The Men

So now that you and your ladies (the hardest to situate fashion wise) are taken care of, what about your groom?

Well, you can go to Dark Garden and look over a dress for the 1800s where her groom was a fashionable man in a robin's egg blue outfit.

Or, you can put them in tuxedos. There is nothing wrong with the formal suit we wear now, except that it's not period. However, it's cheap, easy to find, and looks good.

Another option for those doing a historic/Renaissance wedding or even a Scottish/Irish heritage group is the kilt.

Now, here is where we get from being a general blog to being quite specific. I sell kilts and most people don't know all of the details, "rules" and whys of it all. Now:

Kilts are pretty old and Irish men CAN wear them; they are just broken into counties.

The kilt you want for your wedding for the groom is either a casual or piper's/formal. Casuals have more tartan (Woven fabric, usually worsted wool) and pipers more so. The more fabric, the more formal (cost more money in the day.). Pipers from my boss are also hand sewn instead of being machine sewn; 15,000 stitches worth. Casuals have close to that number and are run on a sewing machine. Pipers have the most pleats, most fabric, and sporran loops.

Sporrans are a MUST! They are your pocket, guys. They should hang in front of your... erm.."boys" is the term we use in the faires. Formal sporrans these days are heavily adorned black leather with either some rabbit/bovine hide (with hair) or silver metal. The belt/chain goes through the loops on your casual or piper. NEVER your belt, you will ruin the kilt.

Finally, every guy needs a fine suit belt ( or a nice belt) no thinner than 1.5 inches and no wider than 2 inches. Thinner doesn't hold it up (there are no buttons, zippers, latches, or anything else) and wider won't grab the fabric enough; either way it will fall down.

Either the groom wears a Prince Charlie Jacket and the other men wear an Argyll jacket or they all wear Prince Charlies. The only difference is the cut. Renting them is easiest and www.kiltrental.com is one of the resources to use. They even rent out kilts and send them quickly.

We are buying the kilts and renting the jackets (jackets sell for approximately 360). Each gentleman is wearing a Victorian style kilt in the same tartan. We sell a poly blend which allows the wearer to machine wash and dry their kilt.

My groom is wearing a 14oz worsted wool, Dark Isle, handsewn piper's kilt. We are buying a dark brown bovine sporran for him to wear.

Of course we have to buy extra yardage in the Dark Isle for my arisaid/plaid, wool hose for the guys, make flash to match, and find ties which will work.

For more photos than these (I am still working on getting them to sit right in the blog) check out Goodsearch or Google. Or watch Made Of Honor, a movie which features a Scottish wedding.