NOTE: We published this story just as the pandemic broke out in the spring of 2020. Like most everything in our lives, weddings took a blow. This updated version addresses the impacts of the pandemic and how you can best work through them with your bride.
Like many couples, there’s a good chance your wedding was impacted by COVID-19. And may still be impacted.
But now you are moving forward!
Congratulations!
Even a small and intimate wedding is a big undertaking. You want to make sure every detail is perfect. After all, you’re making memories that will last a lifetime.
Looking your best for your bride-to-be will send a message of love that will last your entire lifetime. A haircut and neatly trimmed facial hair, and possibly a manicure are givens.
But what are you going to wear?
Not that long ago the norm for grooms on their wedding day was a wedding tuxedo, bowtie, cummerbund, and a long list of possible accessories.
All that has changed.
More and more, grooms are now opting for custom suits.
Even if the pandemic has affected your plans—some of the ceremony will be virtual, or the guest list will be pared way back due to virus transmission concerns—you still want to be able to look back years from now with great memories.
A custom suit for your wedding day makes sense for many reasons.
What to consider when deciding between a custom suit and a tuxedo for your wedding
Think of the Academy Awards a few years back when the nation was in a recession/depression. Suddenly, wearing custom tuxedos seemed completely out of touch for the times. Instead, actors and other Hollywood types opted for suits more appropriate for the time.
There is a strong case to be made for being highly sensitive to those who attend your wedding.
Let’s dig into your options.
How formal is the wedding?
Even without a pandemic overlay, weddings today are often less formal, giving the groom flexibility with his day-of-ceremony choices. For example, if your bride is wearing a tea-length dress for a summer wedding, a custom suit is more appropriate.
If you’re going for a friendly, small, and intimate event, a custom suit may be preferable, although a custom suit is appropriate for larger gatherings.
Don’t be afraid to inject your personality into your outfit, whatever you decide. If you’re a musician, wear clef-note cuff links or perhaps musical note socks for a bit of whimsy. Pandemic or not, that is one part that hasn’t changed.
What time is the ceremony?
Time of day does play a part in the groom’s attire. According to many wedding planners, tuxedos are more appropriate for evening weddings, while custom suits make more sense and are more socially acceptable with a morning or afternoon wedding.
If the festivities start during the day but run into the evening, then either is fine, depending on your preferences.
Many time frames for wedding day ceremonies and festivities have been shortened. A 12-hour bash may be scaled back to four or five hours with a ceremony, a simple but elegant dinner, and dancing.
Staying true to your style
A custom wedding suit allows you to have more options when it comes to customizing your accessories. A special tie, brightly colored socks, or a pocket square works better with a custom suit.
Just remember to check with your wedding planners and stylists to get their input, so your special day does not become a customization fashion mess.
There’s a right and wrong way to be individualistic on your wedding day.
The pricing vs. value factor
A man should always have at least one great suit in his closet, but that’s not necessarily the case with a tuxedo.
Here’s another pandemic-practical consideration: A custom suit is probably going to cost more than a tuxedo rental, but you are going to get multiple uses out of a made-to-measure custom suit, and when you amortize those costs over 50 or so times that you wear a suit, guess which one makes more economic sense?
Custom suits have long shelf lives, even when you consider changing styles.
The same thinking applies even if you buy a tuxedo for your wedding. Unless you’re a regular at black-tie events, a custom black suit has many more practical applications in daily life.
And let’s face it, until we get back to normal, how many black-tie events do you expect to attend?
The other thing to consider is that when you buy a custom suit, you’ll also need to purchase accessories such as a belt, shoes, socks, and a tie. You may not wear the custom suit frequently, but you may wear the accessories repeatedly.
The wedding party factor
Pandemic or not, wedding party style is another critical part of planning your wedding. One thing that might change is the size of your wedding party. Instead of opting for six groomsmen and bridesmaids, you may want to pair that down to three or four of each.
Traditionally, groomsmen will wear attire similar to what the groom wears (but it’s your wedding, which is up to you and your bride).
In some cases, you may want to ramp up your level of dress to a tux but choose custom suits for your groomsmen that are coordinated with your look. If you decide to wear custom suits, you can differentiate yourself as the groom by choosing different accessories.
