Aside from the question of who in sound mind would plan their big day to fall during the darkest depths of winter, figuring out what to wear to a winter wedding is more often than not a complete pain in the backside.

Black tie? Red tie? Air tie? Go sans-socks or wear bright white tennis socks? We’re joking, don’t even entertain the thought of white socks. Counterintuitively, deciding which clothes to put on to celebrate the eternal (fingers crossed) union of two kindred souls is painful, passionless and devoid of warm feeling.

While we can’t advise on how stingy or spendthrifty you should be with your gift, we can advise on how to nail your winter wedding getup, whether you’re a groom, part of the wedding party or one of those (quietly seething) people who has only been invited to the after-party.

Winter Wedding Style Rules

Read The Dress Code

It’s ironic that many couples spend hours agonizing over the thickness and graphic design of their invitations but blithely ignore the ridiculous ambiguity of their designated dress code. So, it’s up to you (or rather us) to read between the lines.

If the invitation prescribes black tie, in plain English that’s a dinner suit (AKA a tuxedo), a white dress shirt, a black bow tie, black high-shine shoes and black socks. ‘Black tie optional’ is much the same, though you can go less formal with a plain black necktie.

Semi-formal is a trickier beast to master. In a nutshell, those two words mean formal, but not top hat and tails formal. So, a full suit is a must: navy, grey, charcoal, mid-blue all acceptable here. With your accessories, play it safe with a tie – dark, muted colours are no brainers, while stripes and polka dots are the easiest patterns to pull off. If you insist on going air tie tuck a pocket square into your blazer’s breast pocket to swerve hard-day-at-the-office vibes.