Dressing Up the Dudetourage
July 28th, 2008 @ 5:50 pm by Mrs. Cherry Pie
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We recently had a bit of a wedding dilemma. As he wrote earlier, Mr. Cherry Pie isn’t terribly fond of renting tuxedos. As a result, Mr. CP opted to have a custom suit made for the wedding. It’s a much bigger investment than renting, but he’ll get more satisfaction and much better mileage out of it.
With Mr. Cherry Pie in a suit, we certainly couldn’t have our groomsmen in tuxes. Aside from upsetting the balance, tuxes would just look out of place in rural Montana. Suits aren’t quite the status quo either, but at least they’re one step closer (and as close as Mr. CP wanted to get to casual).
The problem with suits is that they’re nearly impossible to rent. I know some establishments DO rent suits, but they don’t seem to be reputable national chains. Unfortunately for us, our groomsmen are spread across the country (Seattle, California, Oregon, & New York) and none of the rental places we found had the locations or availability that we needed.
Second, with rentals there’s the issue of pickup and return time. If we were responsible for picking up five suits (if there were no locations for groomsmen pickup), we’d have to get them over a week before the wedding because we are driving to Montana on August 30th for a little R&R. Then, we’re not returning until late September 8th and we fly out to Zihuatanejo the next day!
So Mr. Cherry Pie decided to talk to his guys about buying suits. He was a little hesitant, because he didn’t want to ask them to spend a lot of money on a NICE suit but he felt bad about asking them to buy a cheap suit. We talked a little bit about how much the bridesmaids had spent and what would be a reasonable request, and settled on requesting that the groomsmen purchase Pronto Uomo suits from Men’s Wearhouse.
Men’s Wearhouse offers a number of suit styles and colors at reasonable prices. We found several in the “2 for $500″ category that we thought worked well for our male attendants. We still felt bashful asking the groomsmen to spend $250 on a suit that they might not wear again, but they graciously agreed. Thanks, guys! [FYI: All things considered, this is still probably less than most bridesmaids spend on dresses/shoes/accessories/hair/nails/etc.]
Once we figured out what to do about suits, we talked color. Before Mr. Cherry Pie’s suit was in the works, I tried to get him to go the way of the beige suit that seems to be so popular in today’s destination weddings. For him, that was a big no. His suit is a charcoal grey with a subtle pinstriping, so we decided on a complementary grey Pronto Uomo suit for the groomsmen. I figure that if the day is hot, they can always take off their suit jackets for the ceremony to tone down the formality a bit, and use them as props in photos and when the evening gets cooler.
If you’re in the same boat as us, and having a summer wedding, you may want to consider asking your groomsmen to purchase matching slacks and similar white button-down shirts but forgo the suit coat. You’ll save money but end up with a stylish and coordinated look. In my opinion, unless you’re having a formal (or spring/winter/autumn) wedding, you just don’t need suit coats to have a dapper entourage.
Our groomsmen will be wearing burgundy satin ties (also from MW) to match our burgundy bridesmaids’ dresses. Mr. CP is considering a white tie for his suit & vest ensemble.
Has anyone else had the same suit dilemma? Did you end up renting, buying, or finding some other creative solution?
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15 Responses to “Dressing Up the Dudetourage”
@freesia39: Haha, fresia… that’s funny but very frustrating.
You know what though? I think matchy-matchy can be overrated too. It’s all good!
@Miss Cherry Pie: I hope so. But then I can also see my mom having a coronary that no one matches, which means my grandmother will also have a fit, which means the drama I wanted to avoid in the first place…
if he would have just rented the darn tux.
I basically came to the dead-end conclusion that you can’t match suits unless they’re purchased that way. I suppose it depends on how picky you are about shades…but even black has different shades. There are warm blacks, cool blacks, matte blacks, etc. But most of those differences are not likely to show up on photographs…be optomistic!
HOnestly i think the best bet is to ask all the groommen to wear a black or navy suit (which they’ll likely own, can rent or chose to buy their own) and gift them matching ties- and i love the photos with matching socks. that way the guys are wearing clothes that actually fit them and it’s not apparent that they don’t match exactly…
That’s so nice that all of Mr CP’s men agreed to buy suits. It’s almost abnormal when things flow so smoothly 
we just decided the men didn’t need matching suits and they all just wore their own (Mr. Popcorn got a new custom charcoal grey suit.)
