Afternoon wedding / evening reception ?

[Colquhoun]

Greetings all

I'm attending, as a guest, the wedding of a friend this upcoming Saturday out here in Orange County CA.

The ceremony is scheduled for a 3:30pm church service, but the reception is a 5:30/6pm-ish evening reception at a nearby yacht club. An after hours party will round out the festivities in the hotel bar.

The Groomsmen, father of the groom, as well as the ushers, will all be in PC's with bowties, even though word of mouth says the nuptials will be semi-formal. My problem, at least from my point of view, is the reception.... which will be more of an evening affair at one of the better known local yacht clubs here in OC. To the best of my knowledge the guest list appears to run the gambit of numerous tax brackets so I expect everything from designer suits to shirt/tie/slacks combos.

Wanting to make sure I'm not completely underdressed for the reception, but also not wanting to blend with the wedding party in the afternoon, (coupled with my aversion for wearing a formal coat and the fact they were out of one in my size) I'm weighing an alternative suggestion by the good folks from the Tartan Patch down in Tustin.

Reminded that folks out here in SoCal tend to be a little more relaxed with their dress codes, along with their fondness for adding personal touches to even the most traditional wear, I/we came up with the following:

My Colquhoun modern semi-trad coupled with a black, banded-collar tuxedo shirt, mother of pearl stud over the top button, black hose, matching tartan flashes, a silver/dark gray full mask sporran, and a nice pair of lace-up black dress shoes. Added to this, at my discretion, will be a PC waistcoat (rental) to take things up a notch if I so choose. In other words, I'm going sans jacket.

Other than the black dress shirt, and looking like I parked my coat somewhere, which I assume will be the norm shortly after the reception gets going, I'm hoping I should be acceptably attired. My only worry is that if I decide to wear the vest to the wedding, it has those adjustable straps on the back and may look a bit out of place.

Anyone have a thoughts or suggestions?

Brett