Dress Code Difference for Wedding Guests

Formal attire is (or is similar enough to) black tie. That means men in tuxedos and women in floor-length gowns. Cocktail attire is more typical party attire. Men wear suits and women can wear a larger variety of things like a nice short or knee-length dress, a jumpsuit, or a pant suit.

Formal is close to "black tie optional", meaning some men will be in tuxes, and some will choose suits and ties. women will choose tea or floor length gowns.

Cocktail you will see suits with ties, and without. Probably no tuxes. Some women may choose long dresses, but not gowns. Some will choose knee length nice dresses.

Both are great options!

Formal attire is almost like "black tie" (men in suits and women in long gowns).

Cocktail is more flexible where guys can wear button up tops or polos. Women on the other hand can wear long, or short dresses.
I'm not having a dress code for my guests (I'm just either eloping or doing a microwedding).

I used to think formal/black tie optional, after going to military formals for years and shorter dresses being acceptable (men in dress uniform or black tie) but I’ve learned here that formal/black tie is wayy dressier! Floor lenght gowns, after 6 pm, valet parking, several courses, valet parking…SO much more than I thought!
Possibly the military version was to reduce the financial burden on lower enlisted?
I digress! This is why I’m having an afternoon wedding, so most everyone will know to dress up but not have to invest in expensive clothes.

Https://www.masterclass.com/articles/a-guide-to-dress-codes#a-guide-to-7-different-dress-codes Lists cocktail as semi formal, default for weddings. Fancier than a sundress but not a ball gown and can be any length. They list formal as black tie with suits/tuxedos, long ball gowns. Shopping for your attire at a formal wear store rather than Dillards or Nordstrom.


We are doing semi formal though we aren’t listing it on invites because that isn’t done in our circles. However if a guest wants to dress fancier, that is fine.

I think if a dress code isn't specified, most people will generally assume cocktail attire/"their Sunday best". Most people will generally wear something nice to a wedding unless a specifically formal or nonformal dress code is designated, or unless a theme of some sort is designated.

View Quoted Comment This has always been my experience as a guest and I have never seen or heard of dress codes on an invitation prior to WW, even for the super formal ones.

View Quoted Comment Nordstroms here (DC area) has a huge formal wear section, and suits/dinner jackets that can cost several thousand. They also tailor as part of the price so it’s a great place to get formal wear!

We had our suggested attire listed as "formal" on our wedding website, mostly because we didn't want people to feel pressured to rent tuxes since we had so many out of town guests and guests in different financial situations (and renting a tux is expensive). Our venue is typically known for black tie weddings and we had all of the traditional components of a black tie wedding, so we felt that listing our attire as "formal" provided an easy way out for guests to not have to rent tuxes and ballgowns. While a few people did show up in tuxes, for the most part the men wore suits and the women wore either dressier cocktail dresses or long ballgowns.

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Same here. If my husband wanted to buy a suit or tux at Nordstrom, it would easily cost 5x as much as those at Men's Wearhouse. Maybe that's because we're in a big city. I've also gotten several formal ballgowns at Nordstrom and their in-house tailoring is very convenient