Proper Wedding Guest Style. . .

You might be able to get away with jeans and one of those awful untucked "going out" shirts at your workplace, at the local bowlong alley, or at a bar on Saturday night, but they are not correct wedding attire.

The wedding season is (almost) upon us. With that in mind, here is a vital bit of information for average guys who want to kick up their everyday sense of style several notches. Are ya ready boys? All right fellas, let's go!

Unless it has been specified on the invitation that an upcoming wedding, to which you are invited, has an ultra casual, southwestern, or (God help us) a country and western theme, the correct attire for male guests at a wedding is an understated suit (gray, charcoal, or navy) with a necktie and recently polished and shined leather dress shoes. Newsflash! Weddings are formal occasions. Jeans are not formal wear.

While most people in most places around the world now wear them, and some pairs of jeans retail for an obscene amount of money, their origins are decidedly proletarian and nothing more. They have no place in a formal setting unless of course you are part of a Hee-Haw themed event, and the bride has decided to model her appearance on the late Minnie Pearl.

My knee-jerk suspicion is that, for some bizarre reason, there are an awful lot of people in 2014 who don't know any better. So, let me set the record straight. To all of those average guys out there who don't want to show up for their college buddy's big day looking like a clueless rube, remember this. Please accord the bride and groom, as well as their families, a high degree of respect on this special (and stressful) day. Attend the festivities in the appropriate clothes, that is an understated suit (gray, charcoal, or navy), a necktie, and pair of polished and shined leather dress shoes.

Even if you mistakenly denigrate and dismiss items like these as markers of the much maligned "rich" upper class, set those working class hero principles to one side for a few hours and demonstrate that you have at least a modicum of grooming, sophistication, and good taste. Show that you know what is appropriate and when. Why stick out like a sore thumb with a pathological dislike of formal occasions and attire? There are such people, of course, but that sort of attitude is not the way to win friends and influence people. Instead, suck it up and wear what you should to formal events like weddings. It ain't goin' to kill ya.

Now, say it with me one more time. For weddings, proper male guest attire includes an understated suit (gray, charcoal, or navy), a necktie, and pair of polished and shined leather dress shoes. There now. That didn't hurt, did it?

-- Heinz-Ulrich

Up North Style. . .

Bad Dad makes a friend. YMP and Bad Dad on the shores of Lake Michigan. Or was that Crystal Lake? The Grand Duchess takes a selfie in her kayak. How NOT to impress the girls sunning themselves along the river. YMP and Bad Dad kayaking on the Platte River headed toward Loon Lake. J ust back from a week in Northern Michigan in a charming and spacious house on the banks of the Betsie River outside of Thompsonville. A largely pleasant seven days despite some challenging episodes with the Young Master, who has picked up some very questionable habits and language from his friends in the 8th Grade during the school year just ended. But otherwise, we enjoyed ourselves and contemplated remaining for a few days longer since the house was available. In the end, we decided to return home as planned originally since neither my wife, nor I wanted to spend the remaining days chained to our computers in Zoom meetings from our vacation destination. I actually managed to leave the laptop and ip

Mid-June Thursday Style. . .

A nother pretty typical variation on the theme for late spring, summer, and very early fall. I'm a huge fan of Madras and have several such shirts in the seasonal rotation. Lightweight, exceedingly comfortable, and even dressy when pressed and tucked in, which is the usual way of things here at Totleigh in the Wold. Now, if I had my druthers, I'd still rather be skiing the trails in the upper half of "The Mitten" (of Michigan), in the Upper Peninsula, or Ontario. But summers ain't so bad either, and I'd look pretty funny walking around in cross-country ski attire during June. -- Heinz-Ulrich

A Lazy Saturday at the End of June. . .

A sleepy first half of the weekend here at Totleigh. Warmer and quite humid ahead of an approaching cool front here in Mid-Michigan. Perfect for yet another pair of chino shorts an a seersucker shirt -- tucked in of course -- with the usual leather deck shoes and ribbon belt. Otherwise, not much accomplished beyond a page or so of writing and monkeying around with audio settings for an upcoming podcast episode. However, I was not completely useless yesterday! I made a huge fruit salad for dinner, which the Grand Duchess and I enjoyed a short while later at the table on the back porch. The Young Master, as is his wont on Saturday evenings, took his dinner on a tray in the TV room upstairs where he whiled away a couple of hours on Flight Simulator, flying some sort of commercial airliner to some destination across the Atlantic or Pacific. I would have loved that sort of technology at about nine or 10 way back during the late 1970s, aka The Stone Age. As it is, my sister and

guyMay 20, 2014 at 4:22 AM
Here in the UK the normal dress code for weddings is either morning dress (please black coats and not grey) or fairly conservative suits. It is a bit like dinner jackets - second hand from charity shops etc are quite acceptable. In fact as far as I am concerned they are far preferable as the material and workmanship is far better quality than some of the modern variants unless you are going to go to the expense of having it made.

My morning suit coat is I believe about 75 years old (!). It belonged to a friends grandfather and was given to me about 30 years ago. It must have been about 40 years old then. I then had the striped trousers made and I team it with a number of waistcoats I have. These depend on the mood and the event. My standard is a fawn coloured one which has mini lapels.

The end result is that the males almost without trying look smart and do justice to the bride. Please though, no top hats!

regards,
Guy

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