I have had the pleasure of attending a few media events at Disney World and while it is fun, make no mistake, there is also work involved.   The days are long and the schedule is jam-packed.  During a media day at Disney I could be in front of a photographer, interviewing or meeting Disney executives, lunching in a nice restaurant and riding a roller coaster.  And don’t forget about the Florida heat!

All of these factors make dressing for a Disney media trip very tricky.  Although Disney World is a casual place, I am not there as a tourist, and therefore I don’t think it is appropriate to dress like one.   I need to dress appropriate, funki (cause that’s me) but also comfortable and cool.  And of course I must look cute!  There are cameras everywhere and I never know whose blog, newspaper article or newsreel on which I may appear.

My last trip was a little more relaxed because families were invited as well, but this presented the challenge of dressing for both media events and family fun in the same day.  Here are the looks that I put together:

Day 1: I had a media event in the morning with several Disney employees about the Main Street Electrical Parade.   This dress worked well for the occassion: it was breezy and cool, short enough to be fashionable, but not too short to be inappropriate and easy to dress up with accessories.  For the media event I swapped the fabric belt for a wide black belt.  While my sandals are flat and perfect for walking, they are a bit dressy and elevate the dress.  The green color adds some funkiness (gotta put the funk in there somehow!).   My tote bag is big enough to hold my wallet, lipgloss, sunglasses and necessary media equipment–iPhone, Flip cam, camera, notepad, agenda–as well as a pair of play shoes.  I could have even put my iPad in there if needed.

Dress: from Dakota J’s, an Atlanta boutique

Shoes: Seychelles, from Sole, an Atlanta boutique shoe store

Belt: from Sage, an Atlanta boutique

Bag: Marc by Marc Jacobs, from Nordstrom

After I met up with my family and the sun became to much to handle, I pulled my hair back, exchanged the wide belt for the fabric belt and switched the Seychelles sandals for my purple Keens sandals (ok, not the most fashionable shoes, but my feet needed a break; I think a pair of Fit Flops would have worked well too).  Never underestimate a great pair of sunglasses to hide your tired eyes!

Sunglasses: Juicy Couture

For our evening dinner event I transformed back into Funkidiva Media Girl: wide belt, Seychelles sandals and loose hair.

Day 2: My family joined me for a media screening of Toy Story 3.  Although I didn’t have to dress nicely, it was still a media event and somebody is always filming or photographing.  After the movie we were scheduled to spend the day as a family in Hollywood Studios, so I dressed for fun, but still a few notches above my normal Disney World garb.  I wore shorts (but not too short), a cute top and another pair of funki flat sandals.  Again, once my feet grew tired and my face sweaty, I swapped the cute sandals for Keens and pulled my hair back.   In the evening, right before the media dinner,  I let my hair down and put on the cute sandals.  Here I am about to ride Toy Story Mania.  I am working; I swear!

Shorts: Lucky Brand

Shirt: Anthropologie

Shoes: Seychelles, from Sole, an Atlanta boutique shoe store

Day 3: I was working early in the morning and then flying back home.  This was the big media event for Summer Nightastic; television and radio stations would be present.   Since I would be interviewing several people and representing Funkidivagirl.com, I wanted to look nice, but casual.  Here I am after the interviews and on my to the airport.  I wore the purple Seychelles sandals while working, but in this photo I have on my Swarovski crystal Havaianas flip flops; my feet were done!

Dress: Lucky Brand

Bag: Oilily

On the next trip I have to pick up a few things at TrenD, a stylish boutique in Downtown Disney, because it’s always appropriate to wear Mickey at Disney World.  With a pair of white jeans and strappy sandals, a crystal-studded blinging Mickey tee would look fresh and funki and just right–for work or play.

Have you guessed by now that I chose to wear the dress that I already owned?

I loved the Betsy Johnson dress, but when it came down to it, I already had a great dress at home.  It’s a Jessica McClintock dress (but looks so much like Betsy Johnson); I had only worn it once to my brother-in-law’s wedding and I got tons of compliments.

The dress has spaghetti straps and a satin sash and that was lovely for a wedding, but I wanted to funk it up a bit for the Buckhead crowd; add a little WOW to the satin pantsuits and sequin tunics that were sure to be there.  I tucked the straps in to make the dress strapless and swapped the satin sash for a wide belt.  Big hoop crystal earrings, silver bangles and a leather studded arm wrap gave the look a rocker edge.  The satin shoes were pretty, but the platform high heel made them funki and hot.  And the whole look was set off by a hot pink clutch purse.  BAM!

