Black tie wedding - what would YOU wear?

[Cheeky Little Monkey]

I have a wedding to go to in early October.
It is a 3pm ceremony and the invite states dress is BLACK TIE. So my question is ....what would you wear? How flash or formal should I be?

[melannh]

Black Tie means formal (in the terms of what i understand). I have gone to a number of black tie weddings and it means - Formal attire.

For ladies it would be something quite formal. Either a full-length dress and quite dazzling.... It is easier for women to dress things up though with accessories.

For men - it means a tuxedo (in proper terms) and bow tie... If you don't think the people of the wedding are really into that, I would check that they've used the right terminology. For yourself - (if you don't mind wearing black to a wedding) the easiest is a simple black dress with elegant jewellery to jazz it up!

[Lastcenturymum]

Formal is rather odd for a 3pm wedding - though you can probably get a clue from where the reception is and what time it is. Hardly anyone wears long dresses to a wedding, that would be more evening wear. Yeah, I'd check with them too - my nephew put formal on his invite and it was really just normal dress up stuff. They probably didn't want bogan friends turning up in jeans!!

[~mia&ryan~]

I would definately check with them, they probably have a certain look in mind... At least that way you know you will be wearing the right thing..

[TTannyaa]

My niece put formal on her wedding invite too only because she was marrying into a family with bogan tendencies and didn't want thongs at her wedding. I just wore a nice mid-calf black dress with heels and bling bling.

Goodluck.

[rynosmum]

I agree with Mel - full length and dazzling, at least that is what has been worn at the black tie weddings we have been to.

3pm ceremony then probably a 5pm reception - sounds reasonable for formal attire.

[Rachael]

Tux for the men and full length formal dress for the ladies.

Thats what it means to me anyway but if your not sure then definately check.

[Niki]

i would check with them and other people that you know who are going also

[missie_mack]

If it were formal I would just say suit and tie/dress but as it is black tie I would say yes you will need an evening dress. Not neccessarily long though you could get away with a cocktail style dress.....
The timing factor generally has more to do with the time the after function is (generally after 6pm) but I don't know if that rule is really applied anymore:confused:

[Cheeky Little Monkey]

Thanks for the replies ladies, I am clueless when it comes to things like this. I think I will go with a cocktail length dress and hope that I can find something that will suit and not be too expensive.

[twolittlegirls]

Our wedding was black tie. Suits with bow ties and cocktail dresses. Part of the reason we said black tie was with the hope that people would dress up, eg. men wearing ties.

Oh, we got married at 3.00pm so its not that unusual.