Groom’s and Groomsmen’s Buttonholes

When choosing the buttonholes for the bridal party, size does matter!!!

But not the way you may be thinking… the smaller or understated, the better.

At one wedding I attended the Groom’s and Groomsmen’s buttonholes were so ridiculously large it looked like the bridal party had been attacked by a plant just before walking through the chapel door!

‘Understated’ is a good guideline to follow.

Traditionally the men’s buttonholes match the colour of the bride’s bouquet and/or the bridesmaid’s dresses. But different colours have been used in some instances and remained effective and elegant.

At one wedding, the Bridesmaids wore a dark pink and the Bride carried a bouquet of roses with the same pink intermingled with cream roses. The groomsmen wore soft pink buttonholes – the colour the dark pink mixed with the cream would make on a canvas… at least that’s how it was described to me. And the outcome – it looked gorgeous.

At another the wedding the Bridesmaid’s dresses were a rich blue and the Groomsmen wore black suits, paisly ties with the same blue featured throughout, a handkerchief of the same blue peeping out from a breast pocket, and a white carnation as their buttonhole. Ve-ery nice!

The moral to the story? Don’t be afraid to break with tradition. The only guideline I’d recommend is keeping the buttonholes to a reasonable size – no one wants their groom to look like he treked through the Amazon to get to your wedding.

Important Notes:
Buttonholes are worn on the left coat lapel.
They are generally worn by:

• the groom 
• groomsmen
• bride’s man
• father of the bride
• father of the groom
• grandfathers of the bride
• grandfathers of the groom, and
• ushers