Guests wearing red?

I think people are likely to feel uncomfortable if they rock up wearing red, so I would put a note. I, personally, wouldn't necessarily have thought of this if I were attending a Chinese wedding and would be mortified to later learn I'd worn something inappropriate, so maybe include something like -

We are excited to combine our cultures for our wedding! Traditionally, red is reserved for the bride in Chinese culture, so we appreciate your choice to avoid this colour.

If you don’t care that guests wear red, I wouldn’t bother mentioning it. It’s not likely many guests would wear red for an afternoon wedding in May anyway.

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I totally agree with Rosie. It can very easily be a big deal for the guests, so I would (as a guest) love to see a heads up somewhere (maybe in the Q&A) of the wedding website. Even if (as Caytlyn said) guests don't wear the *exact* shade of red to the your event, I would (after knowing that the bride was wearing red) avoid wearing dark pink, maroon, etc....anything in the red family. Just as I avoid ivory, light beige, light gray, etc. when attending a wedding where the bride is wearing white. OP, you don't have to go super explicit on this....but giving people a heads up would avoid a lot of potential embarrassment for your guests.

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I agree with Rosie! Although you may not care if your guests wear red, they might feel like they're disrespecting you in some way if they end up wearing red or something that has red in it!

As a guest, I love having guidance on what I should/shouldn't wear to an event, so having that note would be really helpful!

View Quoted Comment This. If you don’t care what they wear, don’t mention anything. It’s impolite to mention any dress code on the invitation unless it’s black tie required by the venue or something cultural. Since you mentioned you don’t care what they wear, leave it alone. It will be less awkward if you don’t mention it.

I don't think it would hurt at all to put a note about it. As Rosie said, I would feel terrible if I wore red not knowing, even if you didn't care. Making a casual sounding note on your website would be just fine. Some people don't even look at it, but those who do may choose to alter their outfits accordingly.

Maybe you can put a very light note on your website along with your suggested dress code. Like, we say to avoid spiky heels because we'll be on grass. You can say it's a Chinese tradition for the color red to be reserved for the bride and groom, and leave it up to them to understand. 😊 Gongxi! (If you understand Mandarin at all, idk 😅)

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Yes, I would do this too! I wouldn't even wear like, a floral dress with a white background or a very pale pastel dress - just in case!

And, even if the bride wouldn't care, you never know if older family would be there, giving you the stink eye for wearing something inappropriate, even though you didn't know!

Funnily enough, I tend to dress very conservatively for weddings just to be sure I don't offend anyone, so I generally would steer away from bright, scarlet red anyway, just because it feels a bit... attention-grabbing and I wouldn't like to be seen as trying to draw attention away from the bride. But I would potentially wear darker wine reds, fuschias etc, so knowing the whole gamut of red was out would be good to know as a guest!

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I agree with this. I would be *horrified* to accidentally match the bride (or bridal party for that matter, though that's a whole 'nother story). Like Rosie, I probably wouldn't wear a scarlet red, but I might wear fuschia or something.

FWIW - I went to my cousin's wedding a few years ago and was invited to the rehearsal and dinner. They already had the tables set up for the next day and I discovered that the dress I brought (from out of state) was the same color as the wedding! Luckily, I brought a backup dress, but I was horrified that I might have worn the same color as the bridesmaids (accidentally. Now I think about it - it was a fuschia dress.

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Haha, I would feel the same as you, but just to provide you some comfort from my perspective as a bride... pink is my absolute favourite colour, the bridesmaids are wearing it, etc, and if anyone rocked up wearing it, I would be VERY happy and not upset at all! In my mind it would be a nod to something I love very much, and I would find that quite touching.

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My cousin was the groom, though - which makes it a tad more awkward, since I didn't know her at *all* lol

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Thanks for all of the helpful advice! My sister came up with an ingenious idea: In the "dress code" section on our website, we shared as examples of the dress code that the groom is wearing a navy suit and i'm wearing a red dress. Mentioning his outfit too makes me feel less like a bridezilla and this is a more concrete example for guests to decide on their outfits.

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Ugh, for real! The more distant I am from the couple, the more conservatively I tend to dress, just in case, haha!