Mismatched Bridal Parties (boys too!)

We've all heard about mismatched bridesmaids - and there are many examples on the net of how great this can look. For the record, my bridesmaids didn't match. I bought them fabric and they all went and got their own dresses made - whatever they liked. But more on that later.

What I think people are more unsure about is mismatched groomsmen. It's a question I see come up a bit on forums and I pondered over it myself too. So I thought I'd share some of the pics I saved while planning.

Different shades of grey can still match and work together:

Landlocked Bride

100 Layer Cake

Pinterest

The thing is,

• Suit hire is expensive. Who wants to pay for something they don't keep? 
• And suit purchase is even more expensive (though not always). And who wants to buy a suit in another shade of grey if they already have one?
• And if your bridesmaids are mismatched, or your wedding is casual, then 5 matching dudes in schmick suits could really amp up the formality (which isn't necessarily a good thing).

So I am an advocate for letting boys wear their own suits (as in the pics above)

OR - letting them wear WHATEVER they like. Vests, Braces, Jacket (or No Jacket), Ties or Bow ties, and so on. See:

Offbeat Bride

Based on the pictures above, here are what i think are the key things that help make it 'work' in these cases:

• It seems the more guys, the better this looks. Not sure how it would look with fewer than 3.
• They need "something" to keep them tied together.. matching shoes OR matching ties OR matching greys. Something.
• They need to all be comfortable with their own look. These guys all look cool! (not sure how you enforce coolness on your groomsmen. Hopefully you just have cool friends!)

Here's a couple more that are even more mismatched.. but somehow still look like a team to me:

Pinterest - I'd kinda like to tell #1 and #5 to change their pants though.

It all seems to have a way of working itself out so you can still tell who the groom is. (As if your guests don't already know who he is!)

I'll show you what we our groomsmen picked shortly.