Weddingbee Blog

Yesterday, hive, the heavens parted, the angels sang, the sun shone … Mr. Panther finally got a wedding suit! Hallelujah!

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Let me back up a moment to explain how we got here. As I explained in my last suit-related post, the store where I got my gown said they could order a slim-fit Hugo Boss tux and give us a discount on it. Unfortunately, the tux they had in their catalog (the “Stars/Glamour“) was slightly different from the Hugo Boss tux that Mr. Panther had tried on and loved (the “Aikin/Hollo“). The manager said she could try to get the Aikin/Hollo and that she’d call us after she’d spoken to Hugo Boss. For the next month, I heard nothing from her.

We called the store weekly to try to get a hold of her, but she didn’t return our calls. Finally, she had another woman in the store tell me that she still hadn’t heard back from Hugo Boss and that she would call me as soon as she did. We waited another week, heard nothing, and finally decided to order Stars/Glamour from Nordstrom so that Mr. Panther could try it on.

Are you guys still following along? This is confusing, I know. Anyway, the tux came from Nordstrom, and Mr. Panther gave it a go. He didn’t love it. He especially didn’t love it for $650 (even if that is $250 less than the retail price).

It was about then that we gave up on the idea of a slim-fit tux. I convinced him that he needed to wear something good quality, but if he was going to invest in a nice piece, it should be a suit. He’ll wear the jacket again, at the very least, and he’ll have a nice suit for any necessary occasions!

Once we decided to go for suits, the first one I thought of was the Theory “Xylo” suit from Bloomingdale’s.

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We had seen it on our first shopping trip, but skipped over it because it wasn’t a tux. It also helped that a) when I asked my hair stylist (who used to work at Neiman Marcus) what designer would look best on Mr. Panther’s body type, he said Theory right away; and b) Mr. Cheetah looked so fantastic in his!

We set out on another shopping trip with a new target in mind. First, we had to return the Hugo Boss to Nordstrom, so we took a detour to the men’s department to see their selection. Just for kicks, Mr. Panther tried on the Hugo Boss “Jam/Sharp.” It was a really, really nice suit.

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That’s navy, by the way—they didn’t have his size in black. I did get a front view shot, but it’s kind of awkward.

However, it was $900. Yikes. Mr. Panther was willing to spend a fair amount of money on a suit because he expected to get a lot of use out of it, but $900 was still pretty steep. We left Nordstrom really hoping that the Theory suit would work out.

When we got to Bloomingdale’s, we made a beeline for the Theory suits, and I immediately snatched up Mr. Panther’s size. We could only find the jacket in navy, but they had his pants size in black. Mr. Panther was thrilled that Theory suits are sold as separates, because the pants size that usually comes with a 38R jacket is a little snug on him.

As soon as Mr. Panther got the Theory suit on, we knew we had a winner. Look how handsome he looks!

I promise, it doesn’t actually bulge out underneath the first button—that’s the security tag thingy. Also, yes, I did try to get him to put on some shoes, but he refused. So stubborn.

The suit was around $700, but we planned to figure out a discount. I’m a frequent Bloomingdale’s shopper and I know that there’s almost always a way to get some chunk taken off! When we got to the register, we found out that we had arrived during a sale. Woohoo! The store was taking 20% off all purchases over $300, plus Mr. Panther could save an additional 15% off the already-discounted price if he opened a Bloomingdale’s card. This added up to 32% off—a $224 savings! We really, really liked that.

Since we were getting such a good deal, Mr. Panther also went ahead and bought the shirt he had tried on with the suit. I believe it’s this slim-fit one—it’s really nice! The shirt and jacket are being ordered, but we’ve got the pants in hand and are so thrilled to finally have this figured out. It was a long, rocky road!

Did anyone else give up on an extremely-specific outfit idea because it was too hard to find? Were you happy with what you ended up with?