Outfit Details:

Gal Meets Glam Dress, Alice + Olivia Heels, Lele Sadoughi Earrings, Mercedes Salazar Bag (old, similar here)

As much as I enjoy creative date nights and outings, there’s also something so wonderful about keeping it simple: a beautiful dress, a delicious meal, and the person I love by my side. The setting itself hardly matters—I’d just as happily spend a date night at home on our porch as I would at one of my favorite restaurants in downtown Charleston or New York City. That said, we’ve been making some extra effort to get out and about for our dates lately, knowing that our opportunities to do so will become a little less frequent once Baby B arrives! I’m hoping to make the rounds at our go-to Charleston spots, like Pink Cactus and Baba, this summer, sampling all of their seasonal menus and grabbing seats outside as often as possible. As soon as our new Gal Meets Glam Collection Regina dress arrived, I made a dinner reservation and told Thomas to save the date—I could hardly wait to dress up this gorgeous red style for an evening on the town!

Much like our Edith dress (which is available in three colors at Nordstrom here), Regina is a crepe midi with a full skirt and sleeves, bringing together some of my all-time favorite dress elements. For the Regina (also available in cream), we traded Edith’s v-neck for a square neck and elbow-sleeves for cap sleeves, so the feel is a bit more lightweight and summery. Whenever someone asks me which GMGC dress is the most versatile, I always recommend one of our classic pieces like this. You can truly wear it anywhere, from the office, to dinner or drinks, and even to a wedding, simply by switching up your shoes and accessories.

For our downtown date night, I paired the Regina (which also comes in cream, if you prefer a more neutral palette) with colorful heeled sandals. I love block heels since they provide the same height as stilettos, but have a more relaxed feel that works so perfectly for a summer weeknight out. They’re also far more comfortable, so I never have to turn down a post-dinner stroll when I’m wearing them! The rainbow stripes are made of braided raffia, so even though they’re a more colorful take on my usual raffia-detailed shoes, they still feel like a perfect fit for my style.

Thank you to Nordstrom and ShopStyle for sponsoring this post.