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Clever Ways To Tell Guests Your Wedding Dress Code

Want your wedding guests to dress up, you need help figuring out a good way to mention that heels, especially stilettos, aren’t recommended for our outdoor wedding. Where you should include the information… should it go on wedding invitation online, a separate card, or somewhere else entirely?

WEDDING PARTY

So you want to tell your guests what to wear, but you don’t want to be overbearing, and ideally you’d like to be a little bit clever about it. You’re certainly not the first to find ways to artfully explain a dress code to your guests, let’s review five awesome, non-bossy ways you can give your guests some wedding dress code guidance, especially when your dress code is something less traditional than the usual cocktail dress, tuxedo, black-tie optional stuff that’s the norm for formal weddings. Whether you’re having a casual wedding dress code or a full-on costume wedding, the goal is the same: you want to support your guests in a making an outfit choice that feels comfortable AND fabulous at your wedding.

1: Include a brief PS about your wedding dress code on your wedding invitations

If clothing comfort factors are not obvious from your venue or wedding date AND your dress code is relatively straight-forward (which yours is), you can include a simple PS on your wedding invitations. Something as basic as PS: The ceremony & reception will be on the lawn; choose your footwear accordingly! would do the trick. You want straightforward. You also don’t want to be bossy: sure, you could tell them to wear flip flops or wedges, but it’s best to just let them know what the environment will be and let them make their own choices

If it’s clear from your date and venue name that the wedding will be outdoors, you may not need to say anything. For instance, most American guests at a summer wedding located in a garden will assume that they’ll be outdoors and can (probably!) be trusted to dress themselves accordingly.

Including a PS on your invitations works best for dress code guidance that is simple and important… heels on a lawn are one example. The location of the PS totally depends on your invitation design. If it’s a short line, you could include it at the end of your actual invitation. If you’re doing a separate card anyway for directions, you could include your dress code note there.

wedding invitations with dress code

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2. Address wedding dress codes in your wedding website’s FAQ

FAQs can be a great place, however, to get into the details of creative attire — especially for theme weddings! Like “The ceremony will be outdoors on a ski slope, so bring gloves and don’t wear a sundress or you will freeze to death.”

It reads like this:

Q What will I wear!?

A The event is semi-formal, but anything you want to wear we are sure will be ok. The bride requests you refrain from wearing a wedding dress, but if that’s really all you have to wear, she prefers that to you going naked (a la Betazoid wedding style).
“Our style is going to be Victorian & Tim Burton-esque. Classic Victorian/Steampunk gothic dress is more than welcome (and encouraged!) for the Ceremony. Or if you’d rather keep things simple, semi-formal attire is requested. You know us – we’re not uptight. We only ask that you keep it classy for the Ceremony.”

Keep in mind that not everyone will read your website, so this isn’t a good solution for super urgent wedding.

3. A picture is worth a thousand words

Some visual guidance about attire is the best possible way to get the message across. Creating a Pinterest board may be the easiest way to give guests visual cues about wedding attire, but it’s certainly not the only way!

This kind of visual guidance can be extra helpful if you’re planning a themed wedding, where guests might be seriously confused. This adorable visual guide to convey what might be awesome to wear, distribute the image to guests via email and Facebooked to the guests.

4. Offer guests incentives to dress to code

While you can never demand that anyone wear (or not wear) anything to your wedding, some couples have offered amazing incentives to encourage them to dress to theme. For example, some couples encouraged their guests to “outshine the bride”. The “Outshine the Bride” runway show was easily the high point of the reception!

5. Offer encouragement, NOT enforcement

You can offer encouragement to your guests, it’s just not going to feel very good to enforce. You’ve got enough to do at your wedding without stepping into the role of the fashion police.

Ultimately, your guests will dress themselves. And whether that’s jeans and a dress shirt, a jumpsuit, or a white-tie, button up linen jacket, a tux, dark suit, white vest, midi dress, knee-length little black dress, pantsuits, or a floor-length gown… we’re guessing they’ll be fabulous.

How to Add Dress Code to Wedding Invitation?

Wedding invitation and enclosure card are parts of the most important elements in your day because they convey special information about your wedding to your guests. Mentioning the dress code on your wedding invitations if you want guests to know. Why? Including the dress code on wedding invitations is an easy way to ensures your event stays as formal or as casual as you want, and it’s helpful for guests to know exactly what is expected of them and helps ensure everyone is properly attired for your wedding. It is as same as bridesmaid dresses. But make sure it sounds fun so they’ll want to participate, instead of feeling obligated to.

wedding photos

wedding photos

Where does the dress code (“Black tie,” “cocktail attire” or “casual attire” are all acceptable) go on the wedding invitation? That’s the easy part!

If your ceremony and reception are at the same location, the wedding dress code should be printed at the bottom right or bottom center of your invitation. This is known as corner copy and is available on most wedding invitations.

If the ceremony and reception are in separate locations, your dress code should be printed on both reception card and invitation. That way, there’s no confusion! This can also be helpful if your wedding and reception don’t have the same dress code.

wedding invitation with dress code

wedding invitation with dress code

Now that you know how wedding invitation dress code works, it’s time to decide what your dress code will be, Casual? Cocktail? Semi-formal? Black tie?

Use straightforward wording to get your point across. Include brief, straightforward phrasing like “black-tie event” or “semi-formal” for your guests. Your guests can then research those terms for specifications if they’re not familiar with different dress codes, or you can include brief details next to the dress code. Wording for dress codes might be: Black Tie (tuxedos and formal gowns)

Your invitation design will also clue guests in. An ultra-formal, traditional invite with letterpress and calligraphy will give guests a hint to the formal nature of the event, whereas a square invite with a playful font and bright colors would fit a much more casual style. Design your invitations to reflect a themed wedding. Themed weddings are becoming more and more popular. Choose elements of your theme to include on your invitation to make the dress code more clear to guests.

beach themed wedding invitations

beach themed wedding invitations

Write your dress code on an enclosure card, alternatively. Including a simple enclosure card that accompanies your wedding invitation is a great way to let guests know about important guidelines, especially if your wedding invitation design doesn’t easily accommodate extra information about the dress code, like remind guests to bring warm layers and appropriate footwear for a winter outdoor wedding. Also, it can be a big help if you attach inspiration photos, especially for a theme party, so they’ll know what you have in mind.

Another way is to direct guests to your wedding website about the dress code.



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