Quote Originally Posted by CMcG View Post


That is rather confusing, eh? One might parse this into two parts, in order to determine the sense:

"Black Tie" and "White Tie (optional)"

I would take it as black tie is the minimum but some people will opt for white tie.
Based on my experience with these things, there will be a significant number of men who will just show up in the business suit that they wore during the day. There really is an attitude of, "Oh, screw this, I am not going to bother to change for this event. I am blessing them with my presence and that should be enough." amongst them. Crappy attitude but pretty common...

Best

AA