Suit Up

We have tuxes!  Choosing a tux rental vendor was the hardest part of this endeavor, since we already knew exactly what we wanted the guys to wear.

I've been obsessed with Lance in bow-ties ever since this wedding!

As I've mentioned before, Lance has been in a LOT of weddings.  In all of those weddings, mayyyybe two of his tuxes have fit appropriately.  Several have not, one to the point of ruining his friends' photos.  As a result, we had a definite list of "no way are we ever going back there" tux vendors.  My mom suggested Mr. Penguin in Trenton, Illinois.  At first we were hesitant to go there because Lance's groomsmen live as far away as Connecticut, and we wanted to use a national chain.  It turns out that Mr. Penguin is actually a branch of Jim's Formalwear, so we decided to check it out.

We were incredibly pleased with the people at Jim's Formalwear.  It turns out that Mr. Penguin was actually the very first Jim's store (small town claim to fame ftw!), and one of their national warehouses is literally a few blocks away.  Translation: they can fix misordered tuxes even if the guys try them on the day before the wedding.  They also carry half sizes and were confident that they could find something that would fit Lance appropriately.  We wanted very formal, classic, Bond-esque tuxes.

We ordered tuxes with notched lapels,

This is the actual jacket we chose!

bow ties,

and suspenders, because they are so cute when the guys take off their coats at the reception!

The people at Jim's were incredibly helpful during this process, albeit super traditional.  It took a few tries to explain that we wanted the most simple, formal thing they carry.  I wanted to avoid that matchy-matchy prom look, so we opted for cummerbunds.  When I tried to explain this to the man at Jim's, I started, "We don't want vests--" and he interjected, "Oh!  But you have to!  Otherwise," (gesturing wildly at the jewelry on the shirt) "you have button... button... button... NO BUTTON!!"  We calmed him down by finishing the sentence "We want cummerbunds instead."  Crisis averted.

He was also very helpful with choosing shirts, pointing us to the looser fits and less restrictive standard collars.  They had a giant book of pocket square colors, so we chose white for Lance and silver for our ushers.  And, if our bridesmaids have extra fabric from having their dresses hemmed, the shop will make custom pocket squares for the groomsmen!