The Wedding! (Building a suit - Part II)

[crazylegsmurphy]

Hey all.

Well you knew it was only a matter of time before I was invited to a wedding. Well I want to wow the people again with my attempt at ol' school, so where should we start?

First question I have is...what is the right kind of suit for a wedding? I feel the full on double breasted as I had before might be a bit to formal for the whole wedding/reception thing. I was thinking possibly a gray tweed jacket, with some color pants, and the ol' brown fedora?

What would you all suggest for this occation?

Secondly, if I were to go with a Sport coat look, what should I be looking for? (high cut arms, tapered waist, etc?)

I know you guys probably dread when I start this whole thing, but I really appeciate it.

 

[Vladimir Berkov]

A lot of it depends on what you currently own. Do you own suits/sportcoats currently?

The one thing I would watch out for is looking conspicuously overdressed. You don't want to outshine the groom for sure. Thus the type of wedding matters a great deal. Is it a daytime "formal" wedding? A daytime informal one? An evening wedding in black tie?

 

[crazylegsmurphy]

I currently own nothing but a Fedora, Brown shoes, and suspenders (As you may have seen in my other post)

That was my concern as well. I didn't want to be over, or under dressed. I believe it's just a typical day wedding, big family, everyone looks rag tag...you know. I will find out for sure what type of wedding.

As I said, I don't own a sport coat, but I have about a month to put something together. I have a $25 credit at the second hand store, so that is what I am going to try first. I would like to try the sport coat look, if you think it would work, but I would like to put something together that looks cool with the brown fedora.

 

[Vladimir Berkov]

I would say you generally can't go wrong with a sportcoat. It is also a look that can easily be dressed up or dressed down at a moments notice. With a suit you are basically stuck with what you came with.

For instance, you could start out wearing a sportcoat, slacks shirt & tie and your fedora. But if you show up and everyone including the groom are wearing T-shirts or polo shirts and there isn't a tie in sight, you can easily remove it while the sport coat and fedora still provide plenty of style.

Again though, I would try to find out what the general dress code is ahead of time. Most modern people who plan weddings obviously never read an etiquette book and don't realize how important informing quests of the dress code is.

 

[Flitcraft]

Vladimir Berkov is right- how you dress should blend in at the wedding, but you still want to look good.
You should really consider a blue blazer- either double or single breasted.
If its a day wedding, and casual, you can always wear it with a more casual striped shirt, or even a polo shirt. If the wedding is an evening affair, and more formal, you can wear a white shirt and tie with your blazer and still be well dressed, but not over dressed.
Plus, the great thing about a blue blazer is that you can get a lot of wear out of it after this event.
You can dress it up or down, and still look good.
For recent examples, check out The Aviator. DiCaprio as Hughes is shown wearing a nice dbl-breasted blazer in a few of the earlier scenes when he's courting Katherine Hepburn.

 

[crazylegsmurphy]

Stupid Formal Formal!

Ya, the wedding is formal. So I need to put something together that works with that. I don't suppose sport coats are very formal. I do have a black single breasted Ralph Lauren Suit, but it wouldn't work with the brown shoes or Brown Fedora.

 

[crazylegsmurphy]

So with a few weeks till the wedding, I am in the position where I need to make some choices.

- I can go with the Green DB I got for the grad, and change it up a bit.
- I can wear my new Ralph Lauren Black Pinstripe. (In which case I would get some black shoes, and order a Gray Bogey from Steve Delk)
- I can continue to try and hunt down a Navy suit to wear with the brown Shoes and Brown Fedora
- I can Fake sick and not go at all
- I can wear a Star Trek Uniform and never be invited anywhere ever again!

Please check out my other post, for a bit of background on what I have avaliable here in "Cow Town"

What do you guys think?

 

[BixChix26]

hey, if it's formal-formal, you can never go wrong with tie and tails! I see vintage ones for sale on ebay all the time.

 

[Flitcraft]

If you've already got the black Lauren suit, why not try the path of least resistance? Buy some nice shoes- technically they are supposed to be as plain and smooth as possible for a formal wedding, but these days you could go with some nice captoes and get a lot of wear out of them.
Plus, having to buy a new fedora is never a bad thing!

 

[crazylegsmurphy]

Edited......