Mismatched Bridal Parties (again)

Back over here I talked about mismatched groomsmen - and mentioned the fact that our groomsmen and bridesmaids were all mismatched. It's a decision I'm glad we went with.

Firstly: The Girls. 
I purchased fabric (a coral coloured silk chiffon, with a deeper coral satin lining) and I gave it to each girl to what they wanted with. They all went and sorted out their own thing - using entirely different dressmakers. Here was the result:

The girls all looked amazing! They all came up with such different styles, but they still worked so well together. They also all picked their own hairstyles for the day.
The things that held them together were: (1) they were all similar length: just above the knee, (2) they wore matching shoes and jewellery. (3) they all held bouquets which helped tie them together.

And: The Boys
We didn't want to make the guys buy (or hire) expensive suits, so Adam picked a grey suit he liked, and the guys just bought the pants (except for best man who decided to buy the suit too). We bought them those fabulous ties off etsy, that I talked about over here
... then they accessorised however they wanted.

Groom wore the grey suit - with a black & white gingham tie.
Best man wore the grey suit - with an orange and white skinny tie.
GM1 wore grey pants - with and orange and white bow-tie, a grey vest and a cap.
GM2 wore grey pants - the orange and white skinny tie and some grey braces.
GM3 wore the pants with just the orange and white tie.

Here is our whole bridal party together. I wasn't sure if they were happy to be on the net, so I have "starred" out their faces (just in case!).

Bring on the comments... I would love to know what you think. And would love to see your favourite mismatched pics!

 

Etsy Rave: 'Me and Matilda' for fabulous ties

Since I'm on the subject of guy's outfits, I thought I'd show you our boy's ties and rave about the supplier!

I bought these hand-made ties from Me and Matilda on my all-time favourite shopping website Etsy.  Aren't they great!?

We got:
- 3 x orange gingham skinny ties
- 1 x orange gingham bow-tie (for the groomsman that chose this); and
- 1 x black gingham tie (for the hunky groom).

What I love about them:

• The glorious patterns available in the shop.
• The fact that they are handmade by a lovely lady.
• The fabric is cotton, so they are not shiny. And they are machine washable.
• She makes them in whatever width you like.. so we got a slightly "skinny" tie for our guys.
• The ability to mix and match. Wouldn't it look great to choose a few different patterns within one palette? Like this:

Also available were things like ring cushions and pocket squares. And I noticed she is now selling braces too. Cute!

Service was great. The seller made sure we got them in time. And the ties were very well made and looked fabulous!  Consider this a recommendation to go and browse the shop, no matter what your colour scheme is!

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.