Diesen Beitrag gibt es auch auf Deutsch. Auf Deutsch lesen →
Summer is the season of weddings. For the couple and for their guests that raises the question of the right outfit, and for the men it comes down to the wedding suit. The style the hosts have in mind sets the tone for everyone invited. One point matters above all: whoever sends out the invitations should tell the guests clearly what is expected. We are talking here only about what the men wear, since that is our subject.
A basic rule first
Before we go through the various options, one important rule. The guests must not be dressed more formally than the couple. That applies, of course, to weddings that follow tradition, not to themed weddings, say “medieval” or “wild west”.
So if the couple sets light summer suits as the dress code for a wedding in the country, the guests should go along with it and not turn up in dark worsted or morning dress. The other way round it would be a faux pas to appear in a light cotton suit when the dress code clearly calls for formal clothes.
Morning dress
The most formal option for a summer wedding is morning dress, known in German as the Cut. It is the daytime equivalent of white tie. It consists of a morning coat in dark grey or black cloth, a light waistcoat in fine wool or linen, striped trousers and black shoes. With it goes a shirt with a turndown collar and double cuffs, and a long tie. One thing is important: never a bow tie.
Most men own only one morning dress outfit, since they do not wear it often. A light to medium weight cloth is therefore sensible, one that works all year. For happy occasions a light waistcoat is enough, in pale grey wool for instance, or in a shade of beige, called buff in England. In summer a linen waistcoat is more elegant. At funerals, incidentally, the waistcoat is always black, as is the tie.
The striped trousers come in various qualities in the cloth merchants’ bunches. Wool is the sound choice as a rule. Shorter and slimmer men should make sure the stripes are neither too broad nor too widely spaced. As an alternative to stripes you can wear houndstooth trousers with a morning coat, or even trousers in Glen check. Both alternatives are relatively eccentric, though, and a guest who does not want to stand out should stay with the stripes.
Now and then you see morning suits at weddings where coat, waistcoat and trousers are cut from the same cloth, usually a medium to light grey wool such as sharkskin, pinpoint or nailhead, more rarely a Glen check or houndstooth. That can look very good, but beginners are better off keeping to the standard version.
Elegant alternatives
In some families of the old upper middle class and the aristocracy the groom wears a tailcoat in church, even during the day. That dress code is not extended to the guests. Since the tailcoat is the absolute exception, it is mentioned here only in passing. Uniform can be worn in the same role, as can regional dress.
Another alternative to morning dress is the stroller suit, called Stresemann in German. Instead of the tailed coat it has a short jacket without vents, cut to the length of an ordinary jacket. Next to morning dress it looks a little plain and unadorned. It suits a register office better than anything else. For a church wedding in summer, morning dress is the more elegant choice. Still, the stroller is an option for a man who wants something traditional but finds morning dress too much.
The accessories for morning dress
A black top hat belongs with morning dress, and it comes off in church, naturally. You put it under your chair or the pew. Many guests do without the hat, though, because they are reluctant to put it on and find carrying it around a nuisance. With a stroller suit you wear no top hat but a black Homburg.
For the tie with morning dress you can choose between jacquard silk and printed silk, and knitted silk works too. Avoid the cravat with a wing collar, it has not belonged with morning dress for decades.
For the pocket square, white linen is the recommendation, though coloured silk is of course fine as well. The shirt may have a contrasting white collar. The cuffs, on the other hand, should not contrast.
For shoes, Oxfords with or without a toe cap are the traditional choice, but welted or blake-stitched loafers have been accepted for a long time. Tassel loafers or even penny loafers would be too sporty for morning dress, while the classic Gucci loafer with a snaffle bit counts as suitable.
The dark suit
One step less formal is the dark suit in a light cloth, in wool, cashmere, mohair or a blend of these fibres. Dark grey and dark blue are the colours to consider, not black, and under no circumstances brown.
If the couple decides on a more relaxed dress code, at a country wedding in very hot weather for instance, a light linen or cotton suit can be worn. That should then be set as the dress code for everyone. If the groom is to stand out from the guests, he can wear a dark suit himself and set “light summer suit” as the dress code.
A dinner jacket, yes or no?
We are asked again and again whether a dinner jacket may be worn to a wedding. In the end it is the couple’s decision. Tradition, though, treats the dinner jacket as strictly evening wear. At a wedding you would therefore prefer one of the suits described above during the day and put the dinner jacket on only in the evening. Having to change in between can usually be worked into the timetable.
In summer the white dinner jacket can be worn for the evening part of the celebration, provided the party takes place outdoors, at least in part. At summer weddings that is usually the case, if only because the smokers gather outside.
The black tie outfit in detail
A dinner jacket is in principle a black or midnight blue single or double-breasted jacket with silk-faced lapels, worn with trousers carrying a silk braid down the outside seam. There are also versions with a waistcoat. The cummerbund is worn only with a single-breasted jacket, and it is dispensable in any case.
“Silk-faced” is not always to be taken literally. On some ready-to-wear dinner jackets the satin or the grosgrain on the lapels is synthetic. On a handmade dinner jacket, or one from a tailor, you can expect real silk.
With a dinner jacket you wear a white or cream dress shirt, preferably with a turndown collar and double cuffs. The front of a dress shirt is either faced with cotton pique, known in England as marcella, or pleated. There are further variations on the dress shirt that need not be covered here.
Take care with dress shirts that have ruffles down the front. They were fashionable in the 1970s, but even then friends of the classic style considered them in poor taste. They are acceptable only as a joke.
With a dinner jacket you wear a self-tied bow in black silk, not a black long tie and not a bow in another colour. The pocket square is white linen or coloured silk.
Shoes and socks with a dinner jacket
With a dinner jacket you wear evening shoes in patent leather or well polished calf. Some Englishmen prefer black loafers with a snaffle bit, the kind Gucci made famous, to proper evening shoes.
Black socks in a very fine knit are the first choice with a dinner jacket, but you can set an accent with a coloured pair. A wedding is a happy occasion, and a small sartorial wink is allowed.
The white dinner jacket may also be cream, called écru. Besides light wool or cashmere, mohair, silk and linen all work as cloth. In every other respect the light dinner jacket is put together like a black one.
Pocket square and buttonhole flower
The pocket square has already come up for black tie. It belongs of course with the dark suit as well, in white linen or coloured silk, and with the light summer suit, again white linen or coloured silk.
A buttonhole flower would suit both groom and guests very well, though you should make sure it really sits in the buttonhole of the lapel and is not pinned onto the lapel, possibly in a miniature vase.
