Suitin’ Up

Suitin’ Up

June 3rd, 2011 @ 4:47 pm by Mrs. Sparkler
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So Sparks needs a suit. His groomsmen need suits. All of the men involved in the wedding need suits. And yet… not a single decision has been made on color, cut, or kind. And that’s fine. I will not freak out about this. After months of prodding (and sometimes begging) Sparks to make a decision, this is the answer I got:

Sparks: Well, it’s just that I don’t know what I want to wear yet.

Me: You don’t have to know what you want to wear. You just need to tell the groomsmen what to wear.

Sparks: Don’t we wear the same thing?

Sparks thought it was required that they all wear the exact same suit. No, no, no, Sparks… you can wear whatever you want! You’re super special that day. Silly.

But since that’s settled, we can move on to picking an outfit for our 7 handsome groomsmen. The way I see it, we have 3 options:

1. We ask the groomsmen to purchase a suit that we select.

This was my original idea. Yeah… until I realized how much a freakin’ suit costs. Wowwww guys. Seriously?

How do some of you have like 8 of those suckers in your closet??? Anyway, I felt like that was asking WAY too much. So this option was eliminated pretty quickly.

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I’m lusting after a dark, slim-cut suit. Like this one from J.Crew

2. We select a rental suit.

Please revisit the photo above. Is that beautiful suit fresh in your mind? Ok good… because there is NOTHING like that available for rental. At least not that I’ve found. I’m telling you, if J.Crew offered a suit rental program, they could make boatloads of cash (like they need it ). Another option eliminated. Sigh.

3. We ask the groomsmen to wear a black suit of their choice, and provide the shirts/ties.

Ok, sort of. Basically, we would tell the guys which suit we prefer and then they can purchase a new one if they would like, or just wear a black suit of their choice in a similar fit. We will most likely go with a plain white shirt, and provide ties for them. This seems like the best option because it gives everyone some freedom to search for the best deal. Plus, if they already have a black suit, they aren’t spending a dime!

As of right now, Sparks is considering a charcoal gray suit for his ensemble. I was originally worried that the black and gray would clash, but now I kind of love it.

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Photo by True Photography via The Knot

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Image via Project Wedding

I’m also secretly hoping the groomsmen will let me dress them in suspenders…

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Photo by Jill Thomas via Green Wedding Shoes

I mean, how cute are they??? Anticipating backlash on that idea though…

Would you ever do suspenders for your groomsmen? How about black and gray?

Tags: chicago, menswear |

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18 Responses to “Suitin’ Up”

Member

KCheer (message) 370 posts, Helper bee

I love the suspender look! I hope they go for it!

6/3/11 @ 5:16 pm (reply)

Guest

Blurgh… I had the same dilemma and the groomsmen live in three different countries! We are going non-matching black suits as well but debating on either gray or black for the groom. I’m keen to see what you decide on!

6/3/11 @ 6:09 pm (reply)

Member

canuckbee (message) 319 posts, Helper bee

Our suit from J. Crew just arrived! Ludlow in Heather Charcoal and it is great!

A tip, some of the personal shoppers in the stores can give you 20% off your first purchase if you sign up for their credit card!

6/3/11 @ 6:18 pm (reply)

Member

Lo (message) 538 posts, Busy bee

We had the groomsmen purchase a charcoal gray suit (which is much darker than your pictures) since only 1 owned a suit anyway. It was less than $200 each and they are wearing their own shoes, shirt and belt.

6/3/11 @ 6:41 pm (reply)

Member

weddingstars2012 (message) 430 posts, Helper bee

Less than $200 is an awesome price. It’s about as much as a bridesmaid dress is. As far as unmatching suits though, what do you do to make sure the blacks are the same? We’re thinking of doing the whole suit thing, but that’s just one thing I’m worried about.

6/3/11 @ 7:45 pm (reply)

Bee

Miss Pony (message) 4,171 posts, Honey bee

I totally agree that JCrew should rent suits! Missed opportunity Jcrew.
Also, love the suspenders look!

