Weddingbee Blog

Finding the perfect groomsmen’s outfit was harder than finding bridesmaids’ dresses! Much harder. After visiting Men’s Wearhouse and trying on suits, we realized we didn’t want a tuxedo. It was going to be too stiff, too heavy, and too much for a casual, outdoor wedding. The problem with this was finding a suit that would work.

Rental stores are so good because they have different styles in stock, and purchasing is less time sensitive––the three month turnover in mall stores becomes even more of a rush when trying for a hard-to-find size––and really, it requires minimal effort from the dudes. There is a clerk that knows what they need once they drop the wedding party’s name, so they aren’t left to hunt for the right things all by themselves. Typically getting the guys to the rental store and on time is something that us brides go crazy trying to coordinate, and rightfully so!!

We tried to find a seersucker suit or a more casual tan suit at a rental store to no avail.

We tried the main department stores but everything was too expensive to ask our groomsmen to purchase (we were already asking them to travel across the country so we wanted minimal cost). We looked at H&M, Zara, and UNIQLO trying to find low price items, and we did, but not in the range of sizes we needed (darn international slim sizes!).

We found our perfect outfit at a regular mall store called Express. It was exactly the style we wanted and it feel within the $150 or less budget we were hoping for. It was a seersucker vest and pants. I absolutely loved the seersucker vest look for the country club! It was perfect! We tried to take advantage of what the boys already had like white dress shirts and casual white shoes to save them money as well.

Below is a letter we sent to our groomsmen (originally with links that are now outdated).

—–

Hey Groomsmen,
Here is what you should do while stores are stocked this month:

1. Sign up for a “15% off your next purchase” coupon
2. Purchase the following groomsmen’s attire (in-store or online)

Basically the outfit is a vest, pants, and white shirt (picture of the outfit is attached–we are not wearing ties).

5-BUTTON STRIPED CORDED COTTON SUIT VEST – COLOR: CABANA $79.50

STRIPED CORDED COTTON PRODUCER SUIT PANT – COLOR: CABANA $69.50

YOUR OWN WHITE DRESS SHIRT OR 1MX MODERN FIT STRETCH COTTON SHIRT – COLOR: TRUE WHITE

YOUR OWN WHITE SHOES: SLIP ON VANS, CONVERSE, OR SIMILAR STYLE (WALMART HAS CHEAP ONES FOR $15)

——-

We sent this in April––you would think they wouldn’t wait until July to buy!! Well, two of them did, and that screwed everything up! That left me in panic mode. Three groomsmen had the entire outfit. But one of them now couldn’t fit into his vest. One person only bought the pants and (in July) couldn’t find a vest. The best man didn’t buy a thing thinking that we would automatically buy his since he was the “best” man. So we were down three vests, one pant.

For one entire weekend I bought every single seersucker vest I could find that I could afford. Thankfully a lot were on sale at Macy’s (Bones & Rags, DKNY, Nautica) but they were not the same fabric, color, style of our Express outfits. I figured as long as they were in seersucker vests we would be okay, but I wasn’t excited about it. Some vests had navy blue stripes, some tan, some thin, some wide, some wrinkly fabric. One word: Headache!!

I ended up with 6 miscellaneous vests unsure what was going to fit, bought an extra jacket thinking the best man could wear that if the others didn’t work, and I found the missing pants at Express after going to three different locations!

The other thing that happened: we planned on Mr. Pashmina wearing the matching jacket so he would be a dressier than the groomsmen, but still matching. He didn’t fit into it! We never tried it on when we first settled on it so we were left to find another suit. Thankfully this wasn’t in July. But still…

In the end everything worked out, but I didn’t know how it was going to look until I was walking down the aisle! I left it for my groom to figure out.

How was the process of suiting up the men for you?