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Opinions-Daytime Wedding-Groom Attire

kitano

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Just got engaged and I'm really excited. Just wanted to get others thoughts on my suit.

Early May 06 daytime wedding that will be in a small chapel, then the reception will be at an historical luxury home. The place is like an old mansion, huge backyard connecting to big rooms inside the home for an in/outside feel.

I'm leaning towards a very nice tan colored suit for me and my groomsmen (only 2) instead of a tradional tux. I noticed there is a Duncan Quinn shop that opened in L.A and since I live in San Diego, I would love to sport one of his suits.

Would my suit color be suitable for this type of wedding?
 

j

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Welcome and congratulations.

If you want to avoid the normal black tails or tux, I think grey would be a much more suitable color for a daytime formal event. I will let others tell you the rules and so on.
 

royal618

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I've got a lunchtime event in the middle of winter. I'm thinking navy blue a 2 button peak lapel with a faint teal tight pinstripe to match the bridesmaids dresses.

But, I'm not sure yet... want to keep it casual and laid back.
 

MrDaniels

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I would think that with the event being held at a historic luxury home a simple suit might not make you and your groomsmen look like you all rose to the occasion. If you were having it at say, a modern upscale restaurant, then sure-but a dramatic, classic setting might require something a bit out of the ordinary. I think you should look at wearing a stroller-a nice touch of the artistocratic but a cut above an everyday suit. Check out this link:

http://www.folchisformalwear.com/ima...Stroller_b.jpg

Plus, do you really want to purchase matching tan suits for you and your groomsmen? Also, what kind of dress is your fiancee wearing? If she is wearing a very simple dress with no frills, a suit could match. But if she is going for a lace, bells and whistles wedding dress you are going to want to match her level of formality. Remember, you will have many occasions to wear a suit in your life, but your wedding day (unless you are in the diplomatic corps or were born with a silver spoon in your mouth) is most likely the only time you will get to sport a classic look like this.
 

Concordia

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My wedding was before lunch, on a power yacht. Simple silk dress for the bride (the sort normally peddled to bridesmaids), and what at the time was my best suit-- an RAF blue worsted. There's nothing wrong with a stroller, and if I find myself ever needing to get married again I might go for it. But a really nice lounge suit is better than OK under the circumstances.

As far as the color goes, tan does make a statement about formality that might or might not work for you. I have no idea about what will seem right in San Diego in May. If I were going to do tan, I'd make extra-sure that it was an authoritative cut, impeccably tailored. Otherwise (on me, anyway), it would look a little sloppy. More so than a mid/dark grey solid or medium blue, which would be my first choice.
 

Sator

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Originally Posted by kitano
Just got engaged and I'm really excited. Just wanted to get others thoughts on my suit. Early May 06 daytime wedding that will be in a small chapel, then the reception will be at an historical luxury home. The place is like an old mansion, huge backyard connecting to big rooms inside the home for an in/outside feel. I'm leaning towards a very nice tan colored suit for me and my groomsmen (only 2) instead of a tradional tux. I noticed there is a Duncan Quinn shop that opened in L.A and since I live in San Diego, I would love to sport one of his suits. Would my suit color be suitable for this type of wedding?
Guys, I think it is time we all had a serious discussion on wedding attire. Post after post has gone by often from newbies, people who cared little about their dress until they suddenly realised that they needed to look their absolute best on their Big Day and we have all idly sat back and sanctioned wearing all sorts of more casual styled suits on the grounds that "hey, it's your big day who are we to tell you what to wear?" OK at the end of the day it is the groom's personal choice and all we can do is give advice. But, if this were a women's fashion forum and someone asked if black, or red - or tan - would work well for the bridal dress would we just sit back and say: "hey, it's your big day who are we to tell you what to wear?" At the end of the day, our brides end up having a ball of a time fussing over ever little detail of their dresses while us guys get landed with a cheap and nasty piece of rental junk. Little wonder grooms are looking at wearing a lounge suit for their weddings. A factor that further compounds things is that proper day time formal wear is hard to find - unless you go bespoke. Even then many bespoke tailors have lost the skill of making a proper coat with a waist seam (as you find on a morning coat, a frock coat, or a dress coat - the back and torso of which are all cut the same, only the skirt being different). I just enquired with a tailor who is the third generation in a family of tailors and he said to me that his father taught him that the amount of work that goes into a morning coat is 1 1/2 times and for a dress coat twice the amount of that of a lounge suit coat. The end result is that when you do see morning dress being worn it is done poorly. Little wonder that grooms turn to options such as a lounge suit or else turn to the half (-hearted) morning dress as suggested above, with a coat lacking tails and cutaway front. Yet, if done well morning dress is the only hope we guys have to really avoid being a mere vestigial sartorial appendage and distant after thought to our brides who go out of their way to look stunning on the Big Day in a traditional white wedding dress. Or at best she is in her Big Day dress, meant to be worn just on this one milestone event in her life, but he turns up in a mundane, wretched business suit. Sad....
frown.gif
When you do see the way they cut a morning coat in the old days, it really was something stunning. Look how elongating it is and how dapper the cut makes a man look: This image comes from May, 1905 (gee, I love the silk facings in the lapels and - wow - look at those button holes going down the lapel). Note in particular the particularly marked waist suppression: that's why you cut the torso and skirt separately with a waist seam in between. That waist seam allows you to cut with the most exquisite degree of waist suppression. Little wonder the Italians call a morning coat a "tight" (using the English word). Tailors today are too use to cutting with the post-Scholte drape and the end result is a grotesque caricature of the traditional coat with a waist seam, completely lacking shape. You really have to remember that at the birth of this type of coat in the 19th century they cut coats with an immeasurably more pronounced hour glass figure: The first image is from Paris, December 1836 The second image dates from 1846 The whole purpose of having that seam there through the waist is to allow the tailor to cut with an optimal degree of pinched waist suppression followed by flare in the skirt. The resulting hour glass figure is incredibly flattering and elongating in a way no lounge suit coat could ever remotely hope to emulate.
inlove.gif
I know you guys are going to say that day time formal wear has become largely extinct especially in the US etc etc etc, but the Italians still wear morning dress to a wedding, including the guests: And if the bride is going to wear white AND with the wedding taking place in a historic mansion, the only truly appropriate dress for such an occasion is surely morning dress?
 

