LAST week’s article was about what to wear to a wedding as female invited guests and the things to consider when buying the attire which will be appropriate for a daytime and night time wedding.
White is not to be worn as this is the colour of the bride and colors like dark blue matched with sky blue are not appropriate for a wedding celebration as these are worn as uniforms by many companies.
Today’s article will help you understand what to wear and what not to wear for any type of wedding.
The wedding guest attire should match the formality of the event as this makes the function memorable.
Now that you have received the invitation card for your friends or family member’s wedding and you have started shopping for their gift, when suddenly it hits you that you have to find what to wear on that special day.
Many are the times that you are have been invited to a wedding , but not quite sure about what to wear and what not to wear.
The rules are different for different times of day as well as the formalities. The formalities are informal, formal, semi-formal, and ultra-formal.
The formal standards for proper wedding guest list can vary greatly depending on the style of the wedding.
You will have to become a little bit of a detective, but fear not, there are clues everywhere that can help you.
The wedding invitation card and the time of the wedding will be your best guide to its formality and other factors which will influence your attire choice.
Many people see weddings as an opportunity to dress up and look their very best. Guests clothing should be appropriate to an occasion and take it as a serious ceremony and also that it takes place in the house of worship.
When the wedding is informal daytime as a man you can wear a shirt, trouser tucked in and a jacket, while for an informal evening go for a suit.
Semi-formal daytime wedding a suit will really look good and for a semi-formal evening wear a dark suit.
A formal daytime wedding the right attire would be a dark suit and neck tie, on the other hand a formal evening attire would be a tuxedo, that is if the invitation states black tie or dress up in a dark suit if the lady you are with is wearing a just below the knees length dress.
For an ultra-formal evening or white tie, west coat and a plain shirt will absolutely look good.
The Do’s are that wear a dark suit with a tie if the wedding is starting at 18:00 Hours and does not say “black tie”.
Do use good judgment if the invitation card doesn’t specify the formality of the event. A dark suit and conservative tie will take you just about anywhere.
Men out there don’t wear a tuxedo during the day time, regardless of the formality of the wedding.
Don’t wear white, it’s better to be safe than sorry so choose a different colour, no black to a daytime wedding.
Don’t wear jeans no matter how casual the wedding may look, anything too revealing, anything torn with holes all over, too big or small for you! Not appropriate for a wedding.
Anything sleeveless, shorts to a religious wedding no! We know that God has made you are fearfully and wonderfully so bring a jacket to cover your shoulders and a trouser to replace the shorts.
The soccer jerseys oh my! Have become a common trend at most weddings but that is what not to wear to such an event.
It is a good thing to support chipolopolo or shipolopolo or any European Club, I support them too but the soccer jersey does not go from a stadium to a wedding celebration.
Most of these jerseys are imitations to an extent that even the names of players written on then are wrongly spelled Kennedy Mweene is spelled as “KenedyMwene”, Juan Mata spelled as “One Mata”.
Even if you are a sportsman don’t wear a soccer jersey at a wedding. Speaking of sportsmen, this reminds me of Sunzu who is a sportsman and yet he wore a suit on his own wedding.
I received a mail from one of the regular readers of this column and they wanted me to write about bride price.
I have just written a short summary about the purpose of bride price because this is not what this column is all about.
It is actually a biblical requirement that the man that intends to marry a virgin pay the bride price.
This originated from the Hebrew custom and is directly opposed to other cultures that require the opposite, like the Indian culture. We have adopted the Hebrew custom because God has endorsed it.
The purpose of the bride price is to pay for the virginity of the bride and as the years have passed on, there has been dilution to this requirement.
In the Hebrew custom, if a man pays the brides price and finds that the woman he married is not a virgin, he was to divorce her immediately and demand his money back which should be paid without delay.
The bride price is not the same as buying a property, but it is a requirement for every man who wants to marry has to pay because marriage is validated by three things namely, the payment of the bridal price, the blessing of parents or guardians and ultimately God’s blessing.
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