Confused about Men''s attire - please help!

[CDNinNYC]

So, FI wants to go custom with his suit and has decided on a blue (not navy but not light either) suit with very thin little blue and khaki pinstripes. The pattern is quite lovely and will make a great suit... BUT... what should his groomsmen wear?

FYI, my brother, who is my Man of Honour, has already picked out some khaki pants and white shirt from Tommy Bahama. (His outfit is returnable/exchangeable) My Maid of Honour is wearing a minty green knee length dress.

Should the groomsmen match my brother? While I don''t want too much of a matchy look, I''m beginning to feel the wedding party is going to look very hodge-podge.

Normally, I would have the groomsmen wear something very similar to the groom but how do we do this when the groom''s suit is being custom made in NY, the best man lives in Germany, and the groomsmen and my Man of Honour live in Canada?

BTW, we''re having an outdoor wedding near the beach.


Thanks so much!

CDN

 

[AmberGretchen]

How formal is the wedding otherwise? Was the khaki pants and white shirt OK with you? Or too casual?

Could your BM change to a blue dress, or could the GM/best man wear something with some green (maybe a pocket square in a blazer or something) to pick up on the green?

Alternatively, could your best man/GM do a light blue shirt to pick up on the stripes in your FI''s suit?

 

[lala2332]

could you ask the groomsmen to wear khaki pants with a classic blue blazer? I think it is a very classic and slightly preppy look, but it might look nice against the slighltly different blue that your FI is wearing. I don''t know what time your wedding is or how formal but if summery and not super formal a tan suit can look nice and light and you could do green ties...vineyard vines make some great pastel ones....my FI has a mint one he got as a groomsman gift a couple of years ago.

I also think a solid navy suit is classic and most men have them. Even if all the men don''t have one its not usually a huge hardship to purchase such a classic suit. And Joseph Banks has some for reasonable. If you don''t want them to have buy and they all already have one. I would make make sure that they all have the same number of buttons (I like 2, its classic)and are all single breasted.

 

[Izzy03]

I think they should wear khaki suits! My photographer has also said khaki suits photograph the best! Maybe khaki suits with that minty green to tie in with your maid of honor''s dress? I am also against the "matchy matchy" look, but I think this will tie everything together.

 

[Lanie]

This is a tough one...I''m attaching a picture of a wedding of my friend with mint green and khaki. Looked GREAT for a summer wedding.

But with your FI''s blue suit...I don''t think it would work...let me think about this one some more.

I think your groomsmen will have to match your FI, personally. Would that be hard for them to do?

 

[Lanie]

Shoot wrong picture

 

[tlh]

I like the look of light taupe linen suits for men... and light sun dresses for women.. it just matters how formal your wedding is...

 

[Lanie]

Did you tell your MOH and the best man to pick anything they wanted to wear, or did they just go and do it on their own? It will look hodge podge if it stays the way it is. Someone might have to change...

Do you have a picture of your FI''s suit? or at least the color?

 

[laine]

I don''t think the guys in the wedding party need to match the groom, but I think they should coordinate with each other. If you want to keep it casual, maybe put the man of honor in khakis, a white shirt, and a green tie to match the maid of honor. Then the groomsman could do khakis, white shirt and blue ties that match the blue in FI''s suit--maybe put FI in the same tie. If you do this, I think it would be better for the green tie to be darker than the green dress to match the other ties better, rather than match the dress and stick out from the other ties (assuming the green dress is lighter than the blue in FI suit). Or you can, of course, just put all the guys in the same tie, maybe a stripe or pattern that ties in the blue and green that you already have up there. If all this is too matchy, you could try to find ties that have different patterns, but are all the same color, so they will clearly coordinate, but not be identical.

 

[CDNinNYC]

Woohoo! I''ve been trying all morning to upload a photo from our new macbook and it finally worked!

Here''s a photo I took of the swatch the tailor gave us for the suit. I''ll attempt to upload the BM''s dress next.

 

[CDNinNYC]

Here's the BM's dress....

ETA: this dress is non-returnable but my BM said she's willing to get another dress. I'm just trying to avoid this option.

 

[Mediterranean]

Hi Date twin!!

Ummm, with that blue, I agree w/ the poster who said to go for the khaki suits for the guys. Maybe for the sake of uniformity, they can all get their suits from a reputable online retailer with a liberal return policy? I''m thinking like JCrew or Brooks Brothers?

I don''t think the BM/MOH dresses will be as much of an issue. Meaning: if the fellas all match, I don''t think the girls have to. In fact, it will add some order and neatness without looked "forced match-y" But with both girls AND guys all doing different things, the hodge-podge effect might start to be evident...

 

[katamari]

Another alternative, if they don''t want to wear full suits would be to put them in khaki dockers with a shirt the blue of the lighter blue in your FI''s suit and a tie that incorporates the green of the BM dress. (That is at least what I would do).

 

[CDNinNYC]

Thanks for all your help, ladies! Fi has called the tailor and put a ''hold'' on the material he selected for the suit. So we have 10 days to figure out which option you''ve suggested works best. There was another cloth that was ''oatmeal'' in colour that would ''blend'' in better.

FI doesn''t want to make his GM spend more money than they have to so we''re going to find out if they currently own a.) a khaki coloured suit; b.) a navy blazer with khaki pants; c blue shirt with khaki pants; d white shirt with khaki pants.

For those who asked, we''re not going for a formal look. FI originally thought of wearing a light blue blazer and light coloured pants like in the photo (without the sweater) but was disuaded by someone (not me

) from wearing it; he was told he would like like a guest instead of the groom.

 

[CDNinNYC]

Date: 2/17/2009 9:47:17 AM
Author: Lanie
Shoot wrong picture

Lanie, those are cute BM dresses! If they are made by the designer I think they are, my BM tried it on at PoB. I thought it was adorable.

 

[CDNinNYC]

Date: 2/17/2009 9:51:28 AM
Author: tlh
I like the look of light taupe linen suits for men... and light sun dresses for women.. it just matters how formal your wedding is...

I like the board you posted, tlh. Is it one you used for your own wedding?