A Complete Guide to Men's Wedding Suits

She said yes! You've nailed the perfect proposal, but now it's time to focus on the wedding. Your bride-to-be may take the lead in the planning. But you're not gonna sit on the sidelines—and you're certainly not waiting for them to tell you what to wear. That's where we come in with our guide to men's wedding suits.

Your wedding suit will be a memorable part of your day. It'll be with you from the ceremony until you drive off to the honeymoon. You want to look dashing (not a dud) in a suit that puts a twinkle in their eye. Here's what you need to know to pick your perfect wedding suit for a day you'll remember forever.

First Things First, Rent or Buy?

Every groom must answer this question first, but we're here to clarify that for you. If your budget is tight, rent a suit or tuxedo for your wedding. You'll have to calculate the cost of the rental vs buying and weigh the benefits of each. Renting will cost less, but other than owning the suit after the wedding, you'll also miss out on the benefits of a suit made for you:

Achieve the Perfect Fit

You can adjust most rented suits, but you won't get the impeccable fit of a suit tailored to your unique measurements. A perfect fit means your wedding suit will drape perfectly, enhancing your silhouette and overall appearance.

Quality Above All Else

A fine-fitting suit of quality materials will make you look slimmer, taller, and more confident. Tailors who use high-quality materials and craftsmanship give you a suit that doesn't just look better but also feels more comfortable.

Let Your Personality Shine

You have plenty of opportunities to stand out at your wedding, but renting a suit isn't one of them. Renting your wedding suit makes you look like the guy who wore it before and the guy who wears it after. Don't look like a mass-produced, cookie-cutter groom—you're one of a kind.

Let your personality shine with your suit. Select the fabric and colour, and choose the lapel style and buttons. Every part of your suit can be customized to reflect your unique taste and preferences.

Everyone (including your bride-to-be) will notice the confidence you radiate with a suit that complements your physique. Consider that when you choose between a rental vs a custom wedding suit.

If you decide on a tailored suit, we have some tips to get the most out of it in our article: How to Get the Most Out of Your Wedding Suit.

Choosing Your Wedding Suit: Timing Is Everything

The big day is set, your bride-to-be is doing her thing, and you have your to-do list, which includes choosing your wedding suit. If you want to get the suit right for your wedding day, you need to consider different factors. The first thing you need to think about is time.

How long do you need to plan the wedding suit?

Planning your wedding suit should start 2 to 3 months before the wedding. You could push it closer, but you want to look like the leading man, not an extra.

Think about your goals for the suit. What level of customization do you want? Do you want advice from a stylist? Consider the time to make adjustments after your final fitting. And remember that you're not the only groom who wants to look sharp for their wedding. Retailers get busy for the wedding season. So, the earlier you get your suit sorted, the better.

Stylish for the Season

Speaking of seasons, the next factor you need to consider when choosing your wedding suit is the time of year. Your suit changes in style and material depending on the season. You don't want to sweat in a wool suit at an outdoor summer wedding or freeze while wearing linen in the fall. The time of year, weather, and setting will determine the suit's style and material, but what else should you consider?

Let's discuss the theme and style for your wedding. Are you aiming for formal, informal or something in between? Let's get into it and make choosing your wedding suit a breeze.

How formal is your wedding?

The season, the venue, and the type of wedding (formal or informal) will answer any questions you have about your wedding suit. The groom has four classic choices for their wedding attire:

Morning Dress - In the United Kingdom, men wear a morning dress for formal daytime weddings. It consists of a morning coat or half morning coat, waistcoat, and trousers. Think Timothy Dalton's James Bond in Live and Let Die.

Tailcoat or Dress Coat - While morning coats are for early in the day, you wear a tailcoat for evening events with a white tie dress code.

Tuxedo - If you're planning a formal wedding, a classic tuxedo is for you. Wear a classic black tux with a silk batwing bowtie, and guests will flock to get you a martini, shaken, not stirred.

Three-Piece Suit - For the perfect balance of style and tradition, go with a three-piece suit. A morning dress and tuxedo will give you few choices when it comes to colours and fabrics, but a three-piece suit will have the flexibility to suit your wedding's theme.

For the contemporary groom, a stylish three-piece suit balances style and tradition. It gives you choices between colours and fabrics according to your wedding's theme and season. Speaking of the season, you'll have to account for the weather when you pick your suit.