Also, groomsmen and bridesmaids should have a coordinated look. If this slips your mind, we’re sure your bride-to-be will remind you of this several times before your big day.
Wedding style trends for men
With tux styles changing and a greater acceptance of custom-tailored suits for weddings, the lines are blurring more than ever when it comes to telling the two styles apart.
The trend has been that modern tuxes are no longer just a classic black-and-white look. Many newer styles also incorporate grey, navy, tan, and other colors.
On the other hand, custom suits are crafted from the same material throughout. The main difference is that tuxes have satin details, such as lapels, buttons, or a satin stripe down the side of a pant leg. Buttons are usually made of bone or plastic or are fabric covered.
Custom suits are more versatile when it comes to accessories. For example, you can wear a bowtie or a traditional tie, equally acceptable for weddings.
Black patent dress shoes are almost always worn with tuxedos. Custom suits offer a broader range of footwear choices, from oxfords to loafers.
Custom suits also allow a greater variety of dress shirt choices in solid colors or patterns. Tuxedos are almost always worn with white shirts with a wing or a turndown collar.
If you’ve had a year or more delay your wedding, one of the first places you might want to stop is a fine men’s clothing store like Savile Row and your local tux shop to see what’s new.
Building a custom suit for your wedding and beyond
Here’s what you can expect when building a custom suit for your wedding while also thinking about your suit’s life and purpose after you’re married.
Step 1 – Analysis.
With a one-time tux rental, the thought process is straightforward. You and your bride decide on the level of formality, color scheme, style, and other essential details, and you’re done.
But you need to approach things differently with a custom suit that will have a life beyond your wedding.
How do you want to present yourself in a business or a social setting? Is dressing well critical to advancing your career, and will your superiors and clients/customers judge you in a good way if you make the investment? Are you willing to up your game with other parts of your wardrobe to align more closely with the level of your custom suit?
One thing to consider is whether your work situation has become more virtual or if what was a more formal work environment pre-pandemic has transitioned toward more business casual.
There’s a lot to consider these days.
Step 2 – Vision.
This is where you drill down to a more specific idea of how you want to look for your wedding and how you can adapt your custom suit for use after the fact. Your vision will translate into your image and how others will see you. Make sure you like what you’re wearing and have a style consistent with what works best for you. Again, even if your dress code has been modified at work, it’s still a good idea to have an A-list suit in your closet, ready to go wherever the office takes you.
Step 3 – Planning.
In consultation with a custom suit clothier, this is where you will make final decisions about how to execute your look. Materials. Budget. Accessories. Adding other complementary pieces to flesh out a high-quality look.
Step 4 – Implementation.
Weddings come with deadlines, and custom suits are not created overnight. Give yourself plenty of lead time. Work with your custom suit provider on a timeline that builds leeway just in case Murphy’s Law decides to visit you.
Consider that what you thought was an appropriate lead time before may no longer be appropriate now. Be sure to ask.
Step 5 – Update and Maintain.
Think of your custom suit as an investment. And just like any other investment, you’ll need to maintain and update the elements and accessories involved with your custom suit purchase. Typically, this takes place about every six months or so.
Trends come and go, personally and professionally, so to make sure you enjoy the full value of your suit, stay current by consulting with your custom suit clothier.
A closer look at the vision and planning processes
The hard work with a custom suit takes place before you’ve made decisions about how you want to look. You’ve got dozens of options, and until you can narrow those options down, you may be a bit lost in how to best proceed.
From our experience, there are six key considerations as you move forward. They are:
- Fit
- Style
- Selection
- Fabric
- Construction
- Accessories
Maybe you’ve been lucky enough to be born a perfect 42 regular, and fit has never been an issue for you. Yeah, that’s probably not the case. For 99% of men, fit can be elusive.
For example, how often have you seen men whose blazer, suit coat, or sport coat doesn’t fit close to their shirt collar? There’s a gap, sometimes a big gap, and something is wrong. If you notice, so do others, even if they don’t know why they notice.
In most cases, there’s nothing wrong with the suit or the shirt. The man wearing it may have an unusual posture, causing a poor fit. A custom suit clothier pays close attention to you and how your custom suit fits YOU.
