Why this should be your wedding suit

When you’re in the men’s clothing business you have to keep your ear to the ground to keep abreast of new trends and how they might impact your wedding suit. Fortunately, men’s style doesn’t change at anywhere near the pace of women’s style, but that’s not to say that nothing happens. Case in point: Pleats have gone the way of the dinosaur.

But here at BE we have noticed an interesting trend in how the groom is dressing himself for his wedding (or shall we say, how his bride may be dressing him!). It seems that about half of all grooms are choosing to buy a suit for their big day versus opting to rent a tux. This doesn’t necessarily mean that weddings are getting more casual, but rather they are growing more personalized and custom.

With a wedding suit all his own, the groom has more control over what he’s wearing as opposed to an off-the-rack and dry cleaned tux. Of course, a tux will always be more formal than a suit, but the latter has the added benefit of becoming your go-to suit after the honeymoon. That is, instead of returning it to the shop you can take it right to your closet and wear it again and again.

But in order to make good use of your money you need to know a few tricks. The three of us at BE have put our heads together and come up with a short checklist to make sure you are headed in the right direction. Following these tips will help to ensure that you find a suit that can be dressed up and personalized for your wedding (and the office) and down for the wedding reception (and happy hours down the road).

Two button

It’s 2018 fellas, better stick with the 2-button jacket. High or low stance is up to you, we can help you out with this.

Lapel

For the uninitiated, the lapel is the collar of your suit jacket. When you are shopping for a suit, you’re really going to be confronted with 2 choices: The notched or the peaked lapel.

Those of us at BE went back and forth on this one. A peaked lapel can be very flashy and strong, but at the end of the day, a notched lapel suit is just going to be a more useful suit for everyday wear. So, stick with a notch in your lapel. Unless of course, you are the type of guy that jumps in the deep end first!

Fabric

Go with a grey (sharkskin perhaps?!) or charcoal. These are the most versatile fabrics for a suit, so much so that we recommend them as the best fabric for any man’s first suit. But the real versatility of these fabrics lie in their applicability to the office world. “Both of these fabrics will serve as a great background to any range of fun or conservative shirts” says BE founder Ron Wagner.

Pick a fun pocket square

You’re the man of honor and so you need a great pocket square. Go with your bride’s favorite color to be safe :).

Your turn

It’s your wedding so you need to customize at least a little. How about matching the lapel button hole threads to your bride’s flowers? Or maybe you want to customize the buttons themselves – a little color perhaps? Here’s a fun one: The jacket lining (polka dots!). Check out our gallery for a little inspiration, or our Pinterest page. Just to give you an example of all the options, below is our fabric book – tons of shirt fabrics to choose from.

So those are the major items that will help you to choose a versatile suit. Beyond that, it’s up to you. We don’t want to get too selective because after all, you need to personalize your wedding.

Question? Feel free to drop us a note at [email protected]

Further reading

And on another topic, here’s what you need to now about your financials after you tie the knot!