Wedding Recommendation

[Regimental]

I was fortunate to attend three weddings in the UK last year in which the groom and wedding party were kilted, so I thought it might be interesting to set out what people were wearing (all in the autumn):

1. A wedding in London, with the bride Scottish, and the groom English, but going kilted (along with his groomsmen). Most guests were not kilt. The ceremony was at 1pm, and the groom and groomsmen wore black Prince Charlie jackets with green bow ties, white shirts, dress sporrans and cream socks. No fly plaid. No change for the reception in the evening.

2. Another wedding in London, with both bride and groom Scottish. Kilts for male guests were specified as strongly encouraged on the invite, and most were kilted. The ceremony was at 3pm. The groom wore a custom-tailored tweed jacket and waistcoat in grey and dark red, white shirt with a dark red tie, dress sporran and grey socks. The groomsmen wore grey tweed jackets with red ties and grey socks. No fly plaid. No change for the reception in the evening. Guests had a variety of outfits, but mostly tweed outfits of various colours. Only a couple of prince charlies.

3. Scottish wedding, near Edinburgh – groom was Scottish. Dress code specified kilts for men, and gave guidance for separate outfits for the ceremony and evening events. For the ceremony the groom wore a blue tweed jacket and waistcoat, white shirt, matching tartan tie, brown dress sporran, white socks, brown shoes. Groomsmen matching. No fly plaid. Guests were in various colours of tweed jackets and waistcoats, all with ties and formal sporrans. For the evening, the wedding party and guests changed into full black Prince Charlie outfits with black bow ties, white shirts, formal sporrans, the same kilts worn earlier, though with black shoes – guests followed likewise.

Obviously just an anecdotal selection, but a few observations would be: 1) the fly plaid isn’t the norm in Scotland (not to say you’ll never see it, but most don’t view it as necessary), 2) tweed outfits are extremely popular (many having their own, and being easily rented in quite a range of colours) and do add a pleasingly consistent variety to the day, 3) kilts are sometimes specified on the dress code, even to the extent of specific instructions as to form of outfit, 4) the classic Prince Charlie lives on, 6) dress sporrans are the norm even for daytime weddings. 5) even English people like wearing the kilt when encouraged to!

For me, I love the look of lots of tweed jacketed kilted folk together, and I think that works incredibly well for daytime ceremonies. But changing into the black tie PC for the evening reception and dance was an indulgence that worked incredibly well from my perspective, and meant that both aspects felt special and different. Obviously not viable in all circumstances, but it did certainly add to the event in this case, and meant that there was not the slight disconnect between event, time of day and dress that you sometimes see (the wedding with the PC for the daytime ceremony felt a bit like this for me – just didn’t look quite right).