Bride-to-be Blogger Stephanie: Picking Out Pat’s James Bond Tuxedo!
Pat, trying on tuxes at Bloomies.
This past weekend, I got to shift focus: Enough worrying about my dress and me. Time to home in on what Pat’s wearing on our wedding day.
We weren’t originally necessarily thinking tuxedo. But in all honesty (while perhaps embarrassing), we got a little inspiration from the latest Bond movie, Skyfall. When Daniel Craig sails up to the floating Macau casino look utterly handsome in a perfectly fitted, classic, black tuxedo, Pat and I looked at each other and said, “We might have to re-think the tuxedo option.”
Also, similar to how I wanted my bridesmaids in long dresses—which typically signify a special occasion—so, too, does a tuxedo. Moreover, Pat wears suits every day to work, so it’s a nice change of pace. So we embarked on our first tuxedo quest this past weekend.
By registering at Bloomingdale’s, we get a certain percentage off men’s formalwear (a nice perk!), so that was our first stop. Bloomingdales in Willow Grove, unfortunately, was a failure, as they do not sell tuxedos at that location. But we had much more luck at King of Prussia.
A sales associate directed us to where we could find the tuxedos and then launched into a speech teeming with vocabulary totally foreign to me: notched lapels, peaked lapels, shawl lapels, single-breasted, double-breasted. It all went way over my head.
But Pat was keeping up, and soon enough, he was back in the dressing room trying on the one tuxedo that caught our eye—a Hugo Boss, notched lapel, slim fit, black tuxedo.
When he walked out of the dressing room, I was struck by how great the fit was. It was like it was tailored specifically for him. I then asked the associate if we could possibly try it on with a bow tie. Pat’s never worn one before. He quickly came back with one and demonstrated how to tie it—which to me is akin to trying to solve a Rubik’s cube!
The bow tie really completed the look—so sophisticated and striking. Pat looked like my very own Daniel Craig; he looked incredibly handsome.
But he wasn’t ready to give the go-ahead quite yet, so we got the card of the associate and told him we’d be back. I then suggested that we check out Nordstrom to get a feel for if there’s anything else out there worth trying. Turns out, the only tuxedo Nordstrom had in stock and suggested was the Hugo Boss, as well—though offered in the additional option of a shawl lapel. Nordstrom also threw out there that custom-designing a tuxedo is always an option, and pretty close in price to the other tuxedos they sell.
This information confused us a little, but we think we’re still leaning toward the Hugo Boss. My mom, though, brought up the solid (yet perplexing) point of what do we do about the groomsmen. They are not going to buy their tuxedos. How do we find tuxedos that look similar to Pat’s, but also remain distinguished? Will the blacks match up? Should the groomsmen be in different colors altogether? Will we be able to find high-quality, well-fitting tuxedos to rent for them?
All in all, I think it was a successful first trip. It was really nice—a big relief in fact—to shift the attention from me to Pat. And most of all, it was extremely nice to do something planning-related together. With our work schedules and us living apart, I’m usually on my own with wedding planning (not to belittle the incredible help I get from my friends, family, and wedding planner). But getting to do it together with Pat really re-enforces what this is all about.
Do you have any tuxedo advice to share? Are there any other stores or designers you’d recommend we look at? How do you/did you distinguish the groom from the groomsmen? Did your groomsmen rent their tuxedos? If so, where and were you happy with them?
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