It was a group effort and I would like to thank:

• Luxetips who helped me shop for shoes by text message and MMS all day.
• My loctician April who hooked up my hair.
• The Nordstrom employee who sold me the Boutique 9 shoes (after patiently bringing out several pairs and giving her opinion on each one).  She also helped me purchase the Hobo purse and bracelets.
• The Mitzi and Romano employee who helped me pick out the perfect earrings.
• My cousin who taught me how to apply evening eye make-up by text messages and MMS from Philly.
• My Girly who read the text messages to me as I applied the make-up and gave her opinion on everything.

I don’t know when I will ever look like this again, but I have the photos to prove that it’s possible!

Thanks to an all day shopping excursion and virtual help from my friend, I had the shoes and accessories to match my dress.  On the day of the event I got my hair and nails done, but now I needed help with applying evening eye make-up.   On a daily basis, my make-up routine is pretty simple and even though I have eyeshadow, I never use it.   My cousin is a master make-up artist and I knew that she could help me.  There was one problem: she lives in Philly.

Once again text messages and MMS saved the day.

At this point she called me to say that the make-up was perfect and that I did a good job.   I was astonished that I made my eyes look like this!  I was so proud of myself.   What do you think?

Now I was ready to put on the dress.

Read my next blog post to see the final results!

I had to make a decision about the dress and I needed fancy shoes as well, so I went to the mall.  This was not a leisurely shopping trip; this was serious.  I wore comfortable shoes and had snacks in my purse.  My husband was available to pick the kids up from school, so I was free to shop until the mall closed and I was ready to do just that.

As time wore on, I was getting confused by all the choices and needed a second opinion.  Naturally I called on my friend Luxetips, who loves to shop.  The fact that she was across town didn’t even matter.

Through text messages and MMS she helped me pick out these shoes:

Boutique 9, Gia2

Good thing she also turned me on to Foot Petals or I wouldn’t have been able to walk in those 5 inch heels.

But what about the dress?  Read my next blog post to find out how my Fancy Dressing progresses.

Recently my son went to his first “big dance” in high school.  It would be called a prom at other schools, but since his school eschews anything elitist and exclusive they don’t call it a prom.  (Never mind that it’s a private school, so that makes it elitist and exclusive right there, but I like that they try to pretend.)

The prom-like dance is open to all high school students, not just upper-classmen, and students attend in big groups, rather than in pairs.   There is no dress code, so students could come dressed in jeans and a tee shirt, but most do try to look nicer than normal.  Of course the girls dress up, and the freshman girls were no different; after all, this was their first “big dance.”

I have a boy.  At most I was concerned about his shoes and thankfully he was too; he found a pair of dressy gym shoes at Nordstrom to go with his black jeans and tuxedo jacket.   Most of the boys wore sports jackets, ties and dress pants.  They looked nice.  Nicer than I had ever seen them look.

But the girls looked fabulous.  They had spent all day together doing their hair and make-up and getting dressed.  Girls who normally wear soccer shorts, flip-flops and ponytails to school had on pretty dresses, high heels and curls in their hair.   As we gathered the kids for photos, I was pleasantly amazed at the transformation.

I looked closer at one of the girls; she looked familiar.  To be exact, her dress looked familiar.  That’s because that very same day I had tried on that very same dress at the Betsy Johnson store.   I had a cocktail party to attend the next week at the Arthur Blank Family Foundation.

(photo from Betsyjohnson.com)

She looked adorable in the dress.  And so did I, when I tried it on.   Well, not adorable–I’m past adorable–but I looked damn good.  The only reason that I didn’t purchase it that day is because I was deciding between that dress and a dress that I already owned, but had only worn once.

How could this be–that a 15 year old girl and I would wear the same dress?   I KNOW that I’m not too old to wear Betsy Johnson!  Betsy Johnson herself is over 65 years old and wears her own clothes!

I turned to the mothers of the girls and asked, “What does this mean?”

“It means,” they said, “that if you had a daughter this age instead of a son, she would be borrowing your clothes now.”

Yes; I could see that.  Already my 8 year old daughter holds up a shirt or belt or pair of shoes and says, “Save this for me Mommy, so that I can wear it when I get big enough.”  She is already plotting the stealing sharing of my wardrobe.

It made sense, but still I couldn’t shake the feeling that if I bought that dress then I would be wearing a “prom dress.”  But I loved the dress.  Did I mention that I looked good in it?  And it was on sale?

I obsessed for a few days: the prom dress or my dress?  I showed photos and asked everyone’s opinion.   Then I went back to the Betsy Johnson store one more time for my final decision….

*What to know what dress I chose?  Be sure to read my next blog post about my shopping trip.