40 Colorful Spring Graduation Dresses {Perfect for Weddings & Parties too}

On Monday, I took a poll on Instagram (@prepinyourstep) to see which y’all wanted to see first, Graduation Dress Ideas or Graduation Gift Ideas. Although it was a close race, graduation dresses won out. For those of you hoping for graduation gift ideas don’t worry though because I’ll have that up for you soon as well (if you need some ideas now, check the post I did last year here).

Last year when I graduated from college, I really struggled with finding the perfect dress for graduation. I have to laugh at that now because you can only see my dress in about two of the photos taken on the day of because of my cap and gown. I’ll graduate with my Master’s Degree in August and wouldn’t be surprised if I overthink my dress yet again. When you have a big event, it’s hard to not prioritize wanting to look nice even if no one else will see what you’re wearing. This year, by sharing some graduation dress ideas with you now, hopefully I won’t feel the same time crunch I did last year.

Before you really start shopping for your dress there are some things you may want to consider. The first of those is whether or not you will be in a cap and gown and if so what color those are. In high school for instance, we wore white caps and gowns, which meant that the girls were expected to wear white dresses. For baccalaureate, I pushed the rules a tiny bit by wearing a pastel Lilly dress, but for graduation, I knew I needed to be in all white. Come time for my college graduation, our caps and gowns were black meaning that it really didn’t matter what color you wore. Since I had worn white in high school, I knew I wanted to wear a fun color. I ended up debating between two different pink dresses and chose the brighter one (which added some cheer to the fact that it rained the night of graduation and we had to have our ceremony inside).

The next thing to consider is the length of your dress. If you aren’t required to wear a cap and gown this isn’t as much of a big deal however if you are, it may look a bit off if you choose to wear a dress longer than the length of the gown itself. This may be personal preference, but based on what I’ve seen keeping the dress out of view when the gown is zipped up looks the most “uniform.” I know a few colleges in the South that have girls wear long dresses but since that isn’t the norm, I didn’t include any of those (although if you let me know, I’d be happy to share some).

Below I have gathered up a number of dresses that would be perfect for graduation. Today's post only includes colored dresses (40 of them to be exact), but later this week I'll be sharing an almost identical number of white graduation dresses. If you’re not graduating or attending graduation this year, many of these dresses would be perfect for other springtime events like weddings, showers, or other parties. To shop my picks, hover your mouse over the dress you are interested in and then click.  I so hope that you’re able to find the perfect dress from these picks, and congratulations in advance!

And if you're looking for even more posts centered around graduation, I've included some from last year below for you.

Spring Dresses

Last Year's Graduation Gift Post

Last Year's Graduation Dresses & Shoes Post

My Graduation Recap Including Photos Of What I Wore