Wedding Attire, In Brief

Depending on the time of day, size, location, and overall "vibe" of your wedding, appropriate attire for you - and your guests - will change. Sure, if you're dead-set on a 25 person black-tie wedding in a rustic barn, then by all means, go for it. However, if you're looking for a little more concrete guidance on what's "appropriate", read on.

Colin Cowie Weddings

Black Tie

Wedding Size: 75+ guests
Time of Day: Evening
What It Means:

Men should be in tuxedos. Women have a bit more flexibility. It's no longer required that black-tie mean floor-length gowns. Shorter dresses are fine, but they should "special" and formal.
As a bride, you'll be looking at a floor-length gown. It doesn't have to be a ball-gown, but if you're inclined towards sparkles, sequins, embroidery, glitz, etc., this is the time to go all-in. You can also wear more jewelry.

Style Me Pretty

Cocktail

Wedding Size: Any
Time of Day: Evening
What It Means:

Men should be in jackets and ties, most likely suits. Women in, predictably, cocktail dresses. However, the wedding party can be in tuxedos and floor length dresses, if you so choose.
As a bride, you have your choice of gown length. Most brides choose floor length, but again, a special, more formal, cocktail length dress is perfectly fine, if that's you thing. You may want to glam it up a bit with fancy jewelry and makeup, however. You are the bride, after all... It's appropriate for you (and your wedding party) to look more dressed up than your guests.

Pinterest

Daytime

Wedding Size: Any
Time of Day: Morning or Early Afternoon
What It Means:

Groomsmen will most likely be in jackets w/ ties or suits. There is such a thing as a "morning suit" - see pics from Prince William and Kate Middleton's wedding for an example (a lot of the male guests, if not in the military, were in morning suits). They're a little outdated, frankly, and very uncommon in the U.S. Bridesmaids should be in tea-length or shorter semi-formal dresses.
As a bride, you can still go floor-length with your dress, but you might want to keep it simple if so. Daytime weddings usually mean it's time to go easy on the embellishments, especially rhinestones and other glittery elements. Lace, however, is perfectly appropriate! A shorter, tea-length or cocktail length dress or even suit is fine too.
Male guests will also likely be in jackets & ties (although, some may forgo the tie), and ladies will be in shorter dresses or suits.

Refinery 29

Informal

Anything goes! If you're getting married on a beach with a few friends as witnesses, or at city hall on a Friday afternoon, your attire is entirely up to you. (Although, I would suggest a breezy white dress or a smart, ivory silk sheath, for the respective venues mentioned prior!)

The Guest List: Part One

After the big picture budget decisions have been made, and perhaps after you’ve selected your wedding venue, the next important step is to determine your guest list. Doing this early on in the wedding planning process will ensure you don’t have to make any uncomfortable decisions later on when you realize that you’ve over-invited for your budget or the restrictions of your venue space!

We’ll  break the Guest List question into three separate posts, because, frankly, it’s a big process. First, we have to go back to the budget question – this is where your guest lists begins and ends. The bulk of your budget, if you remember from our previous posts, will be spent on food and beverage, so it’s this number that we’ll use as a starting point.

You’ll need to do a little preliminary research to figure this out. Caterers will price out food & beverage per person, so if you have an idea of what per person amount you’re looking to spend, that can help you determine your guest list number. Alternatively, if you don’t have that number in mind, take your overall Catering budget and divide it by the number of people you think you’d like to invite. Where does that leave you? Just know that the more people you invite, the smaller this number will become… and the less flexibility you will have with your caterer.

Another factor to take into consideration is your venue space. If you’ve already signed a contract for a particular venue, they most likely have outlined the limitations, in terms of number of people for different types of events, of their space. For example, for a seated dinner reception, a space may be able to fit 150 people. However, this number may increase if you’re only looking to do a cocktails & appetizers event with passed food and limited seating. Either way, this will set the upper threshold of how many people you can invite.

There are a few other general decisions you should make right off the bat, before even writing down any names. Some suggestions:

1)      Will you be inviting children? If not, will some children be included (i.e., your immediate nieces / nephews or flower girls / ring bearers?)

2)      Will you be inviting co-workers? If so, where do you draw the line? A good rule of thumb is usually not to invite anyone you don’t socialize with outside of the office.

3)      Will you be inviting plus-ones for everyone? If someone is in a long-term relationship, you should invite their significant other, even if they aren’t married or engaged. However, what about other single guests? Will it differ by person (i.e., will single members of your bridal party get an “and guest” invite, but not other attendees?)

Once you’ve got a general number and your “rules” established as a baseline, you can start creating lists of actual people to invite! 

Next up: Determining your Master List and Prioritizing Guests