# British Wedding attire

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-wedding-attire/271071>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 25, 2004, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-wedding-attire/271071 "2004-10-25T16:44:21Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![stargazer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eb8c5e/32.png) [@stargazer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stargazer)\
**Post date:** [October 25, 2004, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-wedding-attire/271071/1 "2004-10-25T16:44:21Z")

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I just saw (most of) the movie _Four Weddings and a Funeral_ this weekend, and I noticed that all or nearly all of the women wore hats to the weddings. Is this still common in the UK? Wearing hats to weddings is quite uncommon in my part of the US (west coast). Also, men who didn’t appear to be part of the wedding party still wore flowers in their lapels, which I’ve not seen before.

Were these things common 10 years ago, when the movie was made, and are they still common now? What are some other differences between US and UK weddings?

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**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\
**Post date:** [October 25, 2004, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-wedding-attire/271071/2 "2004-10-25T16:49:20Z")

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They’e still common now.

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**Author:** ![Duke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Duke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke)\
**Post date:** [October 25, 2004, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-wedding-attire/271071/3 "2004-10-25T16:56:20Z")

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When I was married in England (to an Englishwoman), all the women from her family wore hats, and none of the women in my family did. It was amusing to see my 4’ 11" (now ex-) mother-in-law nearly disappearing under a large sunhat.

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**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\
**Post date:** [October 25, 2004, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-wedding-attire/271071/4 "2004-10-25T18:40:16Z")

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It depends on the type of wedding, and the type of people present. The more traditionally-minded, the more they are to wear hats and buttonholes.

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**Author:** ![Steve\_Wright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@Steve\_Wright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_Wright)\
**Post date:** [October 25, 2004, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-wedding-attire/271071/5 "2004-10-25T22:17:40Z")

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Every family wedding seems to be an occasion for my mother and her sisters to buy new hats … of course, they’re all fairly traditional people.

Fair number of hats on display whenever I walk past the local registry office, too … based on that anecdotal evidence, I reckon the tradition has yet to fall entirely into desuetude.

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**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\
**Post date:** [October 25, 2004, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-wedding-attire/271071/6 "2004-10-25T22:42:19Z")

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I’m single.

My Mum would like grandchildren, but she didn’t want to interfere in my personal life.

So she bought a wedding hat - and made sure I knew about it!