What to wear to a wedding when the invitation only says smart casual

Wedding dress codes mean different things to the couple, the venue and you. Smart casual is the worst of them, because it is what people write when they do not want to be strict, and it leaves everyone guessing.

What the codes usually mean

Black tie means a dinner suit or a long dress. Formal, or black tie optional, means a dark suit will not look out of place. Cocktail means a suit without the black tie, or something shorter. Smart casual at a wedding almost never means what it means at work: assume a jacket, leave the tie at home, and skip the trainers.

Garden and beach weddings change the shoes more than anything else. Grass and sand will ruin a stiletto and a leather sole in about an hour.

The two rules that still hold

Do not wear white, or anything close enough to read as white in photographs. And do not try to outshine the wedding party. Everything else varies by family, culture and venue.

Dress for the whole day

You will be in this outfit for twelve hours, some of it outdoors, some of it sitting, some of it dancing. A jacket you can take off, a shirt that survives being worn all day, and shoes you can stand in are worth more than the sharpest thing you own.

Put it together before the week of

The usual failure is discovering on the Friday that the suit needs pressing and the shoes need reheeling. Lay it out a fortnight ahead. If your wardrobe is catalogued you can assemble the look on your phone, and find out then that the trousers do not go with the jacket.