Short answer
Black tie means a dinner suit: midnight or black, peak or shawl lapel, white shirt, black bow tie you tied yourself. Guests honour the code and stay out of the photographs’ centre; the creativity budget is spent in cloth texture, hours d’été and the one allowed flourish — never in colour volume.
The code, decoded for guests
Dinner suit (tuxedo) with satin or grosgrain lapel, white marcella or pleated shirt, black silk bow tie, black patent or highly polished shoes. A pocket square, white; a wristwatch, dress-quiet or absent. The code is a gift: every decision except fit is already made — which is why a properly cut dinner suit is the highest-confidence garment in menswear.
The permitted freedoms
Within the code: midnight blue over black (photographs richer), textured cloth for daytime-adjacent or summer black tie, a single stud set or LINKS with personality. Beyond it lie the errors: long ties, black suits pretending, bright waistcoats in the ceremony photos, and anything that competes with the couple. When in doubt across Europe: quieter.
If a full tuxedo is impossible
The honest fallback: the darkest, sharpest two-piece you own with a white shirt and the best-tied dark tie — acceptably dressed-down but present. Better fallback: MTM tuxedo ordered well ahead. Best: commission one once — see morning suit vs tuxedo for why the purchase lives for decades of invitations.
Planning a real wedding? The house fits grooms and their parties across Europe on the proposed 2027 programme — bring the date and the venue photographs to the first fitting, and the calendar is planned backwards from the day.