Sator

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Originally Posted by j

I think grey would be a much more suitable color for a daytime formal event. I will let others tell you the rules and so on.


Oh BTW I forgot to say congratulations!

I should also mention that morning dress is only worn during the daytime and if you have some sort of evening event afterwards you have to change into something more appropriate such as a dinner jacket (aka a 'tuxedo' - morning dress is NOT a tuxedo!) or lounge suit. Traditionally, when in morning dress, only the groom and the bride's father is allowed to wear grey (just as with the women only the bride is allowed to wear white) and everyone else should wear a black morning coat. The waistcoat is either dove grey or buff. The trousers are striped. The most correct boutonniere to wear in your lapel is a carnation.
 

MrDaniels

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Originally Posted by Sator
Guys, I think it is time we all had a serious discussion on wedding attire.

Post after post has gone by often from newbies, people who cared little about their dress until they suddenly realised that they needed to look their absolute best on their Big Day and we have all idly sat back and sanctioned wearing all sorts of more casual styled suits on the grounds that "hey, it's your big day who are we to tell you what to wear?"

OK at the end of the day it is the groom's personal choice and all we can do is give advice. But, if this were a women's fashion forum and someone asked if black, or red - or tan - would work well for the bridal dress would we just sit back and say: "hey, it's your big day who are we to tell you what to wear?"

At the end of the day, our brides end up having a ball of a time fussing over ever little detail of their dresses while us guys get landed with a cheap and nasty piece of rental junk. Little wonder grooms are looking at wearing a lounge suit for their weddings.

A factor that further compounds things is that proper day time formal wear is hard to find - unless you go bespoke. Even then many bespoke tailors have lost the skill of making a proper coat with a waist seam (as you find on a morning coat, a frock coat, or a dress coat - the back and torso of which are all cut the same, only the skirt being different). I just enquired with a tailor who is the third generation in a family of tailors and he said to me that his father taught him that the amount of work that goes into a morning coat is 1 1/2 times and for a dress coat twice the amount of that of a lounge suit coat.

The end result is that when you do see morning dress being worn it is done poorly. Little wonder that grooms turn to options such as a lounge suit or else turn to the half (-hearted) morning dress as suggested above, with a coat lacking tails and cutaway front.

