Black Tie -- Alternatives?

[mustardseed2007]

Hi - so my job asked me to go to a gala where they have a table. It's described as black tie. However I have looked at pictures of past events and I see a mixed of tuxes and suits. 

I feel like I can figure out something to wear to this thing but my husband does not own anything black tie. His nicest suit is blue. I was thinking he could get a different nice suit, maybe a dark navy 3
piece, with a tie clip and a pocket square and pull it off. Does that sound reasonable?

We don't get invited to a lot of black tie stuff so other than being invited to this event in the future I'm not thinking we'll do this a lot. 

[waverly]

If the pictures show men wearing suits, then I think your idea for a navy suit sounds fine.

[mommyatty]

Yes. I used to have to go to a lot of black tie events. I never saw one where a good percent (usually over half) weren’t just in a nice suit.

[ECB]

It's been a long time since I've been to a black tie event, and even "back then" (like over 15 years), many men didn't actually wear a tux.

if this were for a wedding or an event for someone I was close to, I'd probably make the extra effort to be more on point with the dress code, but as this is a work function - I wouldn't spend a ton of $$ on this. Only buy a new suit if it's something he will actually use.

[mustardseed2007]

I think you're right, dark charcoal would probably be better. A few people around here have mentioned that color. We're also going to see what we can find, so there will be that element too. We didn't have a ton of notice.