Wise Guys: getting suited up!

It was been a longgggg time since I did a Wise Guys post - so I thought I'd back track, and run you all through the fun process of choosing the suits that the guys wore on our big day!

We knew almost immediately that the groom and his men would not be wearing tuxes.  The Branford House is about as grand as it gets, and I really want the feel of the wedding to be simple, pretty and fun…which means all of our details and decisions were based around brightening up the Branford House.  Ant is not a tux guy.  Not that he doesn't look absolutely adorable in a tux {see below}…but a black tie affair just wasn't quite the feel we were going for.  The girls are wearing short dresses, and it's a wedding in the middle of the summer - I wanted it to feel fresh and light!  So navy blue suits it is.  I figured it would also be a perfect way to give it a nautical yet classic feel, without going too overboard.

Ant and some dapper looking groomsmen at a wedding last Sept!

We started our search for suits at JCrew - we knew we loved their navy blue suit, and I wanted Ant to try it.  Doesn't he look dashing??  I was totally supportive of him splurging on a suit for our wedding, but he ultimately decided that it wasn't a necessary expense {he was probably right}- and that it made more sense for him to match the guys - so we moved on!

I loved the stitching on this suit...

We then went to Men's Warehouse, where we tried a few horribly bright blue suits on, before finding this one - which was on sale for a very reasonable price.  The guy at the first location was very nice, and helped us figure out all the details....so we planned a trip to go back to Men's Warehouse with Ant's best man, a groomsman, and one of my bridesmaids.  That visit turned into a customer service nightmare!  I have never had a worse experience in my life - and to keep a long story short, we left Men's Warehouse without suits, and very worried that we might not be able to find 10 navy blue suits within our price range.

My husband is sort of the best - and knows exactly how to calm me down...so he suggested we at least go check out the Jos.A.Bank down the street, to see what they had to offer.  We met with a salesmen and told him what we were looking for....and he told us he thought he'd be able to help.  While looking around at the various navy blue options - Ant and his friends stopped in front of this sign, and decided it was the look they were going for.  With that suit - the salesman told us he could do buy 1, get 4 {4!!} free - making each suit just under $200 each!

the inspiration

A much happier bride to be

They clean up nice!

The beauty of working with Jos.A.Bank is that they have locations everywhere - Ant has a groomsman who lives in Nebraska - and we were able to send his suit to the store there for him to be fitted.  Even within Connecticut, a few of the guys ended up having theirs sent to locations closer to them!  Average alterations were only about $30 for hemming, etc...and now they all have suits that they can wear again!  Since they weren't renting - it also got rid of the hassle of having to go pick up the suits the day of the rehearsal, and worry about dropping them back off.  Each guy already had his suit ready to go!

Ant looking better than the model...

What did your groomsmen wear??  Getting 10 guys on the same page with anything can be quite the task, so this was certainly something I started planning early, which thankfully saved me a lot of headaches later on!!