Modern groom accessories: pocket squares, ties & tie bars
The small choices that separate a good suit from a great one.
A suit is a canvas. The accessories are how you sign it. Get them wrong and the whole outfit looks like it belongs to someone else; get them right and a mid-range suit looks tailored, expensive and entirely intentional from the top table to the last dance.
The tie and the pocket square
The tie is your anchor for the whole look. On a wedding day, a knitted silk tie in a solid tone-on-tone shade — navy on navy, oatmeal on cream — is quietly modern and photographs beautifully against most Scottish wedding backdrops, from stone-built venues to walled gardens. Skip the wide satin ties; they catch the light in a way that looks dated the moment the flash goes off, and they rarely age well in photographs you'll keep for decades.
Pocket squares work best when they don't match the tie exactly. Choose one from the same colour family — but a different fabric, texture or shade, so it reads as considered rather than bought as a matching set. A crisp white linen square with a straight, unfussy fold is the failsafe option if you're unsure, and it works with almost any tartan or suit colour a Scottish wedding party is likely to be wearing.
Tie bars, watches and the rules that hold it together
Tie bars sit between the third and fourth buttons of your shirt — not lower, not higher — and should be shorter than the width of the tie itself, never longer. In brushed silver or gunmetal, a tie bar is the accessory that quietly says you know what you're doing, without ever drawing attention away from the day itself.
Watches are their own subject, but as an accessory the rule is simple: a leather strap for formal suits, a steel bracelet for smart-casual or tweed, and never both a chunky sports watch and full formal wear in the same outfit. The mismatch is subtle but photographers notice it, and so, eventually, will you.
The three rules that make accessorising a suit easy, whether you're in a formal three-piece or a tweed jacket with an open collar: one texture at a time, one metal at a time, one point of contrast at a time. Break any of those and the outfit gets loud very fast, pulling focus away from your face and towards your cufflinks.
- Knitted silk tie, tone-on-tone, rather than wide satin
- Pocket square in the same colour family, different texture
- Tie bar between the third and fourth shirt button, shorter than the tie
- One metal finish throughout: all silver, or all gold, never mixed
Cufflinks deserve the same restraint as everything else. A simple silver or gold knot, bar or family heirloom pair will always outlast a novelty design, and they're one of the few accessories likely to be worn again long after the wedding itself.
Belts and braces are worth a mention too: choose one or the other, never both, and match the leather of a belt to your shoes rather than to your tie or pocket square.