Weddingbee Blog

With all the projects and blog reading I’ve done in recent months, you’d think that I would have a strong opinion about how Mr. Mink and his groomsmen dress. Back when we first got engaged and started talking generally about our wedding, I told Mr. Mink that I was fine with him wearing a suit, if that’s what he wanted. I actually imagined the men in tan suits and the picture in my mind was quite nice! Mr. Mink surprised me and said that he wanted to wear a tuxedo.

While we watched CBS Sunday Morning’s piece on the origin of the tuxedo or dinner jacket on the morning of the Oscars, I was reminded that it was time for Mr. Mink to make some concrete decisions.

Buying a tuxedo made no sense, since one doesn’t have many occasions to which to wear formal attire in the craft beer world, so we headed to Men’s Wearhouse to look at tuxedo rental options. There are other places to rent a formal wear in our area, but Men’s Wearhouse was the only one that seemed to have most of their options available in the store. I didn’t think Mr. Mink would be comfortable ordering out of a book.

Photo by Miss Mink

Though we made an appointment, we walked into a very busy store and had to wait a while to work with a consultant. As we waited, I exhausted my limited knowledge of tuxedos by showing Mr. Mink notched and shawl collars and flipping through vest options.

When the consultant came over to work with us, Mr. Mink surprised me by pointing at the first tuxedo we saw, the one on the mannequin, and said, “I like this one.”

Photo by Miss Mink

I looked at it more closely and I liked it, too. The striking feature was the lack of shine. The lapels were a different texture than the rest of the jacket, but they weren’t that smooth, shiny satin that is typically used on tuxedo collars. The stripe on the pant was the same way. It was there, but not shiny. Not bad, Mr. Mink. Not bad at all.

I had a moment when I realized whose name was on the label…

Photo by Miss Mink

Is there anything Vera Wang can’t do? Let’s take stock of how she has expanded her brand. She started with her couture wedding gowns, bridesmaid dresses, and ready-to-wear collections, but now she has the David’s Bridal wedding gowns and bridesmaid dresses, shoes, perfume, jewelry (she just debuted a line for Kohls), formal china, crystal stemware, casual clothing (Kohls), luggage, flowers (through FTD), bedding, stationery, glasses/sunglasses, and now tuxedos. My goodness, the woman is busy! She’s come a long way since I first heard about her when she designed Nancy Kerrigan’s skating costumes in the early 1990s.

Well, thank you, Vera. I think Mr. Mink’s tuxedo is going to look fabulous.

Photo by Miss Mink

Back to the tuxedo shopping. Mr. Mink had no idea there were so many decisions to make after selecting his tux. I thought it was sweet that he looked at me each time the consultant asked for a preference on something, but I encouraged Mr. Mink to make the decisions. After a decision about shirts and vests, he rolled through picking a bow tie, shirt studs, shoes, and delivery options.

Photo by Miss Mink

Mr. Mink has been enthusiastic about every other part of planning, but he wasn’t looking forward to picking a tuxedo. I think our consultant made it relatively painless. We were out of the store within an hour.

What part of wedding planning did your fiance(e) enjoy the least? Was there one task that wasn’t as tedious as expected?