not usually considered appropriate for a MOB or MOG to wear black to their kids wedding. Sends the wrong message!
Yeah, that too.
I like navy much better than black for weddings. I never feel right wearing black to wedding as a guest and don’t plan to when either of my kids marry either. I like brighter and cheerier. Also would hate for anyone to think for any reason I was in any way unhappy about my kids celebrations. I also don’t think black is my best color. 
Navy is a great color for an evening gown!
I plan to look through all the suggestions that fit my criteria, order 3-4 of them, and go from there. I still have the AE dress from my original post, as well as the RL dress in that post, altho I may be returning that one because it may be too warm to wear in late August.
I’ll keep you posted as I try new dresses. Thanks for all the help.
Didn’t mean to leave all of you who offered help and suggestions hanging. Life has interfered (a significant birthday, breaking a toe, a dying refrigerator), but I was able to go through the suggestions here and order several of the dresses that met my criteria for style and budget and that came in my size.
The Patra dress in post#1, is very nice, and might have well been the one if the wedding were at a different time of year or if I was less heat sensitive. It just felt too warm to me, and DH, who’s quite familiar with what happens if I feel too warm, concurred that it might not make sense.
The dress in post #64 was different than it appeared online. The straps were made of illusion material and were more sheer than appeared in the picture. I wasn’t crazy about it.
I tried on the RL dress in post#69 in a petite size, figuring that it might fit better than the regular size I had tried on. This was at least the 2nd time that a petite dress didn’t fit me well, which is unusual since I usually wear petite in knee length dresses. With this dress, the trim that should’ve been at the waist was at my ribcage. I could wear this dress in a regular size and have it altered at the shoulders, but I’m not sure I like the two-tone (look taller in a monochromatic dress) and the jersey material (heat factor again).
Not to bore you with every other dress I tried, I’ve narrowed it down to 2 dresses. The AE in my original post, and the TS dress in post #62. The TS dress was on clearance and had only limited sizes. I could only get it in a 6, which is a little snug. If it was available in a 8, it would probably be the one, but I’m not sure if I’ll feel comfortable for hours in the size 6.
Ironically, at Nordstrom’s last week I saw a new TS dress, over $500, that was very similar to the AE dress – lace and scattered, tonal sequins.
I just wanted to update everyone and thank you again for your help. I’m currently waiting for several shoes from Zappos, which should be fun to try on with a broken toe, but I need to have shoes before I can have whichever dress I choose altered.
Congratulations for narrowing it down to 2 dresses! I understand you want to keep it simple and not outshine the MOB! 
I don’t envy you…I can’t even imagine having to go through this in a few years or whenever my 22 & 19 year old boys decide to marry. (Hopefully it’s several years from now!) Yikes, dress shopping no matter what the size, shape, style, color, budget is, it’s always difficult, especially when you have specific parameters to follow.
My H broke his toe too 
Back in April. Not sure if it’s healed yet or not. Not a fun way to try on shoes or stand at the wedding. Hope it feels better soon.
Glad we were able to be a part of your special time! You’ll have to write again to let us know how the wedding went! Do you like the TS dress enough to see if it can be taken out at all? Sometimes they leave enough material to take it out even a half inch…if that would make the difference…you need to be comfortable!! BUT, if it was on clearance, I don’t know! I may be tempted!..
Thanks for the update, shellfell!