Gentleman, your lady has her dress and accessories. Now it’s your turn. The wedding suit may not be surrounded with as much emotions and fanfare as the wedding gown, however, this does not undermine its importance in anyway. Once you are in your best wedding suit, you are sure to be the centre of attraction for your guests.
When to start looking
You will need to start thinking about your suit about 6-9 months before your wedding date in order to ensure that there is enough time to get everyone in your wedding party fitted. Trust me, we’ve been there. We had to create ample time to secure availability of my husband’s suit months before our wedding. If we had done otherwise, we would have been deeply disappointed.
Deciding who to shop for wedding suit
Lots of grooms are so engrossed in the financial aspect of their wedding planning that they leave the choice of the suit to their friends or fiancees. Also, when most brides plan their wedding, they tend naturally to focus more on their dress and less on the groom’s look. A good quality suit is paramount, shop around for one that has a cut to compliment your build. When choosing a wedding suit, you must look for its style, fabric, color and cut of the suit.
As with wedding dresses, grooms suits goes through definite trends over time. In the last couple of years the general trend has been towards more informal and individual trends. Choosing the right attire for your wedding day needs to be a combination of individual taste and style of wedding.
Proper Fitting for a Suit
A great suit doesn’t look so great if it doesn’t fit. To stand out on your wedding day, make sure your suit fits in all the right places:
Shoulders
A properly fitting shoulder is one of the most important parts of fitting a suit. If the suit looks strange on you, or it feels either tight or too roomy, then don’t buy it. Make sure the shoulder pads end with your shoulders.
Sleeves
The sleeve should grace the top of your hand, and your shirt cuff should peek out from the jacket sleeve no more than half an inch.
Length
When your arms are hanging straight down, you should be able to cup your fingers under the sides of your suit jacket. However, these days, with shorter suits in style, some jackets reach only about an inch beyond the cuff of your suit sleeve.
Collar
The collar should lie close to your shirt collar. Any space between your shirt collar and the jacket collar is known as “collar gap” and indicates a poorly fitting shoulder-collar stance. The jacket collar should go about halfway up your shirt collar – showing some, but not all, of your shirt collar.
Front
The top button of a two-button suit — or the middle button of a three-button suit — should not fall below your navel. Your lapels should lay against your chest, but they should not be tight. Your flat hand should slip easily into your suit under the lapels when the top (or middle) button is fastened. If you put a fist in, the suit should pull at the button.
Back
In general, the body of the jacket should be loose enough that you can easily perform normal activities, such as tying your shoes. If the back feels as if it is going to rip, this is a red flag
Top 3 wedding suit Tips
- Begin your search in advance and constantly look at the price tags since several suits cost a large amount of cash.
- Choose a suit with good fabric. Squeeze the fabric, if it bounces back with little or no sign of wrinkling, which means it’s a good, sturdy material.
- If you’re not ordering a custom made suit from a designer, it pays to have your suit altered by a good tailor. Your suit needs to be tailored to your body.
