Wedding Attire - need help!

[TheFoo]

Originally Posted by mjphillips

Perhaps I should have been more clear before but I'm not getting married in a barn. It's a historic Virginia home with a horse farm on the grounds. My concerns with black tie are mainly due to the heat - the average daytime high that time of year is around 80, though it should cool off when the sun goes down.

I assumed it was as you describe--my wife and I also got married in the D.C. area and looked at plenty such venues. I'm sure it's quite elegant. However, the appeal of such a place is precisely that it is also in the country. Hence, black tie is inherently at odds with it. A dinner suit is really more of an in-town kind of get-up.

Now, if you have everyone wear black tie, that's a different ball game. Then you are creating an environment suitable for dinner suits, country or not. If it's just the groomsmen, it looks like you just don't know what you're doing and trying very hard to look like you do.

 

[mjphillips]

Originally Posted by mafoofan

Now, if you have everyone wear black tie, that's a different ball game. Then you are creating an environment suitable for dinner suits, country or not. If it's just the groomsmen, it looks like you just don't know what you're doing and trying very hard to look like you do.

This is up in the air, but I agree with you here - all or none is ideal.

Originally Posted by MrDaniels

You could do that. I think a three-piece could make quite an impression as a wedding suit. And no, it is not a costume!

Ha I didn't mean it that way - I think three-piece suits can be quite elegant, I just have never owned one and my wedding probably isn't the time to debut it. Plus, that Virginia heat again.

 

[mjphillips]

Thanks for the replies all. Recap so far:

Blue Blazer - "very informal", "too nautical", "a cappella group", "costume party"
Lounge Suit - Acceptable, but a bit pedestrian in my view.
Black tie - "not suitable", "appropriate", "more than acceptable", "not appropriate"
Ivory dinner jacket - suitable or "doesn't make any sense"

Leaning either navy suit or black tie, though still batting the idea of an ivory dinner jacket around if we end up going full black tie for the wedding.

 

[Superfluous]

Originally Posted by MrDaniels

You could do that. I think a three-piece could make quite an impression as a wedding suit. And no, it is not a costume!

I'd do a three piece.

 

[JesseJB]

From my brother's wedding yesterday in lounge suits. Ceremony was at 3:30pm and it was about 55 degrees out. Sun went down around 8:15pm. I'm on the left (ModernTailor), short guy is in Indochino and crouching guy is in Hugo Boss. The rest bought Abboud, etc. on sale (most were sold as separates) from department stores. Ties are from an online discounter. My shirt was like $40 from Charles Tyrwhitt. Me and crouching guy have Howard Yount pocket squares that were on sale for like $20- the rest were just cheap white ones I found off Amazon.com. But goddamn- this runs circles around any rental bullshit. Everyone looked and felt good all day.