Miss Candy Corn, Philadelphia
Age and Occupation: Senior Editor/Writer & Freelance Illustrator
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Student
Engagement Date: September 1, 2004
Wedding Date: October, 2008
Blogging Since: May 6, 2008
Venue: Pennsylvania Museum of Archaelogy and Anthropology
About Me: I enjoy people watching (especially in New Jersey malls), obsessive collecting, drooling over contemporary art, browsing flea markets for vintage finds and eating an absurd amount of cheese. In my Philadelphia abode, I create mixed media artwork and one-of-a-kind home accessories in the company of my farmer-tanned fiancé, our Westiepoo (Betty White), our three rabbits (Cadbury, Willie Nelson and Applesauce) and our two frisky chinchillas (Ethel Funk and Maude).
Our Wedding Party Will Be Fierce!
May 7th, 2008 @ 10:29 am by Miss Candy Corn
(think Christian from Project Runway when saying “fierce”)
To help you guys get a better idea of what we’re basing the tuxes/dresses around, here is the color palette we’re working with:
For the ladies, they will be wearing navy dresses with brown ribbons from Priscilla of Boston. It took me forever to find something that was somewhat vintage-inspired and something the girls could see themselves being able to wear more than once, but I think we did it! As far as shoes and accessories go (along with brooches), I told my bridesmaids they could all choose whatever they wanted to go with their dresses, since each of them has such a unique sense of style.
We found the Cadbury Brown Calvin Klein tux we love at Carlino of Roxborough Flowers & Tuxedos, which is right down the street from our apartment (super convenient!). The tux rentals are $100, not including shoes (which is perfect since we’re ordering brown Converse shoes for the men as part of their gifts). Plus the groom’s tux is free with 5 or more groomsmen rentals. The men will be wearing ivory shirts instead of white, since my dress is ivory. Mr. CC will be wearing an ivory tie too, to make him different from the other menfolk.
When I called one of the tux rental places in the area, the manager literally CACKLED at me when I asked if they carried chocolate brown tuxes. My immediate reaction was “Do you assume all brown tuxes have to be ugly 70’s knockoffs?” and he responded by saying that they do carry brown dress socks.
It’s not like I want to be greeted by this at the end of the aisle (although his luscious blond locks are kind of irresistible):
Has anyone spent days obsessing over color coordinating their bridesmaids and groomsmen? If so, what is your color scheme and how are you translating it with the guys’ and girls’ attire?
33 Responses to “Our Wedding Party Will Be Fierce!”
We went with little black dresses for the gals and classic bow tie w/ suspender tuxes for the guys, but I just have to say that your BM dresses are fantastic! I’d be happy if you asked me to wear it.
I actually had the colors of chocolate brown and light blue and went for solid brown with accents of light blue - let me know if you want to see pics!
lovely choice for your bm’s!
no wedding party here, but Fi is wearing black converse under his grey suit.
can’t wait to see him in.. 17 days!!
For my wedding my girls will be in light teal (pool) and dark turquois (oasis). I am interested in seeing how you incorporate the lighter colors into your wedding. I’m trying to figure out what the reception tables will look like.
I SO wanted the guys to be wearing THAT EXACT chocolate brown tux. I really tried to work brown in the color scheme, but no one else was having it. So black it is!
I’m so jealous. 
Days obsessing? Try weeks! I love that BM dress you picked. We are going with grey suits for the guys and I think I found a grey patterned dress for the girls and accent with a green belt to bring in our green.
LOVE your BM dresses! I would definitely wear that dress over and over again…so pretty…GREAT choice!
Our wedding is a laid back, summer brunch, so I wanted to keep it all pretty simple and easy. My sister as my only bridesmaid, so I gave her some photos of what I had in mind and just asked her to find a dress in either pink, yellow, peach or salmon. My boy is wearing a black suit he can wear again (BCBG on sale for $200!) with a white shirt and black silk tie and we asked all the men in the wedding (BM, fathers, 2 ushers) to wear their own dark suit in either gray, black, or navy with a white shirt. We already picked out 5 identical silver/gray ties for them to wear. Our colors are mainly warm colors like the bridesmaid dresses, but we figured the mens’ suits would all be neutral enough not to clash.
I fell in love with that BM dress when I started my search, but it just didn’t work with the formality of my wedding. Excellent choice, though! I even briefly contemplated buying it for myself to wear to a cocktail party or something 
I love your bridesmaid’s dressed and your fiancé’s look - yay! 
Hey there! Love your choices! Our colors are “green tea” (aka a sage kind of color) and “brown rice” (aka light tan/offwhite). I had a terrible time finding bridesmaids dresses I likes in the sage color so I decided to let the ladies do a black dress of their own choosing and incorporated black into our color scheme with the invites and now the dresses too. And since the birdsmaids (as we like to call them) were in black, we put the men in charcoal grey suits with off white shirts and sage green ties from Toybreaker on etsy - http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=10536763 …I love these ties!
I might make the ladies a pretty ribbon wrist corsage in sage and offwhite but am still debating…
Love your dresses! We’re doing blue bridesmaids dresses too (ours are a little lighter) with darker blue flowers… boring old traditional black tuxes for the boys though, no coordinating here
Oh my word, YES, I have been stressing about this issue almost as much as who’s going to be in my bridal party (lol). (I guess the two subjects are kind of interrelated, since different colors look good on different-haired and complexioned girls, and I want my girls to look their best too!)
