Mardi Gras Dress

I'm going to New Orleans, Louisiana for MARDI GRAS in a week and a half and I'm going to a Mardi Gras ball. I need a full-length gown, which I'm having my cousin, Maria Spyridopoulos, make for me (she is sooo talented and owns an amazing boutique, if I do say so myself). I'm going to her tomorrow to pick out fabric and design the dress. I'm thinking empire-waist, since that looks really good with tiny straps and it's going to be pretty warm down there. This dress, from gojane.com, is OK, a little prom-ish, but I do like the loose neckline and the way the fabric in the back is draped . Plus, since it is Mardi Gras, I want the dress to sparkle a little and this fabric would look cute if it was sparkly.








Or this dress, from poshgirlvintage.com (I need to post about them later, there are such adorable dresses on that site!!) This is a little more party:



Really shimmery, and the color looks nice in the photo, not too terrible-bridesmaid- peachy-pink.




Then I decided to look at David's Bridal for some basic styling ideas and found a couple of dresses. I'm trying to stay away from strapless, so this is what I ended up coming up with.

What is it with me and the red today? The first one has a halter neckline, which I hadn't really considered before. Somehow a halter seems a little juvenile to me (did I really just use "juvenile" in a sentence???). The second one has that empire waist that I want...


I'll keep you updated on what I finally choose.