6/3/11 @ 9:47 pm (reply)

Member

skihop (message) 11 posts, Newbee

Right now we are going through the same dilemma. I felt like I couldn’t make them buy suits so now we are going with tuxes. We are going to look at tuxes tomorrow. Three other times we have meant to go and do this but just didn’t want to. This time I we are going to lunch at our favorite restaurant which is right next to the tux place. cross our fingers all goes as planned.

6/3/11 @ 10:22 pm (reply)

Member

Ree723 (message) 1,569 posts, Bumble bee

If the guys are happy to buy suits, you can get a pretty good deal if they’re bought in bulk from the same retailer. My only concern with the guys all wearing their own suit is getting the blacks to match…. For a lot of the pictures, it may not matter, but for the pictures where they’re standing next to each other, it may be noticeable. Good luck!

6/3/11 @ 10:55 pm (reply)

Member

dukdukguse (message) 38 posts, Newbee

We got navy blue suits off overstock.com for about $90 each. The only issue is finding a suit that has all the sizes you may need in stock. I can’t wait til next weekend to see how they all look.

6/3/11 @ 11:54 pm (reply)

10.

Member

mariewest (message) 271 posts, Helper bee

I never would have thought combining gray with black, but I love it. Love the suspenders too, SO is a fan.

6/4/11 @ 9:41 am (reply)

11.

Member

Mrs.Yellow (message) 45 posts, Newbee

We’re doing suspenders AND bow ties! (and that was actually by demand from my groomsmen!)

6/4/11 @ 10:09 am (reply)

12.

Guest

lelo

I would go with letting the grooms choose their own suits. We did that and let them pick their own ties and they looked great. My husband’s suit was left 2 hours away (ek!) and he had to wear his brother’s (the exact same suit, exact same size, THANK goodness!) And his brother was an usher and he just wore a shirt and suspenders and everyone thought he looked great. They loved his suspenders!

6/4/11 @ 11:50 am (reply)

13.

Member

polkadotbridetobe (message) 160 posts, Blushing bee

My fiance purchased his light grey suit from Kohl’s for $100 and it looks GREAT! We are also having the groomsmen wear black, any suit of their choice. Loved seeing the pictures you found!

6/4/11 @ 2:01 pm (reply)

14.

Member

In the media (message) 1,568 posts, Bumble bee

JCPenney is totally having a kick@$$ sale on suits now. The boy just got a suit, 2 shirts and 2 ties for $163. The suit was $100, but there was a 15% off thing. Tell them all to go RIGHT NOW! Drop what you are doing dudes and go get a suit!

But seeing as how that probably doesn’t help you, I’ll answer your questions. I LOVE the suspender look. I wish I could convince the boy of this. We are going to be married in the summer of some future year, so jackets/coats = sweaty boys. Sweaty boys = stinky ride around town.

6/4/11 @ 5:16 pm (reply)

15.

Member

vowrenewal2015 (message) 27 posts, Newbee

We did black and grey. The groomsmen wore their own black, and the groom wore a very dark charcoal grey. Looked very nice together! Just make sure the blacks don’t clash!

6/5/11 @ 4:38 am (reply)

16.

Member

plantains (message) 2,433 posts, Buzzing bee

We had the groomsmen buy suits from Macys during a mega sale. They got grey Tommy Hilfiger slim fit suits because I really wanted the slim look. They spent about $280 apiece for what was originally a $500 suit.

6/6/11 @ 3:51 pm (reply)

17.

Guest

Yvette

Hey Miss Sparks! I got married last year in September and had the same problem with suits. We ended up renting them from Formerly Modern Tuxedo in Clybourn and I thought they looked pretty damn good. You can judge for yourself though…here’s a pic http://ow.ly/5c3Qt

And Nordstroms has an annual suit sale during the summer…we got a great deal on a designer suit and he looked damn sexy!

Good luck!
Yvette

6/7/11 @ 10:38 am (reply)

18.