Wedding dress code

Hi there,

I went through the same feeling! Felt guilty for putting on my invites 'formal attire required'. However, it is a wedding after all. One, if you do not do that, if there is no information on the invite about dress code, people might turn up in jeans (I have seen it)! Two, you are paying for them to be there (by paying for catering,drinks and venue), so the least they can do is buy an outfit to wear. Another option is for you to opt out of gifts and cash, if that would make you feel less back about them having to buy a new outfit. Also don't set a certain colour scheme for them, so that way they can buy something they will re-wear after to another event. Don't feel bad for wanting your wedding to look a certain way (you are paying for it!). Hope that helps! Let me know how it goes.

Happy planning!

Like any 'rule' around weddings, you can do whatever you like, you just need to accept that the more restrictions you place on guests, the greater the number of people who are likely to decline.

Guests are already having to pay for travel and possibly accommodation depending on the wedding location. They will also be buying a gift (and even if you specify 'no gifts', most people will still get you something, because gift-giving is so engrained!).

If your guests are wealthy or used to going to very formal events, it won't be a problem. But if they are on lower incomes and/or unused to formal occasions, be prepared for a lower acceptance rate.

(If you do go down the route of requesting formal wear, I would be very specific on your invitations. For many people 'formal' just means 'no jeans'! And if you want all the women in long dresses, you need to specify 'Black Tie dress code', since 'Formal' can include smart knee-length dresses)

Hi Leah! I read somewhere (I also don’t believe everything I read, haha, it was probably on here aswell. ) that if you aren’t having a formal event you can’t expect everyone to dress to that. For example: we are having a festival wedding, if I wrote long dresses, black tie on my invites after them knowing it’s in a giant tipi they would be confused because I would’ve loved everyone to wear long dresses with trains and big hats! They’ll still wear it all but with something a little shorter. This obviously doesn’t count for the bridal party etc. So think about your over all theme before you decide on it all! I hope that makes sense! But if someone asked me personally to wear one no matter where, I would be all over it!