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?

I bought my bridesmaids dresses from a popular high street store. A guest arrived wearing the same dress in a different colour. We thought it was hilarious and she became a honorary bridesmaid.

I'd suck it up. Buy a cheap black dress from Vinted and be done.

This is the best post on the thread. Weddings used to be modest affairs bringing two families together to celebrate a marriage. There'd be a lot more family than friends on the guest list. Nobody told them what to wear, they just wore their best clothes as a mark of respect and nobody cared if everybody had seen the outfits a dozen times before. Who actually looks at wedding photos more than once? I can't remember the last time I looked at ours, from 40+ years ago. When I remember the day, I think about the people who were there, not what they were wearing.

@DappledThings no it doesn't it looks like a cocktail dress

I would wear my funeral outfit. It won't look like a wedding in the photos, but their choice.

I would hate this. Mostly because the only black clothes I own are a set of thermal base layers and some ankle boots. It would be a look 💃

It’s the bride and groom’s choice. Completely up to them. Olivia Atwood had this at her wedding and it looked quite striking tbh… not my vibe but I still thought it worked

Whatever about the ladies having black dresses (and I don't and never had a black dress) it's virtually impossible to get a decent mens black suit that doesn't look like a cheap shiny material. Neither I nor dh would buy an outfit just for a wedding which we'd more than like not wear again. It'd be a no rsvp from us. Actually my mum would never wear black either, she's a smart bright 90 year old who loves dressing up but she wouldn't wear black ever.

It's no bride or grooms choose how I dress! I'd reply and say I'm not wearing black and wait for them to say you can't come then ...... friendship then over 🤷‍♀️

I just wouldn't go.

I hate black, never wear it and I can't afford to buy something to never wear it again.

I've been to more funerals than weddings and have always worn dark, but not black dresses.

My friend who died of breast cancer asked that everyone wear preferably pink, but another bright colour if they didn't have anything pink.

Having a bit of a chuckle here - lifestyle vintage Goth that I am I've been to many weddings where black was derigeur for all.

Now what I find awkward is all the funerals I go to asking for bright colours. That's a challenge for me.....

I would love this as l have a few nice black dresses and wonder about wearing one of them to every wedding but chicken out in case l look like l am in mourning. I would grab one of my black dresses and head off..no thinking to do.
Also l would wear a black jacket so l could show some skin..arms..later.

When I read about these bridezilla women and their pretentious wedding ambitions I always think that people could save a fortune by not going and not giving presents. It's incredibly wrong for a bride, and it's almost always the woman, to dictate to the guests how they dress, she's a bride not a casting director.

With those semi-sheer bits so you can see the bra shape and the tacky lace bits that mean it barely covers the wearer's arse? I'd be raising my eyebrows to the roof at anyone wearing that to a wedding.

I would channel my inner Moira Rose.

Wedding dress rules for guests are frankly tacky as fuck. Everyone's a piece of the bride's grand vision, blah, blah blah....nope, its just rude and invariably looks naff. It mat look faintly stylish in Instagram pictures, which are perfectly lit and professionally styled, with people who look like models. I doubt that describes this bride's friends and family.

I happen to look good in black, I own a lot 9f black clothes and could put together an ace black wedding outfit. It's bloody gloomy if everyone is in black - even funerals don't have guests in head to toe black these days!

Fuck that. I wouldn't go.

Or go wearing scarlet? 😆

I would love this. I look best in black and it’s so much easier than thinking about colours.

I won't stand for this crap. If they want me there then I will wear an outfit or my choosing.

This is absolutely nothing to do with the colour scheme of the OP’s friend’s wedding (which I obviously hate, they v v unreasonable) but why when people reminisce about how much better ye olden times weddings were do they always say ‘there was always more family than friends on the guest list’ as though a wedding with family is better than one with friends? My extended family are FUCKING INSANE and awful people, and I would much rather attend their funerals than their weddings but my friends are BRILLIANT. So why do people say shit like that? It always happens!

Who the hell demands what someone else wears? When my son got married the only thing I asked was for me not to be in the same colour as MOB and bridesmaids. I decided what I would wear and what colour. No one would have persuaded me to wear what I didn't want.

I'm sorry about your family. My family aren't fucking insane and awful people and neither were my husband's (mostly dead now) so we were happy to have them there. Few of the people we were friendly with over 40 years ago are still in our lives now, but family are. I don't think that's uncommon. Obviously it's different if you don't get on with them.

I personally love it. I bet the pictures will look amazing, and I’m going out on a limb here but my bets are the vast majority of people own something smart and black. so actually pretty easy to dress for the wedding without buying something new. Also most people look good in black IMO.

(Although obviously not OP - I’m sorry because that is unfortunate for you in this case!)

but regardless, if it was someone I cared about enough to go to their wedding, they could tell me to wear a bikini or a burka and I would make sure I was there for it.

Yeah the photos will look great...... the marriage maybe not so much!

@Allthatwegotisthispalebluedot not all families are mad...