Dining In Night Inspiration

Since Dustin's unit is gearing up for deployment during the Marine Corps Birthday Ball season, his unit is having a "Dining In" night instead. Instead of being out of town, it will be on base (easier, in my opinion!). Instead of being a Thursday night, it is a Wednesday night (really no difference to me, have to work the next day either way). Instead of having a guest speaker, ceremony, and more, it will instead just be dinner and dancing I believe. Overall, I think it will be a good time.

But since it is not a "ball" I am thinking of wearing a cocktail dress instead of going full-length. It clearly states on the invitation formal or cocktail dress, so I know that it's "okay" to go less than full-length. Now I'm just trying to decide if I want to recycle a dress from past events, or break out the credit card and buy something new. Dustin's vote is to just wear my dress from last year again, so we will see what I decide!

Last year's ball dress...

Navy blue dress...

I definitely looked around the Jacksonville mall to see if there were any dress possibilities. HA HA! That was a joke! The homecoming-style dresses that are being made are so short! I mean, I know it has been about eight years since I was shopping for a homecoming dress, but I was shocked at how short these dresses were! I don't see how they could even cover your junk in the trunk, if you know what I mean!

We are planning to be out of town the next two weekends (Williamsburg and then Raleigh). If I don't find any dresses worthy of buying, I will just be recycling the old!

As for hair, now that mine is short, it may be a little tricky to put it into a cute up-do. But I would really like to attempt this one I found on Pinterest...

I will probably just need a whole lot of hairspray! And, I am going to try and do something different with my nails as well. Thinking of using some gold nail polish and trying out a look like this...

Marine wives out there, have you already picked out your dress for this year? Have you recycled dresses from past years? And has anybody ever been to a "dining in" night?