What to Wear for Your Portland Wedding

Formal vs. Informal

Serving Portland and surrounding suburbs.
Central Oregon and other areas by arrangement.

You’re Wearing What????

You’ve chosen a gorgeous outdoor setting for your ceremony and reception, the bride is planning to wear a formal wedding gown, the bridesmaids will be dressed in floor-length satin dresses, and the groom and his attendants will wear tuxedos. The guests will be decked out as well, many of the men wearing suits and ties. The guests will be seated in beautiful white chairs covered in beautiful flowing fabric. And now, the big question...

What to Wear for Your Portland Wedding

Yes, the Setting is Beautiful... But it's Hot!

I can tell you, with 100% certainty, that if it's 85 degrees outside for your 5 pm outdoor August wedding in full sun, people will be miserable. I promise. Please think twice about forcing your best friends to wear multiple layers of polyester blends on the hottest day of the year. Consider this example:
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The wedding I planned (and officiated) for Sheila and Greg took place in a charming old barn on a friend's property, and their friends spent many hours cleaning and decorating the barn for the September wedding. Shelia insisted that the men in the wedding party wear matching suits (though they were all cowboys who didn't own suits). And Shelia wore a formal wedding gown… with a train! It was a beautiful sunset wedding, but the temperature at sunset in central Oregon can be as high as 90 degrees, and the barn did not have air conditioning!

Need I say more?

I warned them about this, but they couldn't see past their romantic vision, which included a room full of large, noisy fans. All those did was move the hot air around and make our voices impossible to hear. Sheila's train was dragged through the dirt, she almost fainted from the heat during the ceremony, and the wedding photos showed armpit stains on her expensive dress. We rushed through the ceremony so people could hurry up and get outside into the fresh air. People were not happy.
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In another example, Alex and Andrea had a formal wedding on a beautiful beach. Their well-dressed guests had to walk through burning hot sand to get to the shoreline ceremony site. They were then forced to stand in the blazing sun for the duration of the ceremony, since nobody thought to bring chairs. The bride and her attendants sweated in their formal gowns, while the groom and his posse wilted in rented tuxes.

Why???

If you're getting married on a beach or on a ranch in the hottest month of the year, I implore you to please do NOT have a formal wedding! Let the bride wear a lightweight cotton dress, and let the groom and his attendants wear drawstring yoga pants and Hawaiian shirts, or jeans and cowboy boots. If you want something more formal, get married in a more formal environment. Beaches, forests, parks and backyards are not suitable for formal wear. Let the venue dictate the fashion. Nature knows what it needs. Listen to her.

It is critical to think seriously about what to wear for your Portland wedding!

With the exception of Central Oregon, if your wedding is going to be outdoors anytime between mid-September and early July, plan on the possibility of rain..

The way to decide what to wear depends on several factors, including:

Outdoors or indoors?

A beach or park? A winery? A church? A hotel ballroom?

Winter, spring, summer or fall?

The overall tone of the event: Casual or formal?

What kind of people will be there? Rowdy bikers? Buddhist monks? Church ladies?

Appropriate attire for a wedding at a ranch in Portland

A well-dressed bridal party for a family ceremony at a Portland home

This is perfect for a beach wedding

And this is just plain ridiculous for a beach wedding

More about wedding attire
Fun Western wear in Central Oregon
Bridal Wear with a Conscience

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