I know we should not need to tell people how to dress appropriately for a wedding, but there are several people on my invite list (mostly but not all FI's family, but none removable) who could use a gentle reminder that jeans and sneakers are not OK. They felt jeans and t-shirts were suitable attire for a funeral, so there is some historical precedent there and these are not unfounded fears.
I would like to include the following wording on my invite enclosures:
Weather permitting, ceremony
and celebration will be held on the lawn: please choose
your footwear accordingly! Daytime semiformal;
ties optional.
Is this just too gauche, or does it slide in with the shoe note in such a way that I can get away with it?
Alternatively, what I am trying to convey is "please wear real pants and a button-down" for a 2pm outdoor wedding - what's a better way to do that? Or do I just suck it up and accept that FI is going to have pictures of him and his adult kids looking, well, scruffy?
TIA!