<p>I need advice from the veterans here. What does one wear to a Saturday morning, outside college graduation at a nonpretentious small liberal arts college? My husband and I would just like to blend in, not set any style trends.</p>
<p>Depends on where you are in the country, but for my daughter’s Reed graduation I wore black slacks, running shoes (nursing a foot injury at the time), and a nice jacket over a white shirt. I was right in the middle of the formality, which ranged from jeans and a t-shirt to beautiful dresses and heels.</p>
<p>If it’s outside or under a tent, wear shoes that won’t sink into the grass.</p>
<p>Think summer garden wedding.</p>
<p>MominVA: wow, we do have a regional difference here. I’m assuming you’re in Virginia, anyway. At Reed, “summer garden wedding” would have been over-the-top for the graduation ceremonies.</p>
<p>I would advise anyone to remember that the weather may vary from cool to hot (in fact, at my D’s graduation, it went from 55 to 75 DURING the ceremonies), from rainy to sunny (ditto), that the ground may be soft grass (which would ruin most shoes), and that you don’t want to upstage the new graduate, nor do you want to look frumpy in the family photographs.</p>
<p>For Wesleyan, on a day that started out threatening rain and then turned sunburn hot, I wore a flowered skirt, plain blouse and blazer. Flat sandals (I don’t do heels.) Like dmd says of Reed, there was a wide range, so no one looked out of place. Which was nice.</p>
<p>We went to a June graduation and it was cold and rainy. So you just never know. Summer wedding aptly applied to what people were wearing.</p>
<p>My advice would be to get there REALLY early to get a good seat.</p>
<p>Went to one in PA at a small LAC. Definitely outdoor spring wedding attire was the norm.</p>
<p>My uniform for the last few years at colleges up and down the east coast: casual 20’s inspired lightweight black washed linen coat over a gray sleeveless loose silk sheath dress, both intended to be worn wrinkled. With flat shoes, and with a crushable straw hat, a lightweight sweater or wrap and a foldup umbrella in a fairly good sized handbag. I have felt well prepared for any weather. There is no dress code so far as I can tell. At one event the mom on my right wore a very tailored black light weight wool designer pantsuit and the mom on my left a casual cotton sundress in a large bright floral. Both blended right in imho. Dads are in suits or sport coats. Unless your husband feels uncomfortable out of a suit-- sport coat would be my suggestion. If the jacket is too much, he can just take it off. I would at least bring a tie. In our group rarely are all the men in both sport coat and tie.</p>
<p>Check the school’s website. There might be a gallery of photos from last year’s ceremony that would give you an idea of the school’s norm. Congrats and enjoy.</p>
<p>It seems like anything but jeans and a t-shirt/sweatshirt is really OK, nearly any place you go these days (where you have to/should dress up a little bit…) I’d just advise to dress for the weather, as these things seem to last forever if you are too cold/too hot/too wet. And wear a hat. Always.</p>
<p>I didn’t have any luck looking for photos. This is Hendrix in Arkansas, so I assume it will be fairly casual. Just praying for good weather. Thanks for all the options so far.</p>