Weddingbee Blog

Finally! I’m on spring break! But no crazy cruises for me… I’ve got more important things on my agenda. This is the week I’ve been waiting for since Christmas break, the one that I’ve been pushing everything on the Turtle wedding to-do list toward. “I’ll figure that out spring break.” “I’ll just wait and make that decision spring break.” “I have plenty of time to make those, during my spring break!” Well here it is, and it’s time to get deciding and DIY-ing!

So far, I am feeling pretty overwhelmed and can already feel this week beginning to fly by! I have a crazy amount of decisions to make, and inconveniently enough, I have been quite indecisive. There are a couple decisions in particular that I am about ready to pull my hair out over! And then it hit me… take it to the hive!

The first thing I’m just dyyyying to check off my to-do-list: our groomsmen’s attire!

(Mrs. Deviled Egg had the amazing idea of naming each of our groomsmen after the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Unfortunately, we have five guys, not four. But there’s no way I’m passing this up! So in addition to Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello, and Raphael, I’ll have to invent a fifth turtle by the name of, I don’t know… Botticelli? (Hey, this art history degree is already coming in handy!)

Anyway, I’ve known from the beginning that I do not want these Ninja Turtles in tuxedos. I love an old-fashioned black tie wedding, but the formal black and white look just does not fit with our vintage garden theme! To make a long story short, my first idea was to have them buy suits. Then the reality of how expensive suits are hit me, leading me to change my mind to vests instead of jackets. Then I realized that I was doing vests not because it fit our wedding, but because it seemed more cost effective. Then I got so fed up with this whole thing that I went back to renting tuxedos. I found a grey one, which is a bit more informal, but Mr. Turtle already has his suit, and I didn’t want the groomsmen to be more formal than him! Then I got so flustered about all of this that I decided to just do pants, shirt, and tie, (no jackets). Convenient and cheap. Perfect. And surprisingly, Mr. Turtle thought it was a great idea!

So we’d decided on a style, but what about color? Our wedding colors are pink, white, brown, and silver, so the guys could wear brown or grey. I wasn’t feeling brown because I didn’t think it had the right vibe. And I love grey suits, so I planned on grey. Grey suits would go great with our wedding!

Then, as you may recall, I chose our bridesmaid’s dress: #4826 by Watters and Watters in “Quarry,” the same color shown in the sample below:

I’m crazy about this color in person and I think this shade of brown brings a total sophistication to our color palette. But I’m not quite sure about it going with grey suits. At this point, I felt totally stuck! I never thought the guys’ attire would end up being so complicated! I started to look for pants that were a similar color to the bridesmaid’s dress. But I quickly realized, as much as I love this dress, it is a very specific color that is difficult to coordinate with!

But then, last weekend, my parents, FMIL and FFIL Turtle, Mr. Turtle, and I went on a little journey up the coast to Napa to celebrate my birthday. And there, in the Banana Republic outlet store, I found them! The perfect pants! *Cue Hallelujah chorus* I didn’t have the bridesmaid dress swatch with me, but I had a feeling that the color was just right! We called all five of the Ninja Turtles to get their sizes, and immediately bought five pairs! When I got home, I compared the pants to the dress swatch, and it is a perfect match! The color of the pants is “taupe”, but if you look at the picture of the dress above, the pants are that exact shade!

^ My little brother, who will be known as Raphael from here on out, tried them on and I love the look! (You can’t tell in the picture, but they’re a light summer fabric, part cotton and part linen.)

Honestly, this pants-buying experience could not have gone more smoothly! But here lies the dilemma: the pants are part of a suit, so there is a matching jacket. We didn’t buy the jackets at the time because we were planning on no jackets. But there’s still a part of me that loves the more formal look of an added jacket. I feel like I talked myself into the no-jacket look to be practical and save the guys money. I never thought we would find a great quality suit like this at such a great price. (The pants were $65.00 and the jacket is $133.) Want me to make this even more complicated? Mr. Turtle is leaning toward the no-jacket look. He says the look has grown on him a lot, and he likes that he would be the only one wearing a jacket. If we do decide to do jackets, I need to call some BR outlets ASAP and order them. (The stores will ship them if I track down all five sizes.) For some reason, I am just totally torn on this decision!

I would love your input!

1. Jacket

or

2. No Jacket

Are any of you going with a no-jacket look for your groomsmen? From what you’ve seen of our wedding plans so far, which look do you think fits us best?