The Suit Materials You Need to Know for Your Wedding

You'll want wool if you're going with a formal morning coat or tuxedo. But for a suit, you'll have more fabric options. Whether your wedding's on a beach in Mexico or the Scottish highlands, your suit must pull double duty. It has to look great and protect you from the elements. Here are the suit materials you should consider when your wedding's in a cool climate:

Keep Warm in Wool

Worsted wool is a favourite in cold weather for a reason. It feels good to the touch, pleasing to the eye and perfect when the leaves turn orange and the temperature drops.

Look Fantastic in Flannel

Flannel charms with its raised and textured surface. The heavier suit fabric protects you from the chill and provides insulation and a fantastic drape. And if you're a fan of Sean Connery's iconic look in Thunderball, a grey flannel suit will radiate suave sophistication all day long.

Nail Your Theme in Tweed

It's not as soft as worsted wool or flannel, but tweed can have a place in your wedding. Its uncombed yarns create a flexible and warm fabric that will delight your bride and guests at an outdoor wedding in the countryside or woods.

Tweed, flannel, and worsted wool are great for the colder months, but cotton, linen, seersucker, or fresco wool should be the go-to fabrics for your summer wedding suit.

Line Up the Compliments with Linen

Linen's breathable weave and natural texture make it a quintessential summer suit material. From the ceremony to the first dance, you'll stay cool while looking cool. However, it wrinkles, so get a wedding suit blended with wool or cotton.

Stay Cool in Cotton

If wrinkling worries you, opt for a cotton suit. It's cool, breathable and provides a little more structure than linen.

If You're a Sucker for Texture, Choose Seersucker

But if it's the texture you want, check out seersucker suits. The cotton fabric's stripes, signature puckering and crinkled nature give you a cool and contemporary wedding look.

Fresco Wool Keeps You Fresh

Wool may not be the first fabric you think of when imagining your wedding suit, but hear us out. Fresco wool is a dense and durable fabric that's lightweight and breathable thanks to its loose open weave. The fantastic fabric encourages airflow, keeping you fresh, dry and cooler than your cocktail.

Find out more ways to stay cool for your summer wedding in our article, No Sweat: A Guide to Staying Effortlessly Cool in a Summer Suit.

Now that you know about suit materials, dress code, and season, let's put it together and look at some outfit inspiration for your wedding.

Classic or Contemporary: Inspiration for Your Smashing Wedding Look

Deciding what to wear to your wedding is no easy task. Hopefully, this article has alleviated some of the pressure. Now, you're more knowledgeable, so you can make an informed (and stylish) decision. After all, it's the biggest day of your life. You'll want to look back fondly on your photos. Avoid cringing when the photos come up, and take inspiration from these fantastic wedding day looks.

It's a Classic for a Reason

A three-piece navy blue suit exudes a classic cool that works for a fall or winter wedding. Go with a two-button wool or wool-silk blend and complete your look with a Forest Green Grenadine Tie like Joe in the photo. You'll smile from ear to ear while looking like the classic gentleman that you are.

A Cool Classic in Every Way

A medium-grey suit is another classic that you should consider for a sophisticated wedding day look. The colour and wool make the suit versatile and match your wedding theme. Pair it with a Black and White Glen Plaid Tie to radiate a royal refinement from the ceremony to the reception.

Look Like Bond, James Bond

While you won't be hunting down Spectre agents, you can borrow 007's suave sophistication for your special day. A black tuxedo and batwing bowtie will look great on you as you make a toast and say, "I do."

Make a Splash

Whether you want to match the vibrant colours of autumn or celebrate spring, a wedding suit in a contemporary colour (like the green above) is a terrific choice. But be sure it's made of fine materials and get the shade right. The suit works because of its tasteful shade and rich colour. If it was bright green, it would remind guests of a leprechaun—not the most polished man in the room.

Discover the ways you can look amazing in green from our Journal article: Green Ties, Pants, Jackets and the Keys to Wearing Green.

Look and Feel Cool for Your Warm-Weather Wedding

If your wedding will take place on the beach or outside in a garden, you want a fresher, lighter look. Colours like beige, light grey and light blue will help keep you cool (and looking damn stylish). Go with an unlined cotton or linen blend suit designed to maximize airflow and minimize perspiration.

Use these looks as inspiration for your wedding day outfit. Find ways to put your personality in the wedding suit. But keep reading to make sure you nail the most crucial key to looking great in your suit: the fit.

