What to wear to a spring wedding
Keep cool, and look good doing it.
It’s a fact: people love to get married in spring. It’s probably got something to do with longer days and the likelihood of a bit of sunshine, but we think it’s also about the romance and optimism of a new start.
And dressing up for a spring wedding is good fun. Soft spring suit shades like light blue and grey come into their own in here – choose a blue suit if you’re wearing neutral-shade accessories, and grey tailoring for those brighter colours like pink, yellow, orange and teal. For a destination wedding, linen always makes sense. A neutral linen suit with an unexpected knitted polo underneath can make things feel a bit more casual. And of course, we couldn’t talk about spring weddings without a mention of a tweed three-piece suit. Try yours with a tonal tie for a more formal affair.
Here are a few ways you can up your wedding guest outfit game this spring.
Play with colour
Spring weddings are a great opportunity to lean into brighter or richer hues. Muted tones like pastel blue, soft pink and oatmeal match the vibe of spring perfectly, and are a great starting point if you're only just getting used to colour in your wardrobe. If, however, you really want to make a statement, look to deeper tones like emerald, cerise and old gold.
Crafted from a wool-silk-linen blend from luxury Italian mill Drago, the silk in our emerald suit softens the linen texture creating a much smoother handfeel, while the deep green tone will have heads turning. Wear it with a contrasting shirt and a tonal tie for a cohesive look, or go for a more relaxed aesthetic and choose a darker shade of shirt, wearing it open necked.
Dress for the weather
One minute it’s raining, the next it’s beaming sunshine – welcome to spring in the UK. It’s safe to assume it won’t be freezing or boiling, but the middle ground can be just as tricky to dress for.
We recommend banking on a mid-weight fabric, so nothing too heavy like thick wool and nothing too light like hopsack. Look for a worsted fabric in a weight of around 350g or less. Read more on fabric weights here.
The weight of your suit will also be influenced by its construction. A lightweight suit will have light or no shoulder padding, minimal interlinings and a half or buggy lining. The lighter the structure, the breezier the suit. A traditional spring suit, like our khaki cotton linen, will have more structured shoulders and perhaps a half-canvas construction – a luxury addition that will help the suit mould to your frame over time, but will also lock heat in. Consider the wedding date and how much of the day will be spent inside/outside and choose your suit weight accordingly.
Add seasonal accessories
Your choice of accessories is where you can really up the ‘spring’ feel of your outfit. Handy if you’ve moved your wedding date and need to make a darker suit feel more seasonal.
Sunny shades like sage, pale blue, coral and pink are springtime classics that look great with both light and dark shades of suit. They tend to feature in springtime flowers too, so you should be able to match your buttonhole to your accessories easily if you’re in the wedding party. If you’ve gone for a green or brown tweed suit, you can set off the earthy tones and still look cheery for spring with a printed tie.
Our Bottinelli ties are the ideal addition to a spring wedding - crafted from Fuji silk, they come in an array of spring tones featuring floral and paisley patterns, with pocket squares to match.
Of course, if you’re the groom or in the wedding party, your suit and accessory choice might be dictated by what the bridesmaids are wearing. If you’d like to coordinate without outright matching, you can soften the look by wearing two pocket squares, one neutral and one in the theme colour.
If you need some advice on what to wear for weddings all year round, our wedding dress code guide has it all laid out.
