A bride’s father has sparked a debate about wedding etiquette after he demanded he be allowed to wear an all-white suit to his daughter’s nuptials.
In a recent Reddit post shared to the “Wedding Shaming” subreddit, a sibling of the bride explained that they called their dad to see what he would be wearing to the wedding - only to hear that he was wearing an all-white suit.
“He said as the father of the bride, he feels ‘he has the right to dress however he pleases,’” the Reddit post read.
This led to the bride’s sibling explaining that he might want to rethink his outfit options because it’s normally customary for only the bride to wear white, but he wasn’t changing his mind.
“When I gently told him that typically (read: nine times out of 10) solely the bride wears white for the wedding day, he doubles down and says that my sister already has kids and shouldn’t be wearing white anyhow,” the Reddit poster wrote.
Soon after posting, many people took to the comments to give their opinions on whether or not it would be acceptable for the father of the bride to wear white to the wedding.
According to some users, they didn’t think the father of the bride wearing white would be that big of a deal because there is no chance of him being confused for the bride.
My dads wearing a white suit for my sisters wedding
byu/goldenboy2191 inweddingshaming
“Typically, no one cares if men wear white. As long as the groom isn’t wearing a white suit, I don’t think it’ll matter - my best friend’s dad wore a white suit to her wedding and looked great, didn’t steal attention or anything. Just looked very James Bond,” one commenter wrote.
“Now the thing about her having kids, that’s gross of him,” they added.
Another commenter agreed, writing: “I doubt anyone is going to confuse your dad for the bride, which is the original reason for other women not wearing white to a wedding.”
Other commenters thought that while the bride’s father might not be mixed up with the bride, he might be confused for the groom, who will sometimes wear a white suit on the day of his wedding.
“They honestly could think he’s the groom though. I had a groomsman at a destination wedding who found out only after he arrived that the rental place gave him a white tux jacket instead of the black,” one person wrote in the comments. “People constantly kept thinking he was the groom, even though the bride wasn’t standing with him at all and his wife was with him.”
“My dad wore a white tux when he married my mom. Granted it was 1980,” another commenter noted.
A third category of commenters didn’t view the situation as the sibling’s problem to begin with and suggested it should be brought to the attention of the bride and groom themselves to see what they think about the outfit.
“Aren’t we stretching this no white thing too far now? First, the opinion of the couple matters a lot more than a bunch of strangers on Reddit and second, I see zero chance of him being mistaken for the bride. However, the part about kids is gross,” one commenter explained.
Another commenter agreed, writing: “I don’t think he’ll be confused for the bride. How does your sister feel? Her and her spouse’s opinions [are the only ones] that matter.”
