Wedding dress code can be a touchy subject to try to get across to your guests. Some are more than happy to be told what to wear while others may need a little more encouragement, or even visual cues.

Weather you’re trying to encourage guests to dress appropriately for the condition of your wedding (ie: a forest wedding with no concrete, or an outdoor winter wedding) or you want to encourage your guests to dress in a theme, I’ve got some helpful tips for you.

Step 1:

Polity indicate on your invitations what the dress code is. Don’t get creative, just be straight forward with your instructions, but make sure to word it as a suggestion and not a demand. for example, if you’re getting married on the beach in the summer, you could indicate on the bottom “PS the wedding will be on the beach. We suggest wearing appropriate footwear for sand.” Use words like Suggest, Encourage, Consider.

Step 2:

Reinforce your dress code on your wedding website. Here is where you can be creative with your suggestions and instructions. You have the space and time to indicate on your wedding website why you are suggesting a certain dress code or what the look you’re going for is. Again, be polite and never force any of your guests into a dress code.

Some things you can do/say on your wedding website:

• Inform your guests of what the look is you’re going for. If you want to have a “Red wedding” you can tell your guests that you are suggesting they wear red because the theme of the wedding is “Red Wedding” and you want the photos from your wedding to look amazing!
• you can use imagery on your wedding website to help show guests what they should consider wearing to your wedding. Have a bunch of inspiration photos from Pinterest or the internet and show some examples of what you’re looking for.
• If you’re having a costume party wedding, you could also inform the guests that you’re having a costume contest at your reception and the winners get a prize. Make it fun for them and give them incentives to have fun with the dress code. This technique could also work for a black-tie wedding or an “out-do-the-bride” dress code. You could have a runway show with your guests and crown the winner afterwords.
• Most importantly, be polite. No one wants find out their wedding website wound up on an “Am I the Asshole” site.

What are your thoughts? Do you have any suggestions you would add?