The Wedding Suit: A Complete Guide for the Groom, His Father and the Groomsmen
Who dresses first and who dresses after: the groom, the father of the groom and the groomsmen, and the half-tone rule that stops everyone looking like the same man.
A wedding suit is not a suit you wear to a wedding. It is the suit against which every other suit in your wardrobe will be measured for the rest of your life. The photograph will exist long after the marriage. Get this wrong and you will know about it for decades.
Here is how not to get it wrong.
The Groom: The One Rule That Governs Everything
The groom should be the best-dressed man in the room. Not flashier. Not louder. Simply the most considered, the most precisely fitted, the most clearly intentional. There is a difference between standing out and being overdressed. The former is the objective. The latter is the error most grooms make when they panic.
The suit itself: a dark navy or midnight blue is the most versatile and the most flattering choice for a ceremony followed by an evening reception. Charcoal is a close second. Light grey reads as morning suit territory and works best for daytime garden weddings. Black is a tuxedo decision — made-to-measure black barathea with a silk lapel and no tie is one of the most elegant things a man can wear to his own wedding, if the formality of the event supports it.
The fabric matters more than the colour. For a spring or autumn wedding: a 260–280 g/m² Super 130s wool in navy, cut in a slightly softer shoulder with a suppressed waist. Loro Piana or Scabal. Nothing else needs to be said. For a summer wedding in Lisbon — a different conversation entirely, addressed below.
Construction: full canvas. Non-negotiable. A fused suit on a wedding day, in a suit that will be photographed and worn and remembered, is a choice you make once and regret indefinitely. Full canvas breathes, moves, and improves with every wear. It is also the only construction that produces the roll through the lapel that separates a suit that looks expensive from one that merely cost money.
Details that elevate: working cuffs (surgeon's cuffs), a boutonnière in white or ivory, a pocket square in a complementary shade that is neither too white nor too distracting. The tie — or the absence of one. A four-in-hand in grenadine silk at a morning wedding is correct. An open collar with a soft collar construction at an evening beach wedding in the Algarve is equally correct. The mistake is the clip-on.
The Father of the Groom (or Bride): How to Support Without Competing
The father's role on the day is to look like a man who has arrived at a certain age and worn his clothes accordingly — not like a man who borrowed his son's suit or, worse, rented one. This is the occasion to invest in something properly made.
The colour logic here is simple: the father should coordinate with the wedding palette but in a muted register. If the groom is in navy, the father wears a medium grey or a stone. If the groom is in charcoal, the father might consider a soft mid-blue. The point is distinction, not competition.
The silhouette for a man in his fifties or older: a slightly fuller chest, a soft shoulder, a single-breasted two-button. The double-breasted is a beautiful choice for the right figure. The three-button belongs in the past. The fit across the back and shoulders is the critical measurement — a jacket that pulls or bunches at the back reads immediately in photographs. The alterations that cannot be made to an off-the-rack jacket are precisely the ones that matter most in a morning coat or a formal suit.
A made-to-measure suit for the father of the groom is not a luxury. It is the difference between a man who looks proud and a man who looks uncomfortable.
The Best Man and Groomsmen: Coordinated, Not Matching
The matching groomsmen look — six men in identical hired suits, all slightly too short in the sleeve — is one of the great aesthetic crimes of the modern wedding. It produces a result that looks neither polished nor personal. It looks like a stag party that got confused and ended up at the altar.
The correct approach: a shared colour and fabric direction, with individual fits. If the groomsmen are in navy, each man wears a navy suit cut for his specific dimensions. The ties can match exactly — a single element of visual cohesion is sufficient. The rest should be individual.
For a groomsman who already owns a navy suit: he wears his, provided the fit is good and the fabric is not visibly tired. A good navy suit is a good navy suit. The shared tie or pocket square connects the group without requiring uniformity of wardrobe.
The groomsman who needs to buy a suit for the occasion should buy something he will wear again. This means a colour and a cut that work outside the context of the wedding. A mid-grey two-piece. A navy single-breasted. Nothing with brocade. Nothing ivory. Nothing that makes sense only in a church.
Questions before ordering
What should the father of the groom wear?
A dark suit, white shirt and a quiet tie, half a tone below the groom. If the groom wears a waistcoat, the father does not.
Should groomsmen all dress identically?
Not necessarily, and it works better when they share one colour family and one cloth weight without being copies of each other.
Can groomsmen wear black tie?
Only if the groom does, and only if dinner is after six. In daylight, a suit.
How far ahead is a wedding suit ordered?
Two months, preferably three, with two fittings. In summer our workshop in the Serra da Estrela is full.
Where is the atelier?
Avenida da Liberdade 110, office 209, Lisbon. By appointment, seven days a week.
Book a visit to ATELIER 23
We show the cloths in the length, take measurements and give you a date. Finished garments are in the catalogue and the process is described on made to measure. The visit takes about an hour and commits you to nothing.