Department store sales staffs and alterations departments are often inconsistent regarding the details of fit, which can be the beginning of big disappointment on your wedding day.
Also, in this post-pandemic environment, longtime employees with excellent tailoring skills may have moved on from where you’re used to going. Even if you had a “regular guy” before, that might not be the case now. At Savile Row, we’ve been very fortunate to keep 100% of our employees, including Nurko, our master tailor.
When it comes to style, the right style for you is based on a few critical questions and observations.
In the fitting process, quality custom clothiers pay close attention to all aspects of your body type to ensure your custom suit fits YOU.
Let’s take a moment to talk about what hasn’t changed due to the pandemic. Here are several things that are good to consider.
Which style do you like best? You must love what you’re wearing, whether on your wedding day or for the next two to three years. Choose carefully.
What style best suits your body type? Let your eyes be the best judge (but also seek advice from the tailor). Generally, a fuller-cut suit coat or jacket benefits a heavier man, whether short or tall. A thinner frame, whether short or tall, may be better suited for the newer, shorter, and trimmer styles.
Which style is more appropriate for your office? Once you can agree on what will work best for your wedding, you need to consider what is acceptable for your office. Pay attention to your company’s written (and unwritten) dress code. Try to dress to the high end of that range, and you’ll never go wrong. Again, pay attention to how the pandemic has impacted your office dress code.
What is the proper coat length? More traditional suit coats or jackets typically cover the rear end, where the butt and hip meet. The new shorter style jackets tend to fall between that point and the waistline.
What is the proper sleeve length? It’s an easy adjustment to shorten if needed. We recommend no more than one-half inch of your shirt cuff be exposed beyond the end of your coat sleeves. The shirt cuff should hit right around the large wrist bone when your arms are relaxed. When in doubt, err on the side of too long with your suit coat sleeves.
How should a coat look when buttoned? The two sides of the coat should come together and button comfortably, with the lapels smooth against your body. For a more traditional style, close just the top button on a two-button coat. If you notice an X-shaped crease forming or the lower edges flaring, it’s too tight.
A small opening at the bottom of the coat, just above the waist of your trousers, is perfectly fine, and very little, if any, of your shirt below the coat buttons should be visible. For trimmer styles, the same rules apply when a jacket is too tight; if the fabric wrinkles when it is buttoned, it is too tight.
How should the pants fit? Pants should fit smoothly across your legs and buttocks. The drape shouldn’t form sagging wrinkles below the seat. If the seat is too tight, you’ll typically see horizontal wrinkles under the buttocks. To plan for the inevitable change in your body shape, most custom-made clothing shops add extra fabric to their pants so you can sneak in a few pounds during your happy married life.
What is the correct length for pants? The traditional approach is for the hem to fall just on the top of your shoes, with a slight crease where they meet. The back of the pant should fall no lower than the top of the heel of your shoes.
How should the shirt fit? You should be able to fit one finger comfortably between the collar and neck. Most off-the-rack shirt collars are cut at one-half-inch intervals. At Savile Row, we cut our collars to one-quarter inch.
The shirt should fit comfortably around your torso, with three or more inches of extra fabric. The best length for a sleeve is for it to hit just below the wrist bone (or just above the hand), ensuring it doesn’t crawl up when you raise your arms. If you purchase custom shirts, you can have the cuff on your watch hand-made slightly larger to accommodate the watch.
When trying on your custom suit, put it through some paces. The fit needs to be perfect. You should be able to move around comfortably. Try twisting, raising your arms, and even breaking out a few dance moves. People love to dance at weddings, and so should you!
At Savile Row, we cut our collars to one-quarter inch. The shirt should have three to four inches of extra fabric around the torso.
A thousand little decisions…
Buying a custom suit is one of those little decisions that can have a nice ripple effect on your life and how you feel about yourself. As you approach your big day, we’re here to help you when you’re ready. We invite you to visit our store to see how a wedding suit can best suit your needs.
We sincerely wish that, at worst, the pandemic only slowed down plans for your perfect day.
We offer our heartiest congratulations!
Recent Comments