumes.co.uk/costume-hire/list.php/s/8/c/27/Victorian+-+Victorian+Costumes/#c