Guest Post By Emma Miller – Vow to Be Chic

Coordinating wedding outfits is one of the biggest headaches couples have to go through before their wedding day. Ideally, you want you and your bride to match outfits, but not appear too cheesy or too contrasting.

At the same time, remember the bridesmaids and groomsmen’s attire are yet to be decided.

Fret not. Coordinating wedding styles is a rather easy subject. It all starts with great communication so that both parties arrive at an informed decision on the colors, accessories, and style they’ll don for the big day.

So, if you want to do away with the style jitters and get your wedding outfits on the dapper route, read on.

Pick a Style and Theme

This is the first and most important step before you even decide on the fabrics you’ll use on the outfits. Your wedding style and theme are highly informed by your idea of a dream wedding.

 It might be a traditional wedding, guided by Hawaiian culture, for instance. Alternatively, your wedding theme might be based on your favorite movie, comic book, or cartoon characters. Any of these styles and themes will dictate the kind of outfit you can wear.

Thus, ensure that both of you assess and decide on a style and theme. Then, you can start selecting the kind of attire that will go well with that theme.

Be Tonal with the Colors

You and your bride should have individual favorite colors. However, when it comes to coordinating your wedding outfits, you need to compromise and choose a common favorite color.

And once you’ve made your selection, what you need to do next is get tonal with the colors. This means that the shades you choose from the primary should have an ombre or gradient effect.

For instance, if your common favorite color is pink, the bride can dress in a darker pink, while the groom dons a lighter shade. This shading effect should be the end goal, such that your outfits appear complementary rather than cheesy.

Have Matching Rings

Rings are not technically part of your outfit. However, they’ll be part of not only the wedding ceremony but also the rest of your life. And as far as the wedding goes, your selection of rings should not feel contrasting to that of the bride and the rest of the attire.

The trick here is to consider the wedding band. For instance, if you choose a gold wedding band, you and your bride can easily wear the same rings.

Still, you can choose to be slightly different by picking more masculine styles for the ring. Alternatively, you can wear the same ring, but in different sizes.

Coordinate the Bridesmaids and Groomsmen Styles as Well

It’s not just your outfit and that of your bride that need to be coordinated. The bridesmaids and groomsmen too, need to be in sync.

Coordinating bridesmaids and groomsmen’s attires is not difficult. From your wedding color palette, you can choose 2 primary colors that will fit the bridesmaids’ dresses, and have it matched with the accessories in the groomsmen’s suits.

To kill two birds with one stone, you can have these accessories also delivered as groomsmen gifts. For instance, you can go to Groomsmen Gift Source and get an array of groomsmen accessories that will be perfect for your wedding style and theme.

Try Matching with Flowers Too

Traditionally, the bride carries a bouquet to the wedding while the groom wears a boutonniere on his suit. These flowers offer a great avenue to coordinate the groom and bride outfits at a wedding.

For instance, you can have one of the flowers in the bride’s bouquet go to the groom’s lapel. This flower might even be used somewhere else in the ceremony.

You can opt to have the bridesmaids do the same with the groomsmen. But, if you prefer personal uniqueness, then you can adopt this style for the groom and bride’s outfits alone.

Go for a Straight up Match

Sometimes, it feels like a 100% match of outfits is what you need. So, why not go for it?

A matching suit and dress combination saves you a lot of time deciding on complementary colors that you and your bride will use. Thus, with this tactic, all you have to do is select at least one or two favorite colors, then use them all out in the outfits.

However, you should exercise a bit of caution with this style. Using the same color too much can backfire and leave you both looking bizarre.

Thus, add a bit of balance by including a few complementary or contrasting elements to your outfits. This might be a neutral shade for the groom’s shirt or a sash around the bride’s wedding dress.

Pay Attention to the Details

Small details change a lot in your wedding style. This trickles down to accessories and how you’ll use them to create coordination between your style and that of your bride.

One way you can do this is by having your tie match the predominant color of the bride’s flowers. Alternatively, you can have the tie match the shade of her dress. Such small details make the outfits pop and look dazzling to the guests.

You can even decide to go all out and match the colors on each other’s accessories.