Weddingbee Blog

It’s almost unfair how easy it is for guys to get dressed up, isn’t it? We’ve got to worry about the gown, the hair, the shoes (okay, so that part I can’t complain about), and that’s just part of it. Mr. Crepe is a freelance animation director, which means that he essentially lives in t-shirts and jeans. The guy doesn’t own a single suit and we felt that tuxes were much too formal for our wedding style. It just didn’t make sense to rent something he was going to be able to wear at least a few more times this year.

While purchasing a suit was the easy option to us, MIL Crepe needed more convincing. She REALLY wanted the guys in matching tuxes and was convinced that buying suits were either going to be more expensive than renting. She also felt that our vision for the boys wasn’t quite formal enough because I had described this to her:

Image via JL Designs / Photo by Robert Evans / Event by Jennifer Wahlquist Events

I had somehow forgotten that she prooobably did not follow wedding blogs and would, as a result, hate this idea. Oops, that’s my bad.

We were planning on paying for Mr. Crepe’s suit ourselves but we didn’t want to create a situation where Mr. Crepe’s parents had to shell out all this extra money for suits OR tuxes for the groomsmen, who are Mr. Crepe’s two younger brothers. Simple vests with dress pants seemed to be an affordable and cute solution to me.

Since MIL Crepe was so adamant about having the boys in tuxes, we tried to keep the peace by promising to gather tux rental pricing to compare with the cost of buying suits.

Brother Crepe buys his work suits from JoS. A. Bank and told us about the deals they run regularly, so while I was in Nashville, we set out for the closest location and almost immediately found the right color and style. They were running a deal that week at $199 per suit, with the second one at $99. They even threw in the third suit for $49!!! Since renting a tux would have cost about $150 each, we felt like WINNERS. After seeing the price breakdown and knowing that all the boys would be wearing matching suits (as opposed to my vest-for-the-groomsmen idea), MIL Crepe was now also on board!

You can’t see it quite so clearly, but Mr. Crepe is wearing a vest here. We wanted a three piece suit for him but this particular suit didn’t come with a matching vest. So we went with a dark grey vest instead and I actually like the contrast of that better. It also sets him apart from the groomsmen who will be wearing the exact same suit. I do wish we had thought to have him wear a light colored shirt that’s closer to what he’d be wearing on the day so we could get a more accurate feel. But oh well. Look how handsome he is! What a step up from his “I Drink Your Milkshake” t-shirt.

Did you run into any unexpected opposition when it came to dressing your groom and groomsmen? Were there any compromises that you found yourself making to keep the peace?