Article posted Wednesday, July 27, 2011 2:12pm

Dear Mary Pat,

My niece got married this past weekend in Milwaukee. My husband and I got to the church early, so we got to see everyone coming in. I couldn’t help but notice some of the guests’ outfits, particularly the younger ones. Even my husband, who is usually pretty oblivious about fashion, asked me, “What were they thinking when they got dressed this morning?!” I wish I was exaggerating, but out of 150 people, I saw 25 outfits that were wholly inappropriate for a wedding including a teenage boy wearing a white t-shirt, jeans and a tie, a middle-aged man wearing tattered chinos and a golf shirt, and twin 15-year-old girls wearing dresses so short on the bottom and so low on the top that I had to look three times before I was convinced that they were in fact wearing clothing. These crazy outfits also seemed so so so very wrong at the private country club where the reception took place. There is a dress code at the club and I’m not sure how jean boy and chino man were allowed in. All I can hope for is that the photographer focused on my niece and her new husband and not the rag tag bunch of guests that didn’t have a clue about how to dress for a wedding.

Signed,

Dress with Class, Not as Trash

Dear Dress with Class, Not as Trash,

I absolutely do not understand why people would treat a wedding as an occasion to dress as if going to the ballpark or a rave. Men should be in suits, or at the very least dress pants, dress shirts and ties. Women should be in dresses, suits or skirts. It is understood, apparently not in all circles, that dressing provocatively in church is simply not done. Some more traditional churches, for example, do not allow strapless dresses, so women should always have a wrap with them for the church ceremony.

Rules of appropriate attire aside, it should be a show of respect for the couple getting married. Wearing jeans to a wedding sends the signal that you didn’t give any thought to how you dressed, which can also be interpreted as I don’t really care about being at your wedding.

So, those of you attending weddings this summer, please make an effort to dress for the occasion. And if I happen to catch anyone out there wearing a tie with a t-shirt, you can bet that I’m going to remove that tie with a scissors and give directions to the men’s department at Neiman Marcus.

Good luck,

Mary Pat