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I have shared with you what my lovely ladies will be sporting, but what about the handsome gentlemen standing on the other side of the aisle? It didn’t take us much time or discussion to decide that they will be looking dashing in black tuxes, white shirts, and some sort of tie. But what sort of tie? That was the question.
I started here (hint: this will not be the last you will hear about my love for Liberty of London):
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| Claire-Aude Liberty Print Tie by Liberty of London |
This floral tie was quickly dismissed by Mr. Dalmatian.
Another task we tackled while on vacation was solidifying the overall look for Mr. Hawk and the groomsmen. We discussed gray suits with yellow ties to coordinate with the bridesmaids, but we were also toying with the idea of bow ties. I really enjoy the look of bow ties, but Mr. Hawk had never worn one before. Fortunately for me, he had expressed interest in trying them out and this was the perfect opportunity.
We started by stopping by Men’s Warehouse. We discussed with our consultant that we wanted a three piece suit in dark gray, and he directed us to the Pronto Uomo Charcoal Suit Separates, suggesting that separates would greatly reduce the need for costly alterations. We paired the Pronto Uomo’s vest, flat front slacks, and slim cut jacket with a white shirt and yellow tie. Since Men’s Warehouse didn’t have any bow ties, Mr. Hawk didn’t try anything on, but we were able to get a sense of the color combination. After seeing the charcoal suit with the first more golden yellow tie, we knew that we’d want to go with a paler version.
It was a process, but once Foxy and I finally made the decision on what we wanted our respective bridal party halves to wear, we.. kind of.. stalled. More accurately, I was the one stalling. My ever present indecisiveness needed to be extra, extra, extra sure that was 110% settled on what we wanted folks to wear before getting the word out. Once November rolled around and the save the dates were sent and I realized I still hadn’t formally clued anyone in, I realized it was probably time to: 1. let everyone know what we want for ensembles, and 2. remind everyone they actually are in our wedding, seeing as we’ve been pretty hands off up to this point. Reminders are good, yes? 
A nice email would have been fine, but I had this itch to amp it up and make it an email with an attachment. Ooooh.
For the ladies:
So, one downside to planning from afar… I don’t really get to have “wedding adventures” with my family. I send them these awful emails like… “We went bridesmaid dress shopping!” or “I picked out my wedding dress!” or “Hey, I just had a great idea for my invitations!” They don’t get to participate due to distance, and so everybody has a sad.
Not so for tux fittings! Bossyboots set his man-attire look just before Christmas, so while I was down with my family, my dad and I thought it be funny if we made an event out of the Pops Snapdragon tux fitting. I had to be his wing-woman and tag along!
Now to remind you - there are 21 kids in my immediate family. Imagine what that means for Christmas… that’s right, stress and more stress. We have NO TIME to do anything but shop for hams and wrap presents. My dad’s tux fitting needed to happen in 15 minutes or less.
Game on.
First, load yourself up with Starbucks. Do not pass Go. And definitely do not pass your local Starbucks.
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All-Inclusion Invitation Suites
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Did I mention that we are going to have FOUR of our little nephews in our wedding? We don’t want them to be overly scripted or get too rigid with their roles, so I envision just sending them all down the aisle as a group to do what little boys do: make noise and make people smile.
I wanted to give the boys boutonnieres, but didn’t find the idea of having anything too formal pinned to their outfits. I started to look for a cute alternative. First, I found ribbon badges all over the internet. My favorite came from the Weddingbee boards.
The button in the middle of the ribbon badge from those images was cute, but not cute enough. I wanted something that little boys would like. I also hoped that it would be in some way related to the wedding. That’s when I started looking for little golden retrievers. I was thinking of boutonnieres like these from Fritts Rosenow:
From Love and Lavender / Boutonnières by Fritts Rosenow
Mr. Mink, who I call eagle eye when we shopping, helped me comb the scrapbook and jewelry sections of the craft store one Sunday completely expecting to find some little golden retrievers.
