Groom in morning dress vs groomsmen in suits?
Should groom wear morning dress for wedding?
I'm getting married in the summer and planning to get something bespoke. Wedding ceremony is outdoors and at 4pm with reception beginning immediately afterwards. Cocktails are outdoors from 4:30-6pm with dinner and the rest of the reception indoors from 6 until late. Ceremony, cocktails, and dinner/dancing all at the same venue. Venue is in Colombia (in a metropolitan city, not tropical)
My fiancée would like me to wear morning dress and I'm not opposed. However, I understand it's not proper etiquette to wear morning dress past 6:30pm. Were I to go the morning dress route I assume I'd need to change into something else by dinnertime? I was considering getting morning dress and possibly a second suit (or possibly going a bit unconventional with the morning suit and doing it in a different colour and getting an additional suit jacket that matches the trousers). That way I would change into the lounge suit or possibly dinner jacket for the evening (white tie would definitely be out of place and excessive). My fiancée plans to wear 2 dresses, so in a way me changing clothes would complement her changing from ceremony to reception dress too.
My groomsmen would not be in morning dress, just matching 2 piece lounge suits. Would it be odd for me to be in morning dress and them not? All other male guests will be in suit and tie. I doubt any will be in black tie.
Thoughts?
TLDR: is it ok for me (groom) to wear morning dress while my groomsmen and guests don't? What would be reasonable to change into after 6pm?
4 Replies
It would be odd for you to be in Morning Dress period tbh. Its not really used anymore as a dresscode. Hell, White Tie in general isn't really used any more either. Tracking down a Morning Coat would likely be pretty difficult.
As for dresscode mismatch, its your wedding but it should be fine. As long as you are the "most" formal its fine, but I will say it would a little abnormal to have you in formal and everyone else in informal. That said, the average person will likely just think you look old fashioned and have no idea about the dress codes you are using.
Theres a reason the wiki article on Morning Dress has a photo from 40 years ago
Black Tie would be the smarter choice if you want to be more formal than your groomsmen. Easier to get the clothing, noone would be able to distinguish it from a black lounge suit realistically (which also has fallen out of use), and it would come across less dated in most places.
Morning dress for weddings is common in Europe. It depends on if you want to wear a cutaway or Stresemann. For Stresemann you will change into your tux after 6:30 (allow your guests a break to change as well), for cutaway you will change into you white tie ensemble.
I'll defer to that then
Usually it doesn’t look out of place for you to be in formalwear, while your guests are dressed informally.
Really you can do what you want, ignore the 6:30 limit altogether- but if it’s important to you to do it right, then refer to the general rule above.
If necessary you can tell your guests to wear black tie - this is generally accepted if the event goes past 6:30 and there’s no possibility to change.