What to Wear on Your Wedding Day

Your first marriage is probably your one opportunity for great wedding photos (if you marry more than once, you're likely to avoid making a spectacle of the subsequent occasions). A charcoal or black morning coat, dove gray vest, gray striped or checked trousers, and either a wing collared shirt with an ascot or a turndown collar with a conservative four in hand is the most elegant garb you can don when your bride will be wearing a long dress.

Whatever you do, try to avoid renting clothes. You don't want to find yourself regretting your decision ten years from now when you notice that the best man's shirt is hanging below his knuckles in his photos. Rental clothes are poor quality and they aren't going to fit.

Much as I like formal day wear, I can't insist that every man spend a considerable sum to bespeak morning dress for his wedding if he's unlikely to wear it a second time before he loses his figure. For those men, a charcoal gray suit is likely to be considerably more practical than a morning coat. Wear it with a white shirt with french cuffs and either a light gray or a silver tie. If you're having it made, order it with a double breasted vest. Nicholas Antongiavanni, author of The Suit, likes his.

If your wedding party members are not suit wearing men, put them in navy blazers. Blazers are a lowest common denominator, and your friends probably own one already (if some don't, buy it for them if budget permits and if that's impractical remember that the theory that members of a wedding party should dress alike was promulgated by the rental companies). Combine them with gray trousers, white shirts and matching neckties and you have much of the look of formal morning dress. The sheen of Irish poplin ties would be a nice touch that you could commission as gifts.

The overwhelming majority of weddings are in the afternoon and when that is the case you must avoid evening clothes at all costs. No dinner jackets or tailcoats before 6PM please, no matter how much your fiance may like the lavender ones at the rental store. You're going to have those photos for the duration of your marriage and that's hopefully a very long time.