Fit Never Goes Out of Style: How Should Your Wedding Suit Fit

Your frame should be honoured—not hidden—in your wedding suit. Above all else, your suit should be tailored to fit your body. It's a pillar of sophisticated style. So, how do you ensure that your wedding suit complements your frame?

Start by going to your suit provider and having your measurements taken. Trust the professionals to do their job and deliver a suit that fits. However, once the suit is complete, you'll need to try it on. Get a feel for the suit and how it drapes along your body. It shouldn't pinch, nor should it be too loose. Move around in the suit. Sit, stand, walk, heck, we suggest dancing if you want to. You should have a full range of motion, and the suit should move with you rather than tug against you.

Like with most opinions in fashion, fit can be subjective. Opinions may ebb and flow with what's trending at the moment. Trends come and go, but the perfect fit will never go out of style.

Our tried-and-true guidelines for fit are in our free eBook, Pillars of Style: Fit. Download it now to gain valuable sartorial knowledge on three essential elements of any gentlemanly outfit: the dress shirt, the trousers, and the suit jacket.

Nail the Details and Look Stylish All Day

You have the essential elements of your suit locked in, but now it's time to address the details. Elevating your wedding suit look hinges on paying attention to the parts that others overlook. Here are the details that'll make your bride swoon once you put it all together.

The Vent

The vent prevents you from feeling too stiff when sitting and prevents the jacket from bunching up. For your suit, you can choose between a single-vent or double-vent jacket. The double vents complement most men and work for a modern cut suit. They create cleaner vertical lines that make your silhouette look taller and slimmer.

Buttons

When choosing your suit jacket, you also need to consider the number of buttons. Opt for a two-button suit over three or single buttons. A single-button suit offers a more modern look that gives length to your torso with its deeper v-shape. However, a two-button suit complements more men, bringing attention to your chest rather than your waist.

Trousers

There's no need to overcomplicate trousers. Make sure they fit well, and avoid pleats as they add unnecessary girth around your hips. Flat-front suit trousers offer fewer distractions and sharper lines.

Almost there! Picking a Shirt and Tie

You're ready to run to the alter with your suit sorted out. But like your suit, the devil's in the details. So here are the keys to complementing your wedding suit with a dress shirt and tie.

The Dress Shirt

Polish comes when you choose high-quality materials, refined designs, and meticulous craftsmanship. Get your dress shirt tailored like your suit, but don't forget these details that elevate your shirt above the ordinary:

Colours and Patterns - A crisp, high-quality cotton dress shirt in light blue or white adds richness to your outfit. And they'll complement several suit colours and wedding themes. You could also wear a patterned shirt. But remember to make it subtle so it doesn't stick out like a sore thumb.

Cuffs - If you want to showcase cufflinks, by all means, get a cuffed dress shirt. Less is more, but it's up to you. You don't want to fall prey to over-accessorizing your wedding outfit.

Buttons - Plastic buttons are common, but high-quality shirts will have high-quality buttons made of Mother of Pearl. They add depth and richness to an outfit, and the uptick in price is worth it for your wedding.

Collar - A semi-spread is a classic that's not too wide or narrow. It's the ideal collar that will create smooth lines while making space for an elegant tie. Speaking of the tie...

The Tie

You want to think of the whole when building your wedding day outfit. One piece shouldn't overwhelm the rest—that includes your tie. A loud, overextravagant tie in a large knot undermines your whole outfit. People cease to see you. They only see the tie. Keep these tips in mind when choosing a tie to add a touch of sophistication to your wedding:

Refined Designs - Choose subtle sophistication and understated designs for your tie. Your wedding tie should complement your whole outfit, not be the centrepiece.

High-Quality Materials - Run away from synthetic materials that lack the richness and polish of fine materials like grenadine silk. Grenadine ties offer an eye-catching texture that enhances your entire look.

Meticulous Craftsmanship - Don't overlook tie construction which ensures your tie looks like it should from the morning while you get ready to the evening on the dancefloor.

Read Good Tie Etiquette: 5 Tips You Need to Know and Follow so your tie (and, by extension, you) looks picture-perfect all day.

Download our free eBook, Groomswear Dos and Don’ts, for style tips that make you look sharp with timeless and elegant style.

There you have it! A wedding suit guide for the modern gentleman. We would be honoured to be part of your big day. Connect with us, and we'll help you find the tie to add polish and refinement to your wedding day outfit.