I’ve said before that the groom should have as much fun with his outfit as the bride does with hers. All too often the bride gets to buy the dress of her dreams while the groom makes do with a boring suit or badly-fitting hired outfit. My other half Sam was keen to look smart and classic, but wanted to liven up the greys and blacks of the traditional Morning Suit ensemble.

There are very few shops these days that sell traditional formal morning suits and evening wear. For this reason many grooms hire their outfit, but the fabrics used in hire suits tend to be nasty and the waistcoats are generic and cheap looking. The suits are rarely tailored to fit properly. We chose to buy vintage suits for Sam, then accessorise with a specially commissioned waistcoat and modern shirt and tie. The morning suit jacket and trousers were sourced on ebay and in a local vintage shop.

 

If you have money to spend then a traditional outfitters like Ede & Ravenscroft or Favourbrook will kit your groom out in Top hat and morning suit, but we sourced the same outfit for considerably less money by tracking down vintage items.

We got a friend who is a costume designer to make Sam’s waistcoat. This was based on the Ede & Ravenscroft style of morning suit waistcoat, but instead of the traditional grey or fawn we had it made in Hainsworth ‘bright scarlet’ military wool. I matched this with a plain satin tie from TM Lewin. If you want to commission a waistcoat then I highly recommend Cad & The Dandy. Their website enables you to choose your own fabrics and details such as lapel shape and lining too.

Most modern weddings match the best men and ushers to the groom. We had a problem, because Sam’s scarlet didn’t match anything! I had chosen orange and white for our flowers and button holes and we had a last minute panic trying to find ties and waistcoats to match. In the end we gave up, and I’m glad we did. We couldn’t afford to buy the other men’s outfits so they were hired, and we chose the traditional dove grey double-breasted waistcoats. We matched them with dark purple ties. Scarlet, purple, orange – that’s a lot going on, but actually it worked. Sam stood out, but the matching button holes pulled it all together and I think in the end all the guys were happy with what they wore. One of the best men wore his Army dress uniform – he looked fabulous and it was very useful to have an easily identifiable best man whom people could find and approach if they needed a problem solved.