Long, short. Patterned or plain. Wear a headdress or let your hair dance freely. There are many unknowns about what is proper protocol and what is not at a wedding.
Added to the difficult choice of clothing are the protocol rules that set out in detail what you should, can and are not allowed to wear to a wedding. Although over the years the wedding protocol has lost strength and the bride and groom give their guests more and more flexibility in terms of the dresscode, there are five unbreakable rules at a wedding that every guest must know and respect.
Black is one of the colors that look best but unfortunately, the bridal protocol prohibits it. "The protocol stipulates that the only event you can go to totally in black is a funeral," explained the protocol expert Andrea Vilallonga. However, there is a color that is even more prohibited than black and that can only be worn if the bride allows it: white.
White is the color of the bride. It indicates the protagonist, together with her boyfriend, of the event, so in no case should this shade be worn without the explicit permission of the person getting married. You don't want to overshadow the bride.
The headdress is a must at British royal weddings. In recent years we have experienced a 'boom' of this trend and now we see it continuously at weddings. But putting on a headdress requires a series of obligations and protocol rules to follow. The headdress or hat can only be worn at a daytime wedding, that is, when the ceremony is in the morning and the invitation is at noon.
In addition, as Vilallonga points out, "if you wear a headdress or a hat, you cannot take it off during the entire ceremony, not even during the reception." The only time you can get rid of the accessory is when the dance part begins, in modern times, the disco.
There is a rule in the wedding protocol that curiously, if it is imposed by the couple, nullifies any of those set forth in this article. The bride and groom ultimately decide the 'dresscode' of the guests so what they say goes to mass. Do you want a medieval wedding? The guests must dress up according to the theme, do you want an Ibizan wedding in white? Everyone to look for dresses and suits of this color.
In this sense, Vilallonga reminds us that we must respect the bride and groom's requests, no matter how crazy they may seem. It is their day and they have to be able to live it as they see it in their imagination and, of course, as their pocket allows.
Although the guests do not have half the rules that the guests do, they do have to keep a couple of things in mind. "They cannot take off the jacket at any time during the ceremony or invitation," warns the protocol expert. In fact, this rule can be extrapolated to all the accessories that a man can wear to a wedding. The bow tie or necktie, the cuffs or, in the case of the groom, the morning suit.
The mothers of the bride and groom are guests of honor. They are also, in part, protagonists and therefore can choose the color and shape that pleases them. However, her wardrobe is subject to a single claim that, more than once, can cause conflicts.
"The mother of the groom has to choose the color of her dress first and notify her mother-in-law so that they do not repeat the hue," says Vilallonga, adding that it is one of the most traditional rules in wedding protocol.
The golden rule of weddings, but the most neglected in these times is the length of the dress according to the type of wedding attended. At night weddings you have to go long, while in daytime ceremonies you have to wear a short dress. And what is short? As long as it is not up to the feet, it enters the measure.
