Weddingbee Blog

When envisioning the overall look of our wedding party, I assumed having black tuxes for the men folk would clash with the navy of the ladies. I had a hard time picturing black and blue looking nice together. I needed a visual to help me gain a clear picture of how the entire bridal party would look.

As a reminder, this is what our ladies will be wearing:

Ava Collection by Mori Lee #602 in Mid Night

Image via Heather Parker Photography

This bridal party chose beige for the groomsmen and navy for the groom. This looks sharp and clean and perfect for a spring or summer wedding. It’s just not a good fit for a winter, New Year’s Eve wedding.

Image via Glamour.com / Photo by Chelsea Donoho

Grey tuxes with navy dresses. I really thought this is the route we would need to go with. We are using silver as an accent color and navy and grey naturally complement each other. However, the pictures of weddings with this combo just wasn’t knocking my socks off. Maybe it wasn’t formal enough?

Image via TheKnot.com / Photo by Alternate Angles

This wedding party is sporting navy jackets with tan pants. Again, this is a great spring / summer look. There is a good reason I’m not finding all navy suits with navy bridesmaid dresses - the look would likely read flat and boring.

Oddly enough, I found more black / navy color combos than any other. That’s because it looks great! What do I know? I’m no fashion guru!

Image via TheKnot.com / Photo by LCD Photography

Image via BrocadeNashville.com / Photo by Phindy Studios

Image via and Photo by Heather Neckers

Sharp sharp sharp! I can’t believe how much I loved this look. It was formal, classic and there was enough difference in the navy and black to offer a little dimension in the pictures without making the bridal party look like a big bruise. It was perfect for a winter wedding.

Mr. Ball Cap and I discussed what he was looking for or wanting in a tux and he did want to try on grey as well as black. We went to Dunhill Tuxedos several months ago to pick out a few styles and they measured Mr. BC. We recently went back for a groom’s fitting to make a final decision.

Up first, grey tux with silver vest and tie - the groomsmen’s look:

In person, this looked pretty good. The jacket was way too big since the Mr. has lost some weight, but it gave us a general idea. I was sold on the vest / tie color for sure. I definitely preferred this darker grey over the lighter grey tux options. Mr. BC really liked this but I was concerned how it would look with the ivory tie and vest he would be wearing.

Yeah - as I suspected, I wasn’t crazy about this. As the groom, I wanted him to look top notch and this contrast just wasn’t doing it for me, but again, in person, the Mr. thought it looked pretty good.

Up next were the black tuxes. We had chosen two different jackets to try out.

Gasp! There is nothing like a man in classic, black tux. I loved this. He was a little surprised at how good this looked.

If you look in the background, that gentlemen was trying on a black tux with a navy vest and tie. I was never a big fan of that combination and seeing it all put together on him confirmed that we definitely didn’t want to go in that direction. I think the shade and the shiny navy really turns me off for some reason!

Oh yeah! I liked this jacket even better. The lapel wasn’t so wide and shiny. This had the satin piping around the outside and was a trimmer looking coat.

I knew my favorite instantly but I told Mr. Ball Cap we could go home, wait a day or two and then take a look at the pictures. When I put them up side by side by side, the last one was the clear, stand out winner.

The groom, groomsmen, ushers and dads will all wear the same tux, but with a different vest and tie color. The groom will wear the ivory shown. The groomsmen and ushers will wear the silver tie and vest shown in the first picture and the dads will wear a black vest and tie. My dad is going to look so cool and sharp walking me down the aisle!

When picking out the styles to try on, Mr. BC had found a brilliant white vest and tie he really wanted and I felt terrible telling him he couldn’t wear it because my dress wasn’t white. I felt awful but I was too afraid that pearly, bright white would make my ivory gown look muted or yellow in pictures. Thankfully he understood and really liked the ivory tie, shirt and vest available.

Were you worried a traditional black tux wouldn’t be the right choice for your bridal party? Or are you going with a fun, different color choice?