Attire close-up -- the men

Let's not forget the groom. Many grooms simply rent a tuxedo, but I knew from the beginning of planning that our wedding wouldn't be formal and I don't love the look of a tux (I know, call me crazy). We decided together that Mr. Onion should have a suit that he'd get to wear again and again. After lots of research we decided to have a custom suit made for him and found Alan David Custom in NYC. Mr. Onion also got a beautiful off white custom french cuff shirt for the wedding and a back up shirt.



Now I know what you're thinking -- "Mrs. Onion, that's great and all but we can't afford that." He will have the suit for a very long time and Alan David Custom offers free tailoring for the life of the suit. Yes, it's more expensive than renting a tuxedo, but it's not significantly more expensive than buying a nice suit off the rack. I happen to have fantastic taste (blast for our bank account) so I picked one of the more expensive fabrics, but their prices for a custom suits range from $695-$1,495.

Isn't the fabric rich and wonderful? Oh, and the boutonniere is white bouvardia (which was used in my bouquet) by our fantastic florist, Dana Barrow from Fresh Floral Design Studio.

Note: Have your fiance bring TWO shirts with him the day of the wedding -- you never know what might happen and you don't want a little spilled red wine to ruin your night.



And the groomsmen -- from left to right, his best friend, Mr. Onion, his brother and father. Another lesson learned with this one. When we first started planning I wanted the groomsmen to wear brown suits to compliment the bridesmaid's dresses. We hunted and hunted for a brown rental suit and could only find a tuxedo. So then we started looking for brown suits for them to buy but they were all too expensive and all three of them were adamant that they would never wear a brown suit again.

OK -- so here comes the compromise. We ended up renting black suits from Dante Zeller. The price was right and they looked pretty good for a rental. Then I found a stunning green tie at Bloomingdale's that really popped against the black and went nicely with all the natural greens of the flowers. The tie was our gift to our groomsmen.

At the end of the day it worked out beautifully, but at the time I was really frustrated I couldn't make it work. So, the moral of the story is, be flexible. Just because it wasn't your original vision doesn't mean it won't work out. This goes for attire, the venue, the dress....you name it.

Click to enlarge images

Groomsmen Gifts

What to get the wedding party as a thank you is a difficult decision. I blogged early on about the gifts for our bridesmaids, and now wanted to give the men a turn. Our groomsmen are Mr. Onion's best friend, father and brother.




We decided to help them with their attire and got them lovely ties and fun argyle socks to wear for the wedding. The purple, brown and green socks on the left are for Mr. Onion and the black, green and white pair on the right are for the groomsmen. They don't match the tie perfectly, but as Momma Onion says "It's close enough for government work!" I just wanted a cute sock photograph with all the guys. Plus if we didn't buy them socks they'd most likely forget to bring there own! I kid, but this way they're all set.

Now, Mr. Onion's best friend really went above and beyond and was very involved and excited about the wedding. His gift to us was he paid for a significant portion of Mr. Onion's wedding suit that we had custom made. He researched the custom tailor and came with us to almost every appointment/fitting. It was so much fun to have him be a part of the whole process.


Here they are together at the first fitting

So we wanted to do something extra to thank him. He's a fan of great gin, so we got him a bottle of Henderick's Gin (arguably the best gin out there) along with some of the most amazing tonic water we could find -- Fever Tree.




As you can see Fever Tree sells a number of beverages. We got a six pack of the lemonade, the tonic water and the ginger ale. Part II of the gift -- continuing with the gin theme, is the famous Pimms #1 to make a Pimms Cup with. I see that Miss Peppermint is planning on making Pimms Cup her signature drink.



We plan to bring all the ingredients for the Pimms Cup with us to Vermont and will present him with this gift on Thursday night before the wedding.



This way if Mr. Onion and his best friend wish to enjoy a drink in the beautiful solarium at the Inn they can. I think we hit a home run and I hope he enjoys and appreciates the gift.

Big "guns"

Mr. Onion, his best friend/groomsmen and I were shopping for groomsmen ties at Saks 5th Avenue yesterday. We found a beautiful tie (see below) which we decided will be our groomsmen gift as it was a little pricey ($95) but I think it really "ties" together the groomsmen and the bridesmaids attire without being matchy-matchy.

Anyway -- while shopping we saw a young man, a girl we assumed to be his fiance and her mother and father and a few other hangers-on shopping for a tuxedo for their wedding. Just for a visual (because I couldn't exactly whip out my camera and take a picture of a total stranger...even in the name of weddingbee -- it would have been weird), the young man was in amazing shape like this:



Photo from flickr user "uk_arms"

Now imagine trying to fit those "guns" into a ready made tuxedo. It was just ridiculous. The poor guy got shoved into a jacket that was so tight around his biceps that he just looked silly. For some reason the sales men were floundering trying to figure out what to do. I was in pain just watching this fiasco.

So I casually put my hand on the back of the woman who I assumed to be the future mother-in-law and said "can I offer you some advice?" She looked a little surprised but gladly said "sure." I explained that we had Mr. Onion's suit custom made as he had very broad shoulders compared to his waist, that is was a wonderful experience and would be about the same or just slightly more expensive to have a custom tuxedo made for him. I jotted down the name for her -- Alan David Custom here in New York City and recommended she ask for Alan who we had been working with. Then our groomsman pulled out his cell phone and had the phone number handy! Yes, he carries his tailor's phone number with him -- I just loved it. The mother looked so relieved and said "we've been looking and looking."

Then this morning we returned to Alan David Custom to pick out Mr. Onion's shirt fabric because we decided to have an off white custom shirt made to finish off the look of the beautiful suit and tie.



(This is not the shirt -- this is just a white work shirt as a "stand in" for the fitting).

And here are pictures of the ties:

Groomsmen Tie:



Tie for my father (which compliments my mom's black dress with the
pink underlay). My dad's tie we got at Bloomingdale's -- it's a Valentino.



If you were thinking about buying a suit or tuxedo for your fiance as opposed to renting, I highly encourage you look into having it custom made. You might think it's WAY too expensive, but onnce you factor in the cost of tailoring you'd be surprised. And for a few hundred extra dollars to get something stunning your future husband will wear for years to come -- priceless!!

Call Alan at Alan David Custom16 East 40th Street, Suite 202
New York, NY 10016
Ph. 212-227-4040