How to Pin a Boutonnière and How to Wear One
Boutonnière Placement: Which Side it Goes On and the Right Way to Wear One
Take a look at your suit jacket. On the jacket's left side — your right if you're looking straight at it — you'll see a sewn buttonhole at the top of the lapel. It's called a lapel/boutonnière hole. That's where the boutonnière goes. NOT on the middle of the lapel as most videos and people tell you. Below is a video from Gentleman's Gazette, it's boring as fuck, but the homie will show you THE proper way to pin and wear a boutonnière.
More importantly: if you're going to wear a boutonnière at your wedding, keep it simple. A boutonnière is a color accent. Meaning, a single flower is more than enough so anything more than one flower looks goofy! But don't overthink it — get one from Amazon I listed below, pin it on your jacket the night before, and you're good to go. One less thing to worry about.
Luxury Wedding Vendors Don't Know How Put on a Boutonnière
It's wild that we have 99% of so-called luxury wedding vendors out here knowing jack shit where on the suit jacket the boutonnière is supposed to be pinned on. Prime example: a couple years ago at my client's wedding — Emma Roberts cousin of all people — I found myself in a pissing match in front of the client with both the videographer and the wedding planner over the proper placement of the boutonnière.
They pinned the boutonnière dead center on the lapel of our client's jacket — a common mistake. So I fixed it. Took it off and pinned it exactly where it belongs: on the lapel/boutonnière hole. Seconds later, the videographer rushed over, insisting it be put back because, to her, it looked weird. The groom was confident I made the right call, but after the videographer dragged the wedding planner into it, he reluctantly moved it back. As you can imagine, the tension between me, the video team, and the planner for the rest of the night was so THICC, you could have used a machete to cut straight through it.
Where to Place the Boutonnière Matters
It was made clear to me that night that while most wedding vendors, even at the luxury level, who whip out a twelve inch fucking ruler to measure the distance between the napkins and chairs, don't give two shits how YOU look on your own wedding day, because they don't understand basic menswear fundamentals — even something as simple as proper boutonnière placement. My advice: do not blindly trust any one vendor with how you look on your own wedding, because these people prioritize speed, habit, and what they think looks normal over what is objectively correct, and will simply bulldoze through the day checking off boxes on the planner's holy, set-in-stone timeline.
So don't get caught with your pants down my guy.
You have to advocate for yourself or have someone in your corner who will. That includes things as basic as where to place the boutonnière, which has an objectively correct answer. Tradition and construction exist for a reason. For example: shoes, belt, and watch strap should always match in color, but not the tie and pocket square. And shoelaces should always be tucked in. I didn't make the rules, I just follow them. AND NO! These are rules are not meant to be broken. Anyway, I'll leave you with some videos below to dive further into other things you might find useful when it comes to wearing a suit properly on your wedding day.
Skinny Tie Clip Set: $12 on Amazon
A simple guide for planning a civil ceremony wedding in Beverly Hills.