Read more…
One of the first things I did while starting this “sprint” of a five-month wedding-planning process was take care of getting my dress. I knew that it would set the tone for the whole event and that I needed to get it ordered early enough to get here in time for the big day…
At that point I hadn’t really thought too in depth about what I wanted Mr. Opossum to wear. In fact, I thought about what my sister and mom were wearing, the flowers, the DJ, the decor, and the venue all well before I gave any consideration to what the “look” for the guys was going to be.
When I got a call from Men’s Wearhouse telling me they could give me 50% off of a suit purchase if I made an appointment to meet with them, I was forced to think about it.
I knew I wanted casual. I knew I wanted something spring-weather appropriate. And I knew I wanted to buy him a suit. I spent $460 on a dress I will only wear once. Seems totally fair that we should spend a decent amount of money on a suit for Mr. Opossum that he will likely wear many times in his lifetime, right? I think so.
After discussing all of our requirements, I kept picking images like this:
Image via You and Your Wedding / Photo by Steve Hepper
Create the honeymoon of your dreams.
Hive, I cannot believe it has taken me so long to write this post! After much back and forthing and internet searches and various discussions about how formal or informal we wanted everyone to look and how much was a reasonable amount to spend, we finally, finally decided what the guys in the wedding party would wear! That includes exactly what Mr. Aardvark will be wearing. We got word weeks ago that his suit had arrived and he should come in so they could see if any alterations need to be made.
Weeks ago we went in. Let me just say he.looked.good. No, good is the wrong word. Great? Smokin’? Those are closer. Now I get a bad blogger mark because I did not bring my camera, but in this world of modern marvels I did have my phone and got these shots:
One of my favorite things about planning our wedding is all of the fun mail that we receive. This week alone, we received a roll of baker’s twine, our invitations and RSVP cards, and Mr. Mole’s new suit. (More on some of those items later!) The last item was undoubtedly the most exciting for me. After all, I love a man in a nice suit—especially if the man wearing that nice suit is going to be my husband!
Early on in the planning process, we decided that Mr. Mole should buy a new suit for our wedding. It only seemed fair. If I were going to spend hundreds of dollars (or more) on a dress that I could wear only once or twice, he should get to spend an equal amount on a suit that he can wear several times per year.
We toyed with the idea of getting a suit custom made, like some of his friends in Chicago have done, but we ultimately purchased it at J.Crew. We found that the suits there are nice quality—and I get a 15% teacher discount for shopping there. Sold! J.Crew doesn’t carry the specific style that Mr. Mole wanted in store, so we placed an order through their red phone. (Red phone orders = free shipping!)
This package came about a week later!
We spent some of our time this Saturday figuring out what Mr. Porcupine is going to be wearing on the big day. We knew immediately we didn’t want tuxes. They just don’t fit in with the casual/rustic look of our wedding. Well, let me re-phrase. I knew *I* didn’t want tuxes. Mr. P at one point said, “but, you get to wear a pretty white dress.” I just blankly stared at him and asked if he’d like to wear a pretty white dress as well. He declined and we got to looking at suits.
We decided to just check out Men’s Wearhouse, and although bees before me have mentioned that you can’t rent suits, I blindly hoped some mysterious suit rental program might now exist. No such luck—the groomsmen are going to have to buy suits. Although MW does have a suit rental option for boys, which might work out for our little ring bearer.
We’re waiting a little bit before ordering the suits in hopes that they will have a buy one get one free sale soon, which the salesgirl was kind of enough to mention, “should be happening pretty soon.” It just stresses me out that these guys are spread out all over the country. I have little faith in men overcoming logistical issues, but I’m sure Mr. P will get it all organized and prove me wrong, righttttt?…
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When envisioning the overall look of our wedding party, I assumed having black tuxes for the men folk would clash with the navy of the ladies. I had a hard time picturing black and blue looking nice together. I needed a visual to help me gain a clear picture of how the entire bridal party would look.
As a reminder, this is what our ladies will be wearing:
Ava Collection by Mori Lee #602 in Mid Night
And now for something completely different!
