Wedding Dress Code - Only Black Allowed

[YorkshirePuddingsGreatestFan]

I'm going to a wedding but the bride has specified that all guests must wear black only and no colours. Not even coloured shoes or accessories. Herself and the groom will both be wearing white.

She's seen a video online which I've looked at with a black dress code. However that wedding is outdoors in sunny weather. The women are all wearing clothes that show plenty of skin - bare arms, bare legs, low necklines in lightweight fabrics. The various shades of skin breaks the black clothing up and it looks ok.

This wedding is in the winter in a very cold location, so I'll need to be wearing heavier fabric with long sleeves, high neckline and thick tights on. I would imagine the other women will be covering up to keep warm. I don't think it'll work as there will be no skin to break the black colour up. I think we'll all just look like one big black lump with several heads on the group photos!

I also don't suit black at all. I'm very pale skinned and it makes me look washed out and unwell. My mother has pale skin and is also concerned about this.

Just wondering if anyone has been to a wedding with such a strict dress code and how did it turn out?

Doesn't matter what anyone thinks. That's what the bride(zilla) has asked for....so you either go in black or not at all.

Does she not like her fiancee? Is she making a point of some kind......

It will look like a funeral. But that’s her choice!

To answer the specific question....went to a party with a strict code.....it was stressful- the photos looked good but would gave preferred no stress. It involved buying new clothed for the kids etc.

It will look like you've all turned up to their funerals but whatever they want I suppose..

Bit odd. I imagine it'll look more like a funeral than a wedding.

It probably looks better in her head than it will in real life.

What had happened to weddings! What about great aunt Jane who wears the same two piece to every wedding, or nana who likes pale blue. Are they all just about the pics now

Wear something colorful under a black button up jacket and take off jacket when bride is drunk and doesn't care anymore about her ridiculous rules anymore

Oh dear.

I was at a very smart hotel/ golf place for lunch once and a wedding party with a “wear black” dress code arrived. It looked awful, partly because there are so many shades of black ( strange but true) so it didn’t look suave and sophisticated as I assume had been the plan, it looked like a hotch potch and it also looked very gloomy. My friend said it’s either an undertakers convention or they have called in catering staff reinforcements to hand out the canapes !

The only way it could work is if the guests are all dressed by the same designer using the same dye and fabric the black is broken up by additional white or another very strong colour.

I've been to weddings in the US where most of the guests wore black even without being ordered to. They all looked fine. It's considered smart and not necessarily funereal in the urban US for weddings in swanky locations at the cocktail hour and later.

It's a bit wanky of the bride and groom but it's nice to have a smart black outfit in your wardrobe.

You could also rent something.

I've never heard of this and it sounds incredible pretentious and awkward.

Maybe re-evaluate your friendship circle?!

I have been to a few weddings in America, I am not American but have relatives there where the code is Tux so basically evening gowns. Just dint worry about it at least it’s quite basic, just get a black dress that at some point you can wear again with a splash of colour. I saw a fab Coast black dress in a charity shop for a tenner last week. If you don’t wear black much at all just do a charity shop trawl.

What's worse is that random people will not comply. Great Aunty Edie will think it's silly and she always wears this orange dress, and Grannie Jane will think it doesn't mean entirely so she'll wear black and pink, and someone else will only have a black dress with little flowers on it so they'll wear that...
So the homogenous black mass she's hoping for will look bitty and random

This, she’s imagining a movie cast all in designer stuff, not your average person in whatever black outfit they can find

I think dress codes for weddings are ill-mannered. Fair enough if the bride and groom want the immediate wedding party in their preferred outfits and I wouldn't have a problem with a voluntary dress code eg we're big Disney fans so feel free to come as a Disney character if you'd like to. However, to stipulate to all guests that they have to come dressed in black / as pirates / as hobbits etc seems absurdly self-indulgent.

What you think is irrelevant, it's her wedding so either wear something black or don't go. I'd actually love this and bet the pics will look fab.

Sounds amazing. Most of my wardrobe is black!!

the pics are going to look awful imo. Someone else called it earlier in the thread - this only works in move fantasy land in which all your friends and family are impossibly thin, glossy and glamorous AND MOST IMPORTANTLY as someone else said, all wearing the same shade of black.

it’s going to look shit IRL. And there’ll be at least one person who thinks ‘fuck it’ and turns up in dark brown or navy blue because ‘no one will notice’.

Seems like it is a thing.

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/bride-wedding-black-dress-code-b2408157.html

I wonder whether everyone wearing black will mean her marriage will last longer. A marriage is not about the wedding photos

And of course the insta posts are what it's all about, not what your guests want to dress themselves in!

I wouldn't go personally, bloody telling me what colour to wear 😆

No way would I be told what to wear to a wedding. People are nuts. I wouldn’t be going and I’d tell her why.

It's not going to look like that on a wet day in Slough.

Wonder what she would do if someone turns up and has a hint of colour in an item of clothing.

Wear a suit

I went to one last winter where the dress code was all black for guests, I took the opportunity to goth it up massively and had a lovely time. The pictures did look a bit gloomy and funeraly, and a pp is right, there are SO many different shades of black so it wasn't as matchy matchy as I think the bride wanted. But I got to wear my spooky finery so I didn't care.