A groom told me last week that he didn't want to "look like a costume" at his own wedding. He'd tried on three sherwanis and felt like he was wearing his grandfather's furniture. What we landed on instead wasn't a different sherwani. It was a jacket. A single, beautifully embroidered Nehru jacket that he could wear over three different kurtas across three different functions, each time looking like a slightly sharper version of himself. That's when it clicked for both of us: the jacket, not the kurta underneath it, is where a groom's personality actually lives.
This wedding season I'm styling grooms function by function, and the throughline across almost every wardrobe I build is the same. It's not one showstopping sherwani anymore. It's a considered stack of jackets, worn over quieter kurtas, that carry the story from Haldi morning to the last dance at the reception.
The Haldi Jacket: Light, Loose, and Unbothered
The Haldi look has to survive turmeric paste, flower petals, and a lot of aunties hugging you. So I steer my grooms toward pastel or white kurta sets with a light cotton or linen bundi jacket over them, nothing structured or heavily worked. Yellow still shows up, but softer than the marigold orange of five years ago: think buttercream, or a warm ivory with a thin yellow border. The jacket here should feel like something you could nap in between rituals, because you probably will.
The Sangeet Jacket: Where I Let the Embroidery Breathe
Sangeet is the one night I actively encourage a little drama. This is where the Nehru jacket or a short achkan style layer earns its keep, in richer fabrics like velvet or raw silk, with resham thread work, subtle mirror detailing, or a botanical print that reads well under stage lighting. Colour is where grooms are getting braver: navy, bottle green, and a deep wine are outperforming plain black this season, because they photograph warmer and don't disappear into a dark dance floor. Underneath, I keep the kurta almost plain. One loud layer, one quiet one. That's the whole formula.
The Aesthetic: rich, tactile, a little theatrical, but anchored by restraint everywhere else on the body.
The Stylist's Touch: I always ask to see the jacket under the actual venue lighting before the final fitting. Gold thread that looks subtle in daylight can turn into a spotlight under warm bulbs, and I'd rather know that in the fitting room than on stage.
The Phere Jacket: The One That Still Needs a Sherwani
I'm not retiring the sherwani, to be clear. For the actual pheras, most of my grooms still want the weight and formality of a proper sherwani or a structured bandhgala, and this year the ones I'm building lean toward ivory, sage, and muted metallic bases with sculpted, tone-on-tone zardozi rather than dense, glittering embroidery. Clean silhouettes, slimmer cuts, lighter fabrics: the craftsmanship is still there, it's just been asked to whisper instead of shout. A safa or a simple kalgi finishes it, and I keep the jewellery to one strong piece, usually a brooch or a string of pearls, so the jacket underneath the sherwani doesn't have to compete with anything.
The Reception Jacket: The Quiet Flex
By reception, most grooms are tired and want to feel like themselves again, just dressed up. This is where an Indo-western jacket, a tailored bandhgala in textured silk, or even a sharply cut bundi over a crisp kurta does the job without the ceremonial weight. Charcoal, deep maroon, and muted metallics are having a real moment here, paired with slim trousers instead of a churidar for a more contemporary line. It's the look I get the most texts about afterward, because it's the one a groom can actually recreate for a friend's wedding six months later.
Why I Build the Wardrobe Around Jackets, Not Outfits
Thinking in jackets rather than complete looks does two things for my grooms. First, it's practical: three or four well chosen jackets over two or three kurtas gives you five distinct looks instead of five separate, expensive outfits. Second, and this is the part I actually care about, it lets a man's personality show up consistently across a week of functions that otherwise ask him to be a different character each day. The jacket is the one piece he chooses on purpose. Everything else supports it.
A few practical notes I give every groom before he starts shopping:
Start with the jacket, then build the kurta and bottom around it, not the other way round.
Order your most heavily embroidered piece first; hand embroidery takes the longest and leaves the least room for last-minute changes.
Keep at least one jacket in a fabric you can actually sit in for six hours; velvet is beautiful and unforgiving by hour four.
Try every jacket under the lighting closest to the actual event, daylight for Haldi, warm bulbs for Sangeet.
Coordinate colour family, not exact shade, with your partner's outfits so the photos feel intentional without looking matched.
Keep jewellery and accessories to one statement piece per look so the jacket stays the focal point.
At SGK Styles, this is the part of the work I love most: not dressing a groom for one big moment, but building him a small, coherent wardrobe that reads like a man who knows exactly who he is, function after function. If you're just starting to think about your own wedding wardrobe, or you're staring down a Sangeet outfit that still doesn't feel right, I'd love to talk it through with you.
With love and style,
Shreya Gupta Kedia
Founder, SGK Styles
