HELP! Dressy Casual???

Sam and I are attending a function in Minneapolis next weekend for his work. It's a corporate event for the executive team and the dress is "dressy casual." For a guy, that's easy. Jacket, no tie. But for a woman? Clearly, a man wrote that invitation!

Tell me what you think is "dressy casual". This is basically "awards" type of dinner where there is a cocktail party from 5:30-:6:30, dinner from 6:30-7:30 and then the agenda doesn't really say what comes next except that it ends at 12:45 AM. So while it's on the formal side because the president of the company and all the "senior" staff members for Nash Finch will be there, it also sounds like it will be a fun evening (I mean it goes until 12:45 AM, and they required -everyone - even the local people - to spend the night at the hotel where the event is taking place...so one can only "presume" they are expecting everyone to have a good time, right??)

Anyway, help me out here. I made 3 purchases. Which do you like the best? Just hit the little link where it says "0 comments or 1 comment" and tell me. I'm curious if I'm in the ball park on my choices.

Purchase number one came from Ann Taylor. It's a white wrap around shirt, and I didn't get these pants shown here, I got more of a stretchy fabric that is wide-legged and look a lot more dressy then what you envision looking at this photo. I also got a pair of black patent leather heels to wear with it. I figured this, with some cute jewelry would be ..... "dressy casual."

Then I started on J.Jill website. I got this outfit below which I love and is my favorite of the three. (By the way ... if you haven't bought anything from J. Jill - I highly recommend these Wearever pants....I have them in Capri length, and you can wear them casual, you can wear them dressy, etc. They are by far my favorite pair of pants that I have from a comfort standpoint and you can machine wash them, dry clean them - whatever.) It doesn't look that dressy here, but the pants are long, and again - wide legged and the shirt ties in the back. I would wear it with the same black shoes that I bought above, and I even bought the necklace shown here.

Then Sam gets a confirmation e-mail of the event on Thursday of last week. It has a reminder to everyone that the event is dressy casual (jackets/no tie for men and pant suit or dresses for women but not formal.) Well, what the heck do I do now?? Neither of the two outfits above are truly considered "pantsuits" and they are obviously you don't need to wear a cocktail dress.... so I go into Talbots. And I buy yet another outfit - a "suit" because I haven't had to wear one in so long and I've had 3 babies since the last time, and that's all I'm gonna say about that! So here's option number three. (I wish it looked this flattering on me, but it doesn't ... LOL...since my body is much shorter, and I've HAD THREE BABIES, PEOPLE!!! I feel almost "frumpy" in it - and it doesn't really feel ... FUN. I feel more like......I'm going to work rather than an evening at a fancy hotel. ) I didn't get the same shirt, I got a pink one to go under it, I also have a light blue one too that I could wear. AHH CHOICES!

So what do you think? What do you think Dressy Casual is? I need to know because I spent a ton of money on these three outfits and whichever two I don't wear have to go back, since I work from home 99% of the time, I have no need for "work" style clothes for the most part. In addition, I need to get the suit pants hemmed and I have only a small window of opportunity to do that, so give me some help here! :) Please!!

Anyway, clothes aside ... we're looking forward to it. We're taking Zach with us and he's staying at Kayla and Ben's (his first "sleepover") and both Zach and Kay and Ben are very excited. We got Zach a new game for his "VSmile Pocket" (CARS) and so that should keep him occupied on the plane. He loves that thing and he's SO good at it.

Anyway, hope you're all doing well!

Love,

Rachel xoxoxox