This past weekend, Foxy and I decided to hit up Men’s Wearhouse to see their rental options for him and the boys. Apparently, I did not do my research.
I mean, what do I know about the men’s stuff in regard to wedding planning? Not too much. Shameful.
My initial thought was that the guys would be easy-peasy—we’d just rent their suits! What I didn’t realize was that Men’s Wearhouse only rents out tuxes, which is great for some people, but it’s just not “us.” We realized very quickly that we wanted and needed suits as opposed to tuxes due to factors such as color, formality, fabric weight, etcetera.
Here’s an idea of what we’re looking for:
Image via Rebekah Westover Photography
Hive, today we checked one of the biggies off our wedding to-do list…but it did not go at all as I had imagined. We got Mr. Aardvark’s suit ordered. YAY.
However, we have no pictures! This is not because I did not take my camera, or because I failed to take pictures… It is because we ended up ordering a suit based on a swatch of fabric and a couple of questions. It didn’t hit me until after we left that we never even saw what this suit would look like! Madness!
To rewind a bit, we are not going with tuxedos for our guys. Mr. Aardvark is wearing a suit. (Hopefully a three piece.) His groomsmen will wear some sort of vest and pants-type set-up. We are still not sure what our dads will wear. It has never occurred to me that they would wear something besides the same suit they wear to all of their fancy obligations…but maybe they should.
I digress. Mr. Aardvark is a bit taller than average and quite a bit leaner than average. Here is a little reminder:
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| Seriously this boy has more legs than abucket of fried chicken… |
As of two weeks ago, here was my thought on suits for the guys: eh, we will deal with it around two months before the wedding. Well that all changed when Mr. Buck was a groomsman in a wedding last week. While we were at the tux shop getting him fitted I was casually chatting with the lady working there. She mentioned to me that if we order the suits for our wedding by the end of this year, we will ensure this year’s prices and not have to pay when prices go up in January. Say what? That changed everything for me, plus, I am not one to shy away from planning ahead and booking early. Now all of a sudden I have to make a decision on what kind of suit the guys should wear. They have no interest in choosing; if I left it to them this is what they would all show up in:
{Image via Bright Colored Tuxes}
Not going to happen. I have a super powerful title called Bride which means I am allowed to say no to these types of things. We did compromise though, and decided the guys can all wear camouflage socks.
You’re going to like the way they look. George Zimmer guarantees it.
Due to some sweet partner deals that came with ordering my dress through David’s Bridal, we were able to get the men’s outfits lined up with absolutely no problems at all. Their colors match our colors perfectly, and we got a serious discount. The groomsmen and the fathers each get $40 off of their order, and Scott gets his rental completely free. The guys don’t actually have to be fitted for a long time; we just had to get the ball rolling on this before the end of the month. Poke around for group rates!
Even though I was kind of worthless not knowing much about men’s formal wear (not to mention the fact that the suit song from the show How I Met Your Mother was going through my head most of time), Mr. Raccoon and the gentleman helping us were able to pick out some great things.
Images of A Christmas Story still come up when I hear “snow suit.” At least Barney Stinson makes it sound a little cooler. Let’s talk about what the guys of the Honey wedding will be wearing for our winter wedding.
When the topic of what the guys would wear came up a few months back, I was pleasantly surprised by how much Mr. Honey cared about this. Not that he shouldn’t care; I just didn’t think he would be as opinionated as he is. I knew tuxedos were out, and even the full suit was seeming too structured and complicated for our wedding. I also didn’t want the guys to be perfectly matched since my ladies are all picking their own navy dresses. I was envisioning coordinated in a mismatched kind of way:
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| Image via Bridal Banter/Photo by James Christianson |
After a few of my suggestions got tossed out the window (letting the guys pick their own pants and shirt, for example) I have pretty much left this in Mr. Honey’s court. One Two things I’m requesting are that there is a mismatched element to their attire and that Mr. Honey stands out as the groom in some way.
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