My First Experience with Rent the Runway – Black Tie

Why buy a formal dress only to wear it once?

I honestly have spent more time than I would like to admit looking for dresses. I consider renting, then consider making my own, then consider just buying one off the rack from Nordstrom‘s, then reconsidered buying from somewhere less expensive instead. This is my unpaid first experience using Rent the Runway to rent a formal gown for a Black Tie Southern California Summer Wedding.

Ultimately, it came down to a 9:30 PM scroll-hole on the rent the runway website.

I saw an embellished sequin floral dress to rent for like 50 bucks. Fifty bucks!

Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission at no extra cost to you. All opinions remain my own.

Even the cheaper dresses online were at the $50 price point and I had the opportunity to grab a designer dress (which retailed for over $400) that I would never wear again for the same price. I decided to take the leap and give it a try.

One thing I did do is look at all the reviews look at the images read people’s honest reviews and it was really helpful when choosing what dress would fit me. Now this dress is completely out of my normal realm of dresses but I do love sequins and I think because of the light color and matte sheen it is a more understated sequin dress.

Not the in-your-face Rose Gold Sequin bridesmaids dresses of the past, you know the ones I’m talking about.

While I waited for my dress to arrive I chose some fun accessories. I decided to add a satin belt sash to match the dress straps. I also added a sheer black shawl to cover my shoulders for the ceremony. (It’s just the polite thing to do) Like not talking during the ceremony or wearing white to someone else’s wedding. Breaks my heart that people did that at this wedding. Some people just don’t have manners!

Finally, I purchased some undergarments that would help accentuate the look I wanted this outfit to have.

I did this by buying a mesh corset from Orchard corset!

Yes, I really bought a corset but this is not the satin corset from the 90s. This is a beautiful piece of undergarments to help accentuate your body shape. Boom!

I was hesitant to spend nearly $100 on a corset but once I got it here and tried it on I looked and felt so good. And I’m excited to wear it under my dresses so that it gives the structure and support of a couture gown without having to spend a fortune on bespoke clothing. Because they just don’t make clothes like that anymore! But a polished structure always looks good.

A week out I was notified by rent the runway that my dress would be in shipment and I was excited for it to arrive.

Full disclosure I also rented a tuxedo for my husband which came much quicker than the dress and was able to stay a lot longer however sizing has been off and customer service is clearly outsourced with poor English. Not sure if I can recommend it.

My rent-the-runway order came in a REUSABLE SHIPPING BAG.

This is the first zippered shipping bag I’ve ever come across. At first, I was not impressed but the longer it’s been in my possession I find myself more and more pleased with its design. Having the ability to reduce one-time use is really cool. Everyone knows that we need to be reducing our consumption of products but we just don’t know how to stop. I’m really impressed by this clever shipping bag design. And it looks like it’s been through 30 other rental stuff for me.

RTR First Experience

My order included two dresses. One in a size small and one dress in a size extra small. They were both on hangers in plastic dress bags shoved into this shipping bag. While the tuxedo came all hung up I was not thrilled to see the dresses all jumbled up together in the bag. However, after getting them out and hanging them up there were no wrinkles to speak of, especially because it’s hard to see wrinkles with so many sequins so the packaging and shipment of dresses have been forgotten!

We decided that the extra small was a better fit. Well, it was less easy to bend and move in there was also less puckering of fabric in the hip area which made the size small look a little more sloppy.

The straps however on this dress are crazy long. Like weird long. I’ve worn a lot of dresses and I’ve never experienced straps this long before. So I had to come up with a solution to make this gorgeous sequin dress actually wearable for an evening black tie wedding.

My three ideas for shortening dress straps temporarily:

Idea #1 Use safety pins to shorten the base of the strap in the back of the dress.

Idea #2 use a halter strap connector for bras to pull the straps together at the center of your back creating a Razorback style without damaging the straps. And this one only works if there is plenty of strap to go around.

Idea #3 three wearing a strapless bra and using fashion tape to connect the top of the dress to the top of the bra and allowing the straps to hang off the shoulder.

Ultimately Option #2 was the winner! I bought a cheap bra strap connector to temporarily shorten the dress straps and it worked beautifully. This is the one I bought.

Now that the dress fit is squared away it’s time to personalize the accessories. The first thing I did was steam/iron the shawl. I prefer ironing with a piece of parchment paper on top of my fabric because I feel like it goes faster than steaming. Attempt with caution. Some fabrics are too delicate for ironing. Period.

Can you see the difference? Can you see how the sash looks cute? Such a simple accessory takes your style to the next level!

Other parts of the rent-the-runway outfit include my shoes black and clear wedges from Aldo, my dress handbag which is from Amazon. I opted for siren eye makeup with lashes and big hair. Jewelry is kept minimal to pearl earrings.

This crazy girl decided to wear contacts – somewhat regret my choice. I actually do love wearing glasses!

So this is my entire look for a Southern California black tie downtown wedding.

What do you think? Did I nail it? I mean we are on a budget here so it’s as good as it’s going to get! Are you thinking about trying to rent the runway? If you are you can drop me a count below. Not all dresses are created the same.

Who needs a closet full of fast fashion?

It is so much better to have what you need when you need it – rather than to be overstuffed with stuff you don’t need. This dress is nice but I don’t think it would be as nice if I hadn’t dressed it up with all of these of accessories. This goes to show you that maybe any dress can be dressed up just right!

Thoughts? I’d love to know what you think! Thank you

So now it’s your turn! If you try this, tag me at @goldengluegun

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