We’re tentatively going sage and rose– either for the girls, black tuxes with green/pink striped ties for the boys– but we’ve got a while to decide.
Those are gorgeous dresses– great choice and very rewearable.
I believe I have spent months obsessing over this, mainly because of the tuxes! I wanted navy blue tuxes and I got laughed at, too!! That’s some way to do business…to laugh at possible customers’ ideas! My girls are wearing pale green and the guys are wearing dark navy blue suits from the tuxedo store, instead of actual tuxes. I am still so happy to have found the navy suits! They match the formality of the girls’ dresses perfectly! Good job on the beautiful attire for both the male and female parts of your bridal party!!
Gorgeous dresses! I want one
I want that dress too! Great choices. I wish I could get Mr. C to wear Cons on the wedding day.
@Dee:
I’d love to see your photos, that sounds so pretty.
@Diana:
The reception tables will have chocolate sheer linens with light blue shimmer napkins and walnut wooden folding chairs (I wish Chivari chairs were in our budget, but alas, they are not). The room itself has a lot of blues, which I’ll be sure to include photos of in an upcoming post
@Miss Toucan: Luckily Mr. CC really digs the chocolate brown tux idea, but most people I tell kind of give me an “ew, you are so Saturday Night Fever” face.
@sillyinphilly:
Mmmmm BCBG tux *drool* Sounds beautiful!
@hubandwif:
We are going to be in our friends wedding (and her and her hubby-to-be in ours) two weeks after our wedding and she asked the bridesmaids to pick out black knee-length dresses of their choice…I thought it was a great idea to really get a sense of everyone’s style while incorporating the color theme. I love those ties on Etsy. We were originally going to order those for our groomsmen as gifts, but decided it might be a little too $$ for our budget. If I was a guy I would be ordering all of my ties from there!
Thanks to everyone for the sweet comments!!
I LOVE the bm dresses and the brown tuxes. I wanted to do gray bm dresses and navy blue suits for our wedding party but was partly censored on that by mommo. My dad wore that tux in the last photo for his wedding in 1979. Complete with porkchop sideburns a la 70’s Elvis. True story. Their wedding photo became our stamp to commemorate.
I love that dress!!!!!!! It was definitely in my top 5 when I was looking at dresses — if it had come in teal I would have been all over that! Your gals are going to look FIERCE
The dresses are gorgeous! I love the combo of blue/brown. I haven’t finalized my colors yet but I would love to somehow coordinate my girls with the guys outfits. Btw, where did you get the swatches for your color palette? I’d love to create one for my bridal party. Thanks in advance!
Thanks so much! I created the color swatches at http://www.colourlovers.com…it’s super fun to mess around on that site for color inspiration.
Sorry about messing up the link above. Here it is:
http://www.colourlovers.com
My BFF was in a wedding and wore that BM dress, she loves it and has been able to wear it again
love those b’maid dresses! Not to disuade you on the brown tuxedos — if it’s what you really want, you should do it — but I will tell you that in the summer of 1979 my mother insisted that all of the groomsmen in her wedding also wear brown tuxedos. Just something to consider. Black might be the more classic choice, and will look just lovely next to the brown dresses.
I had the GM wear brown tuxes - my colors were Pool and Espresso. I had the same problem when I expressed that I wanted brown tuxes (weird faces and all of that). Rest assured Ms. CC, it will look great, and no one will think you just stepped out of 1970 anything!!!
okay, now you’re starting to scare me. i’ve been obsessed with our color scheme for months (red/turquoise/gray). we’re totally having all stars in our wedding (maybe i’ll wear them? it’s unclear). and . . . i think we live in the same neighborhood.
also: the brown tux looks a.
maz.
ing.
Yeah, I had a hell of a time finding a brown suit rental place. People seemed surprised I wanted them for the guys, but then would tell me how popular they were (but alas no one carried them). I finally found one at our local Mr. Formal.
When we went to put in our order, I told the girl the groom and groomsmen would be wearing the brown suit. I told her that was what I wanted. She then decided to tell me it was a “suit” and not a “tux”. She asked if I was SUUURE I wanted a suit. What is the difference? I don’t care. I want THE BROWN ONE, I told her.
Then she wanted to inform me that the brown “suit” is more of their “business suit” and they don’t really “rent them out for weddings”. I had to tell her that I don’t care what other people do, I know what I want. She acted like I was insane. Then she called to the other girl that works there if they ever rent out the brown “suits” for weddings and the girl told her how popular they were. LOL
People are crazy. I love the brown suits.
holy crappola. if we live in the same neighborhood that means you live by pierogie kitchen too and we should totally go on a pierogie date. (i live in roxborough on rock street…stalkers are welcome!)
YAY for Converse with tuxes!!! All the guys in our wedding party wore Converse high-tops too, they were gifts from my husband. We did custom ones on the website - it makes for great photos too!
i love brown suits/tuxes.
i wanted my guy to wear brown but he wanted a more everyday color suit so he chose a slim cut charcoal grey suit.
i am just happy to see other people getting out of the black tux mindset (which is nice and safe) but still.
your man is going to look very nice and elegant. people will remember him!
oh i forgot to say you should look up one of the wedding featured on http://www.OffbeatBride.com
the entire wedding party wore brown suits. very cute.