@freesia39: I just saw photos of a wedding where the groom and GMs were all wearing their own [mismatched] grey suits. The pictures were fantastic! If I can find it again, I will post the link.
@Miss Cherry Pie: I love the suit look, and I definitely think they’ll fit your theme/setting better than tuxedos. I would have loved suits for our wedding, but alas, Mr. Y wanted tuxedos. We did decide to change it up a bit by going with brown, though.
My fiancé is wearing a suit he already owns, but getting a shirt made, a new tie and shoes. The other men in our wedding will dress smartly in whatever they would wear if they were just normal wedding guests - I don’t like the matchy look!
I love mismatched suits!! Grays work well, so do various pinstripes. As long as there’s one unifying feature to the suit you can totally rock it!
Also, that photo with squashing groomsmen is hilarious! I wish that blog had not ripped it off without credit to the proper photographer though!
My husband bought a suit at Men’s Warehouse, as well, though I couldn’t say which one he bought, he looked pretty spiffy.
He didn’t want to ask his guys to buy a suit, so he asked them to wear black pants, and bought them shirts that matched our colors at Express and a tie from Men’s Warehouse. In the end, the guys did decide to wear suitcoats. They didn’t match, but you couldn’t tell unless you looked at the pictures pretty closely. They really looked great!
I am a wedding photographer and LOVE the subtly variations in tone when everything isn’t so matchy matchy. Even in the bridesmaids dresses, linens, and flowers, I think variation in color tone gives such depth to your photographs. For a more matched look, consider slacks and a colored shirt (with or without ties). Having the girls and guys both in color on top (without the black jacket) is really a fun look for a wedding that is using a lot of color.
The guys in our wedding are all wearing navy blue suits. The groom will wear a Navy suit w/ a pinstripe. They will probably all be varying shades of Navy. I didn’t tell the Mom’s what to wear, but they are wearing pink and purple and the girls are wearing green. (They wound up buying matching dresses, their choice.) Anyway - a blue suit is nice because it is just a bit more casual than black and the slacks can definitely be worn without the jacket.
We are asking our guys to wear navy suits. We will purchase a new suit for my FI (he needs one anyway) and the gents can either use a navy suit that they currently have or we will find a deal where the more we buy the less it is or like Miss CP a 2 for$ discount. I have asked around and if we urchase a larger number of the same suit we can get a very good discaount (there are 11 men in the wedding party includiing the dads & FI). We figure that if we can get the costs down to something similar to the cost of a tux or a little higher then we are golden. They are all willing to rent the tux but to end up with a suit they can keep is a lot better. I know that both of my dads, my older brother, one of my FBILs and my FI all need new suits so we have a minimum of 6 already.
[...] ties would be a pretty mild “Thank You” in exchange for driving out to Montana and buying suits on my behalf, don’t you? As Miss Cherry Pie posted some time ago, I have been very taken with assorted high [...]
Miss Cherry Pie, Seattle/Polebridge, Montana
Age and Occupation: 25, Marketing Communications Specialist
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 28, Nurse Practitioner
Engagement Date: August 26, 2006
Wedding Date: September 2008
Blogging Since: April 1, 2008
Venue: A tiny town just outside of Glacier National Park
About Me: I think of life as a journey and I love the places it's taking me! I went to school to study Magazine Journalism, ended up with a second major in Japanese language, and now work at a company that makes software for libraries. I love writing, computers, photography, and the great outdoors. I spend most of my time playing Guitar Hero and Rock Band or geeking out online with Mr. Cherry Pie. I'm happiest when I'm on the road, especially traveling abroad, or just nesting quietly at home with my sweetie, who is a fabulous cook and bakes a delicious rendition of a certain cherry-filled dessert!
Argh, Mr. F has issues with renting a tux since “someone else may have worn it.” I told him they’re cleaned but it’s stuck in his mind. He wants to buy himself a black suit, and he figures that his groomsmen have black suits.
I said FINE, but you have to wear matching ties.
“No that’s dumb.”
I want to bash him over the head.
Now my brother is asking me what style tux to rent. I told him to just wear his suit. *sigh* NO one is going to match.