How To Tie The Perfect Tie – Four-In-Hand Knot

After months of balancing work, life and wedding planning, it is all too easy to overlook some the little details that may pop up on your wedding day and today’s topic is a very common one!  More often than not I arrive the morning of to find the groom with all of his groomsmen nose deep in every online tutorial they can find frantically trying to figure out which knot to use and how to properly tie it.  It usually ends up being a 30+ minute process, when it should only take about a minute.  If this is you and you’re going on your 8^th tutorial, my hope is this is simple enough to be your last so you can get out of that hotel room and make it to your ceremony on time!

For the rest of you, I highly encourage you to decide ahead of time which knot you’d like to use and practice, practice, practice BEFOREHAND so you don’t have to think about it come the morning of your wedding day!

Next week we will cover the “Windsor Knot” and the following week the “Bow Tie”!  For now, here is how to tie the basic “Four-In-Hand Knot”, which is a great all-around knot for any occasion.

How to Tie the Perfect Tie pt. 1

1)  Start with the wide end of the tie on the right and the small end on the left (it doesn’t matter which side is on which, but for the purpose of this tutorial – we’ll stick with the above for simplicity’s sake). Start with the tip of the small end 2-3 inches above your belly-button (this will vary depending on your height and the length & thickness of your tie). The small side of the tie will remain in place for steps 2-7.

2)  Bring the wide end over the small end to the left.

3)  Under the small end and to the right.

4)  Back over the small end to the left.

5)  You can use two fingers to help keep the knot open in the front (or just hold the small end down in front) while bringing the wide end up into the neck loop from underneath.

6)  Bring the wide end down through the loop you’ve just created in the front (the one your fingers were helping to keep open).

7)  Tighten the knot by pulling down on the wide end. Here is where you will adjust and create the perfect “triangle shape”. DO NOT pull or move the wide end once you have created the triangle/knot shape.

8)  From here you will hold the top of the knot lightly in one hand (be sure not to pull on it, you will undo the shape you created in step 7) and with your other hand you will pull down on the small end while you very lightly slide the knot up to tighten around your neck.

9)  The tip of the tie should end around the middle of your belt. If not, restart and adjust where the small end of the tie starts to allow for a shorter or longer tie.

And that’s it – I hope this helped!

(A huge shout out to my sister’s lovely boyfriend, Bardia, who oh-so kindly agreed to model for me last minute!)