And the Groom Wore White
Wearing white is not just for the bride anymore. Grooms in white dinner jackets are giving the traditional black tuxedo a run for the money. Although most attention is usually focused on the dress of the bride, more grooms today want to express their own personal style reflected in what they wear when they walk down the aisle. Grooms are focusing more on fashion than ever before. Some grooms today don’t want to look the same as every other marrying man , and if they’re having a black-tie wedding, they don’t want to look like every other male guest. As you start to veer away from a black tuxedo, there are a few alternatives that are referred to nowadays as creative black tie.
More grooms today are choosing alternatives outside the conventional rules for men’s formal attire. Popular choices are the gray or midnight blue tuxedo and the white dinner jacket. Formal attire rules have historically been on the narrow side. Male dressing is more about fitting in and wearing what everyone else is wearing, while female dressing is about standing out and being decorative. In a room where everyone is wearing traditional formal dress, all the men are wearing exactly the same thing. They stand out by their faces, their actions and what they say. The women stand out for their decoration.
As New Jersey wedding officiants for 30 years, we have seen the rules for formal men’s attire indeed change. There’s been an uptick in grooms wearing white dinner jackets. It gives the wedding a formal look but it also gives it a bit more glamour because it’s not the usual. It’s not what people are expecting. Today both brides and grooms can pull off wearing white.
Technically speaking the dinner jacket usually isn’t white but a shade of ivory or cream. You don’t want a bright white jacket on a guy when the bride’s dress is usually off white. This will prevent the groom from clashing with or detracting from his bride-to-be. You won’ t have to worry about taking anything away from the bride. The bride is still the bride. The dress is still the dress.
Next week, we’ll cover the meaning of “Black tie preferred”.