The short answer on Black Tie Wedding Dresses: pick one anchor piece, keep the palette to two colours, and let the shoes decide how formal the whole thing reads. The safest read is one considered piece and quiet everything else, which also survives photographs better. Check whether you will be outdoors or standing, because that decides the shoe before the outfit does. Proportion does more than colour: volume on top wants something narrow below, and the reverse. The groups below run from the decision that matters most to the ones you make afterwards.

What decides this is shoulder fit, length and how the fabric moves. Everything else is preference. Two from the first group show the range: Lisa Says Gah's Mayfair Dress - Ivy Stripe at $90, and Alice + Olivia's EVELINA HALTER JUMPSUIT - BLACK at $297. The first is the easy entry point; the second is where the money goes. Lining is what stops a cheap fabric reading as cheap. Check where the waist seam sits on the model against your own proportions. A higher price mostly buys materials and finishing, and occasionally it buys nothing at all.

Let the dress be the loudest thing you own that day. A belt turns a shapeless dress into a deliberate one. From the second group, us.boden.com's Alex Ponte Contrast Midi Dress-Raspberry Coulis ($220) is the one that earns its place, because it works in more than one context without being restyled. The third group is smaller and deliberately narrower, dresses, for the decisions you make after the main one. None of this needs the whole group. One piece from each is usually enough.

There are 20 dresses here from 14 brands, $23 to $792, all in stock when this was written. We would not buy all of them, and neither should you. thatssofetch.com's Zuhrah Dress - Blue Floral at $23 is the low-risk way in, and shopalexis.com's Vilas Dress at $792 only makes sense if this is a category you already use constantly. On black tie wedding dresses specifically: the difference between the top and the bottom of this list is real but smaller than the price gap suggests. Nothing here is included because it is famous, and price is not used as a proxy for quality anywhere on this page. If you take one thing away: the piece you reach for on a rushed morning is the one that was worth the money.