Yet, if done well morning dress is the only hope we guys have to really avoid being a mere vestigial sartorial appendage and distant after thought to our brides who go out of their way to look stunning on the Big Day in a traditional white wedding dress. Or at best she is in her Big Day dress, meant to be worn just on this one milestone event in her life, but he turns up in a mundane, wretched business suit. Sad....
frown.gif


When you do see the way they cut a morning coat in the old days, it really was something stunning. Look how elongating it is and how dapper the cut makes a man look:



This image comes from May, 1905 (gee, I love the silk facings in the lapels and - wow - look at those button holes going down the lapel). Note in particular the particularly marked waist suppression: that's why you cut the torso and skirt separately with a waist seam in between. That waist seam allows you to cut with the most exquisite degree of waist suppression. Little wonder the Italians call a morning coat a "tight" (using the English word). Tailors today are too use to cutting with the post-Scholte drape and the end result is a grotesque caricature of the traditional coat with a waist seam, completely lacking shape.

You really have to remember that at the birth of this type of coat in the 19th century they cut coats with an immeasurably more pronounced hour glass figure:

The first image is from Paris, December 1836



The second image dates from 1846



The whole purpose of having that seam there through the waist is to allow the tailor to cut with an optimal degree of pinched waist suppression followed by flare in the skirt. The resulting hour glass figure is incredibly flattering and elongating in a way no lounge suit coat could ever remotely hope to emulate.
inlove.gif


I know you guys are going to say that day time formal wear has become largely extinct especially in the US etc etc etc, but the Italians still wear morning dress to a wedding, including the guests:



And if the bride is going to wear white AND with the wedding taking place in a historic mansion, the only truly appropriate dress for such an occasion is surely morning dress?



That was a great post, thanks for the thorough reseach. You really made some excellant points about "what if women had the same attitude."

I would still say that a groom is better off finding the best rental facility in town with a good tailoring department to assure a good fit and get a morning suit (I actually like the CHAPS one I posted). A woman only gets to dress like a princess a few times in her life (prom, wedding, formals) and I think a man only gets to dress like a prince a few times-when the occasion comes, it's time to rise to the occasion.

The sad fact is (even here in NYC) I am seeing more and more weddings, even ones at grand settings like St. Patricks where the bride is in an elaborate gown and the groom is in a suit-sometimes it looks like it's just one of his regular business suits, not even something special for the occasion. I think a regualar suit is OK for two types of weddings: A really informal setting (like a beach) or City Hall.
 

grimslade

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I would strongly urge a morning coat with the traditional striped pants as well.
 

Manton

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If you want to go for light tones, in keeping with the Spring date and the less formal setting, I would consider light gray. Tan is really a causal color. It makes a great suit -- I love mine -- but I think it's too casual for a wedding.

As an aside, there is nothing that says that your groomsmen have to match you, or each other. In fact, I think everyone would look better if they didn't. Just tell them to wear their best solid suit (light in tone, if you are going light), a white shirt, and buy them each a nice (different) black and white wedding tie.
 

Manton

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Sator: on the other hand, sometimes new people come here -- normal guys, not obsessives like us -- and all they want is good advice on what to wear to their wedding. But what they get instead is a treatise on formal day wear (not pointing fingers; I am guilty of this myself) when they have no idea of or intention to wear striped pants, a morning coat, and buff linen DB vest and find the whole idea preposterous. It's like asking for a recommendation of a decent bistro on the East Side and being told "Daniel." Sort of.

I suppose it is incumbent on us to raise the possibilty of formal and semi-formal day wear, but if in the end kitano is not induced to share in our mania, then we might as well accept that and help the guy improve his appearance a little within the confines of what is customary these days. One must after all live in one's time.
 

Will

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Originally Posted by grimslade
I would strongly urge a morning coat with the traditional striped pants as well.

Time of life makes a difference.

Tough to justify a bespoke morning coat if you're marrying early in life when your body will continue to change. You may well never wear it again.

Much easier to justify a stroller for a middle age marriage because you'll have it for funerals.

devil.gif
 

grimslade

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Manton,

This is true. That said, I wore a 3-piece charcoal pin-stripe suit to my wedding. My reasoning at the time was that the suit was something I could use with frequency over the years, whereas rented formalwear would go back to the rental shop and a purchased one would mostly gather dust.

At the time, I do not know whether I would have taken seriously the suggestion to wear a morning coat (it was a 12:30 wedding with an afternoon reception). But in hindsight, I would have been grateful if someone had broached the possibility with me.

Someone looking for advice on whether to wear tan or dove-grey can ask nearly anyone they know (I'd side with Manton on a lightish grey over tan, btw). In a sense, it is SF's role to inform people of possibilities that others are unlikely to raise with them. That is the thing that they are more likely to get here than anywhere else.

Mr. Manton knows perfectly well, btw, that his exhortation to live in one's time is a paradox of sorts.
 

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