“Summer wedding” has nearly become a redundant phrase - the most popular months for weddings are, in order, June, August, May, and July. So if you’re going to a wedding, there’s a very good chance it will be during the summer.

But there are summer weddings and then there are summer weddings. The second category is for outdoor ceremonies with dress codes that allow something other than the typical dark suit. You may welcome this permissiveness, but be aware that just being able to wear something other than a dark suit doesn’t mean that you can wear anything. Our summer wedding page is your Virgil to guide you in your journey through options from tastefully estival to damnably outrageous.

The easiest change to make is simply to wear a suit in a summer color. Solaro is a classic of the genre. You keep the same white shirt you’d wear with your navy suit, and add slightly more casual shoes and tie. (If you don’t want to risk something as casual as a knit tie, raw silk is also a good choice.)

A step further would be to pick a louder summer fabric and lose the necktie. Many of the best summer fabrics are slubby, like this silk, wool, and mohair mix. The texture of the fabric is already distinctive, and the greenish cast of the grey gives it still more character. A linen shirt both wears cooler than cotton and fits in with a more casual summertime crowd. If you want to sell that theme a little harder, wear no-show socks with your tassel loafers.

Now we leave the realm of the traditionally tailored suit. This Camoshita suit is in a traditional summer fabric (seersucker), but a non-traditional pattern (navy and burgundy stripe, as opposed to the typical blue and white). But the real departure is the cut - the construction of the jacket is extremely lightweight, and the pants feature an elastic waist and hidden drawstring. This is a very easy-wearing suit - almost pajamas made to look like a suit.

Then finally we reach the inner sanctum of this garden of summer wedding delights. Why should women be only ones to bare their knees and wear flower prints? That is the question to which this floral print “short suit” is the answer. This is an outfit you’d only want to wear to an extremely informal wedding, or more likely, to the morning-after brunch. At the very least you will be sure to avoid the embarrassment of wearing the same thing as someone else.